Community Learning and Development Device Fund 2023 (360G-SCVO-a13N2000002gemPIAQ)

ACE IT Scotland has provided digital skills coaching to people aged over 50 in Edinburgh (and now Midlothian) for over 18 years. Digital exclusion has been proven to lead to poorer health outcomes, negative financial impacts and poorer social connections. Our feedback gathering tells us that ACE IT's work has a positive impact across each of these areas of life for over 900 learners this past year. In line with our strategy to increase the output and impact of our services, with a particular focus on lower socioeconomic areas, the charity has significantly increased it's resources by employing an additional two community outreach workers and increasing the working hours of existing staff in able to offer our services at 10 new outreach locations. We have identified a need to invest in new equipment to be used by our learners across all of our projects - this equipment cost is not currently funded in our current agreements. The equipment will be set up and managed by our current ACE IT staff and our IT support contractor.Much of our work focusses on providing motivational one-to-one coaching sessions to educate individuals how digital devices and online services can have a positive impact on their lives and teach them how. Many people come to us wary of technology and worried about online safety so this forms an integral part of our teaching. New devices purchased using CLD funding will be used by learners under guidance from our trained volunteers and staff. Together, they can learn basic to intermediate level digital skills and how to stay safe online. Many of our learners have a visual impairment. To enable us to meet this growing demand, we now require to purchase new large screen 14'' tablets and 17'' laptops plus smartphones, projector equipment and a smart speaker. Several of the locations where we deliver community outreach work suffer from very poor (or none) broadband connection. To alleviate this and to provide a reliable, secure connection we require 3 portable MiFi devices.To educate on online safety, we deliver 'Shut Out Scammers' work and online safety workshops to inform over 250 people per year how to stay safe online. To do this, we need to invest in projector equipment to allow delivery to a large group of people of up to 50 at a time.Smart speakers can be hugely beneficial to older people, particularly those living with a disability. We frequently get asked how these devices work and whether they are suitable for a person's needs. In order to deliver taster session on how smart speakers work, we will purchase a device to demonstrate the benefits of such equipment and let people try for themselves.