The Digital Divide

In this episode, we’ll be looking at Leeds’ thriving tech and digital sector and how we can work more collaboratively with them to share a passion and commitment to bring about a sustainable change across Leeds. 

Leeds digital sector is currently the fastest growing in the UK, and employs around 30,000 people, contributing to £6.6bn to the local economy. It has continued to thrive during the pandemic and is playing a vital role in the city’s economic recovery. 

But not everyone is thriving in the world of digital.  10% of the adult population are not online at all, according to the Office of National Statistics which is a staggering 5 million people.  The pandemic highlighted issues of digital inequality in Leeds. Access to or lack of internet and technological equipment such as laptops and computers led to children already at a disadvantage falling further behind with their education.

In this episode we're joined by Ben McKenna of Solidaritech and David Smith of Crossgates & District Good Neighbour’s Scheme, two Community Organisations tackling the digital divide in our local communities.  We're also joined by Stuart Clarke co-founder of Leeds Digital Festival who talks about how the tech and digital sector can get involved to help tackle the divide.

A full transcript of the podcast can be found here.

Leeds Community Foundation creates opportunities for all by working with partners to make a positive impact within communities across Leeds and Bradford. We do this by generating and investing philanthropic giving as well as maximising statutory funding to deliver grants and provide trusted expertise into Community Organisations, benefitting thousands of local people.

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Transcript

GiveLoveLeeds Podcast #4 

The Digital Divide 

Michael Sellers, Leeds Community Foundation    

Hello and welcome to our GiveLoveLeeds podcast where we'll be delving into conversations being held across the City and learning more about how we can come together to create positive change for the communities that need it the most. Leeds Community Foundation distributes vital grants and gives trusted advice to voluntary groups and charities across Leeds and Bradford to influence positive change, driven by creating meaningful social impact for 1,000s of local people every year. During 2020 and 2021, we've distributed £5.8 million across Leeds and Bradford.  

Today's host is Steph Taylor Strategy and Programmes Director for Leeds Community Foundation. 

Steph Taylor, Leeds Community Foundation  

Hello, my name is Steph Taylor from Leeds Community Foundation. Welcome to episode 4 of the GiveLoveLeeds podcast. In this episode, we'll be looking at Leeds’ thriving tech and digital sector and how we can work more collaboratively with them to share our passion and commitment to bring about a sustainable change across Leeds.  

Leeds digital sector is currently the fastest growing in the UK, and employs around 30,000 people who contribute £6.6 billion to the local economy. It has continued to thrive during the pandemic and is playing a vital role in the city's economic recovery. But not everyone is thriving in the world of digital. 10% of the adult population are not online at all according to the Office of National Statistics, which is a staggering 5 million people. The pandemic highlighted issues of digital inequality, access to or lack of internet and technological equipment such as laptops and computers led to children already at a disadvantage falling further behind with their education. However, throughout the pandemic, we've seen fantastic initiatives springing up within our communities to tackle the digital divide. And I'll be talking to David Smith, Trustee of Crossgates District Good Neighbour scheme about their work. I'll also be interviewing Stuart Clark, co-founder of Leeds Digital Festival to hear more about how we can collaborate with them to make social change across Leeds.  

But first we'll hear from Ben McKenna, Chief Executive of Solidaritech, a community interest company that helps refugees and asylum seekers gain access to technology. They work with businesses and individuals to help them donate tech, whether it be laptops, desktops, tablets, or smartphones. Solidariatech was supported through our Healthy Holidays Programme last year to supply donated laptops to digitally excluded children and young people across Leeds. 

Ben McKenna, Solidaritech 

Hi there, my name is Ben from Solidaritech and we run the Leeds Tech Angel Project, which was helping kids who were digitally excluded and get access to technology using processes that we'd already built up over the last three or four years at Solidaritech.  

So in terms of key outcomes, and what came out of it, I think the really amazing thing was that we managed to get by hook or by crook 200 machines ready for people. So we managed to refurbish north of 200. It was an interesting one, because originally we started with the intention of directly approaching businesses. But what we did find was that there were immense pressures on technology, and specifically for businesses. So we were a little bit surprised and a little bit bowled over and really, really amazed by the amount of kind professional people, normal people from members of the public that donated machines to us, which was absolutely fantastic. There were some great machines, there were some less great machines. And there was some random things like printers or DVD players and that sort of stuff, even though we didn’t ask for those things, it was great that we actually got them. People were really showing that they were interested in helping, which was absolutely fantastic. Weirdly enough, we did actually suffer a break in at one of our drop off locations, which was a challenge. But I think one of the nice things about that is it highlighted some of our I guess you could say some of our processes were right, because actually when the break in happened, the only machines that went were machines that actually had all of the data removed by a company who donated them to us. So there were over I think 100 machines went missing, something like that. And none of those machines had hard drives in them. And actually the really interesting thing is that the burglary helped raise the profile of the project, then Leeds United got involved and Yorkshire Evening Post were hugely helpful to us helped us get Leeds United involved and they helped us crowdfund to get replacement machines, brand new Chromebooks replacing those ones that are missing, which was superb, it really bold to save to start with was great. Then we had the issue with a burglary, which was absolutely devastating, both for the people that run the centre where the machines were dropped off, but also for us in the prospects of the projects. And then we managed to get back to the point where we actually funded new purchases for all of those things and all the way through the process there it was the community of Leeds really, really helping us, which I think kind of gives you a flavour of the place which I’m obviously not from.  The community spirit around Leeds was tremendous and fantastic and something I was bowled over by, and it helped us get important stuff to people, which was fantastic. So yeah, it was a roller coaster project, but we got there in the end. So the funding from Leeds Community Foundation was hugely important and, you know, I think a lot of grant giving bodies or a lot of organisations that do charitable grants and funding might have a different approach. But actually, it was LCF approaching us for this in a lot of cases and wanted us to do this. And there were a lot of reaching out to try and work out what the project could look like. And we were in the middle of COVID. so I think that was a real challenge for us. But I think one of the amazing things is that every step of the way LCF has been there to help us every step of the way. We had a question, we had a representative from LCF ready to answer those questions and really supporting us and it was really clear like a lot of organisations that give grant funding are just like our jobs to give you the funding you do what you need, but actually, we were helping other parts of the LCF family I guess you would call it so obviously the benefits were kind of contained a little bit but the nice thing was is that the organisation were really really helpful, consultative, friendly, and you know, a big part of setting up in the first place so it was a superb working relationship we had and something that we were really proud to be part of because.  Obviously it wasn't normal time, it was a heavy time for everyone and the amount of support and I guess kind of family feeling a bit about everything that who we were helping how we were helping them was huge to us so yeah, we couldn’t have done it without LCF’s involvement financially but also, you know, emotionally and sort of empathetically I think they were two huge things for us too.  

So I think the key take homes, the things that that we've learned from the project is the lead is a recipe in terms of the amount of community participation that takes place and the strange thing as well as the obviously this was all branded Leeds, Leeds United revolved Yorkshire Evening Post are involved but it is spread out across West Yorkshire which I think was testament to the power of LCF. I guess there's obviously give Bradford which is a huge part as well. But it was wider than just Leeds and Bradford places in Kirklees that were given us machines. They were the place that we've picked up up in the pails there were there were loads of help from a lots of really good people. Our work, I guess you could say goes on. And we were, I guess kind of very small before the pandemic and we're still small. Now we've moved on a fair bit in terms of what we do and how we do it. Because we've learned from that and tech angels was a huge part of that. It opened doors for us to get into front of big businesses to help them recycle their technology, we're still receiving tech angels offers now, you know, a full sort of nine months after we launched the project over Christmas. So it's been huge for us, I think the there are things that we can do, which is mitigate the issues of the digital divide. But I think the key thing for us is that it's still there, it's still an issue COVID hasn't gone away as much as we'd like to think as, so there will be locked downs, there will be kids that are isolated, and there will be more need for these devices. We've certainly seen it in the asylum and refugee community asylum seeker refugee community that we served before, and we continue to serve now that, you know, the with poverty comes digital exclusion for for a lot of people, if it's a choice between eating and broadband, or paying for a laptop, yeah, of course, you're going to go for eating, you're going to overheat, and you've got to keep your kids fed and your kids walk. So I think the issue that we're set up to deal with hasn't gone away. And, you know, realistically, we can't solve that issue, we can just mitigate it for specific people. But I think we would like to take the project forward, we would like to spread things out wider. I think everyone is probably fatigued from from the the tough couple of years that we've had COVID wise, but I think the really important thing is the way that the community have come together the way institutions in Leeds, you know, everyone from big businesses, financial services, and legal businesses that really, really helped us our tech businesses helped us out. And also, you know, sort of the institutions that I think we probably think of that Leeds has, you know, nationally, I guess so you know, things like the evening poster, the autopost, things like Leeds United, those, those sort of things are really, really key to how we kind of go forward and how we build that model. I mean, I'm not a fan of the idea of big society, but it is nice that we do have the ability to do that between us between all the parts of society, and we knit those things together. And you know, we're only identifying waste here. So people like Zero Waste leads and people like that were hugely helpful in that but we're only identified a small part of the wastage that comes from everyday life or businesses or anything like that in terms of tax. So if we can route those items of technology to people to do a good thing and you know, stop people maybe getting a payday loan or something that can be ruinous for them financially. And I think that's a really good thing. So yeah, for us, I think the main take home from the whole project was the strength of community leads. And I think these Community Foundation are a big part of that they sit at the centre of all of that, and they knit together a lot of things. So yeah, we're hugely appreciative and we just want to carry on doing what we do, because you know, actually helping people out and makes a huge difference to their lives. Thanks. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

We're now going to speak to David Smith, a trustee of Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme. Crossgates and District, Good Neighbours Scheme were funded through the Time to Shine programme to support and introduce older people to the benefits of using IT. Welcome, David, tell us a little bit about your work, please. 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Thank you, Steph. I just like to say I'm very pleased to speak with Leeds Community Foundation now because they funded many projects and activities at Crossgates Good Neighbours, I'll just pick out our Lunch Club which you funded for many years now. We provide nice, healthy hot meals to about 60 older people every week actually, and with a proper sweet and lovely custard as well. Over the pandemic, we switched to delivering hot meals to people at home actually. 

Of course, everyone understands nowadays that more and more things are going online. There's lots of things that you can really only do or access online nowadays and there's a great danger that some people, many older people will become what's called digitally excluded because of that. Many older people have never had to use computers during their working lives, and so they may feel a bit anxious about technology. They may be scared by stories about online scams as well. So they need a bit of gentle encouragement, if they want to get online really. They may feel they just don't want to engage with digital, but when I say positive effects of the pandemic, and the lockdowns I mean its meant many older people realise that they just had to take the plunge. Many of them have really flourished since that time. 

Crossgates Good Neighbours have always had volunteers who would advise our members about how to use their tablets and smartphones, we've also always helped many of them to get blue badges or bus passes, or any applications that require online, and that are beyond their own capabilities. That went up a gear in 2019, when we became the first Digital Health Hub in Leeds, we achieved that with support from 100% Digital Leeds, and also from the Good Things Foundation, which is a major digital charity in Sheffield. I should mention that Rachel Benn of 100% Digital these is a really inspirational figure, not just in Leeds, but nationally, actually. She's been behind a lot of what we've achieved. For example, she arranged for supplies of tablets, our learning process, as a result of that we now have a Lend and Buy scheme: so members can rent a tablet for now and eventually buy it if they want to. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

It's brilliant just to hear there about the different funding streams that you've had, you know, for your work, you mentioned Good Things Foundation, and I know a lot of our other community groups will be really interested to hear that, and to hear a little bit more about that. And of course, everything you've partnered with us on at Leeds Community Foundation. So that's really helpful. I wondered could you tell us a little bit more about the intergenerational aspects because you've talked there quite a bit about all the people in the community? What involvement did younger people have? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Well, yes, this comes onto the intergenerational project now, and I'm especially happy to take part in this project because at Crossgates Good Neighbours, we always try to engage with younger people. Personally, I've had an overseas student pen pal at Leeds University every year for the past few years. So yes, so I really it was really interesting for me. So as you said, the project is targeted at older people who are complete internet novices. They need a lot of time and care and encouragement to take the first steps in using tablets or smartphones. That's why our intergeneration project was set up with five weekly sessions with each session lasting an hour. So it gives plenty of time for some gentle teaching. It's so easy to put learners off by going over things too quickly so that they can't remember what they've been told and then they get despondent about everything. So it's really important to take the time to do it carefully. 

We paired up one older person with one student and each pair was given a tablet with an internet connection. The students began by just gently teaching the older people how to play games on the tablets. So they learned how to how to do tapping and swiping, which they’d never done before, that's the first thing you need to know before you do anything else on a tablet or smartphone really. We had some lovely college students and one university student on our first iteration. I think that on future runs of the course we will have more university students as they come back for the new term. All the students were great, they took everything very nice and smoothly and played the games with the older people. Then on future weeks, they could move on to showing them different things about how to use tablets or smartphones. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

What kind of games did they play? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

They're playing one very easy crossword game where you had to swipe and choose the next appropriate word for the crossword. I forgot what it was called I played it myself and it was really nice and easy. It was really good for showing them how to swipe and tap on a tablet. I was one of the older participants myself, actually because you might not believe this but I've got very limited working knowledge of tablets and smartphones, myself. I was actually a scientist so I've been involved in computers, even from the 1970s, even before the IBM PC and Microsoft came in. But I've never made the jump to smartphones myself, I've still got an old Nokia. So I did actually learn a lot myself on that course, it was really very interesting doing it with a student as well. Learning what the NHS Covid App looks like and things like that, because obviously, I've never done that. They don't realise that lots of people can't do that, because they don't have a smartphone. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Tell me a little bit about how many other people there are in the community that you know that this sort of help, what is the need for the sessions? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Well there are plenty because with our Digital Coordinator and her Digital Volunteers, during the pandemic, we trained, I think well over 50 older remote people just to be able to get onto Zoom. We trained a lot more in IT and Digital where we got big programmes now for IT and Digital Training. During the pandemic, just to be able to get on Zoom was a big thing when people were shielding at home and we set a weekly programme of digital activities, bingo, quizzes, coffee mornings, exercise classes, and a book club as well. They're still going actually because people really appreciated them and of course, the great thing now is that now people know how to contact each other on Zoom they'll be able to do things in the evening and at weekends, which are the loneliest times. So that's been one of the positive things about the lockdown. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

That's fantastic to hear. I think that's been across the generations that people have found new ways to connect in different times and in different ways. Those virtual coffees are happening, virtual clubs are happening all over the city still, which is brilliant. 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

I'm sure it's going to continue and as I say it's especially useful in evenings and weekends, especially for our older members. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Could you tell us a bit about any key highlights or the impacts on the individuals? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Well, yes, I was going to tell you that I do volunteer befriending with Crossgates Good Neighbours. People that are at risk of loneliness and isolation and also have particular health issues that contribute that prevent them from getting out by themselves and things like that. So my befriendee actually became another one of the participants on the course with me so we could both go to the course I could accompany him to the course, and also he just got his own smartphone as well. So it was an ideal time for him to learn something about using the smartphone, and he had a great time meeting everyone. He really enjoyed the sessions with the students who were really kind to him, it was a really good year. 

I think the intergenerational project is really meeting its commitment to introduce these older people to the internet and get them started. Those who want to then can progress on to further IT training with Crossgates Good Neighbours. Our Digital Coordinators have a whole team of volunteers now who deliver digital training, it’s one to one to one: either online or one to one in our office now because we're starting in person meetings again. Alternatively they can just join a weekly digital 

programme and enjoy the quizzes and book clubs and things like that. It's up to them really but a lot of the older people are really flourished with digital during the lockdown. We also have a media worker now called Ernie Dawson, a journalism graduate, who develops videos and interviews about our activities and our members actually, she's put a lot of those on a new YouTube channel. You can find lots of videos on there and also there’s training videos that show people in a very gentle way how to use Facebook and other social media, because the great thing about videos is you can go back and replay them and replay them, just to make sure that you learn properly. So if you look at our YouTube channel, you'll find that there's a whole host of videos there, which people can use, we provide them for the neighbourhood networks as well, of course. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

There's lots of brilliant things happening in Leeds, and obviously lots of fantastic work that you're doing at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme. What do you think of the gaps? What is the digital divide looking like? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

I think it's just a question of finding the people who are still digitally isolated, just finding them is the same as finding disadvantaged people anywhere who haven't connected with Statutory Services at all. One good thing that happened with the lockdowns actually, was that through the Covid health crisis services that Leeds City Council instituted, we got calls from people who haven't been in touch with the services before just because they needed help. They were referred on to us. So we've got quite a few new members that we wouldn't have found before. So that's been a good thing for us, actually. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

That's great. Community Organisations, as we've heard so many times on the podcasts, are really at the centre of that outreach and building connections and communities that leads people being able to use statutory services and get and get other support. So it's brilliant to hear that come to life, David, and what you've been saying. 

It's been brilliant to chat to you and just before you go, I would like to ask you about being a Trustee. You talked about how you used some of the support available in the project. But you're also on the board of the organisation as well, and lots of community groups we speak to struggle to get really brilliant trustees because it's a voluntary role, isn't it? You've given up so much of your time for the organisation, what's that been like for you? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Yes, it is voluntary. I joined Crossgates Good Neighbours, after looking after my parents actually, I retired back to do that. After they'd both passed away, some of my neighbours in my street said 

obviously thought I needed to find something new to do now. They advised me to join Crossgates Good Neighbours and I did that and I really liked it. I very soon I realised that a lot of the members there do some volunteering, we've got well over 100 members who do volunteering, so I started to do the befriending, then I got involved with the Time to Shine project through that because with my scientific background, I was interested in the evaluation that they were doing. And then Joe Horsfall, invited me to become a trustee. I was happy to do that because the great thing about volunteering is that when you accumulated a lot of experience and skills during your working life, it's nice to be able to give it back, really, I was a scientist, and I used to do lots of regulatory affairs and preparing documents and things like that. I'm very happy to do that sort of thing and I've got all the time in the world because being retired, I can just say what I like to do, really. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

It's brilliant to help you do that lived experience of being somebody who benefits from the work of the organisation sitting on the board of it. I think that's really important. All community organisations benefit from having people with very diverse and different experiences, but particularly people who were really connected to the cause so thank you for doing that being one of the brilliant number of people across Leeds that keep our sector going. 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Yes, I think that the local care partnerships are now beginning to bring the Third Sector very much into cooperating with statutory sectors as well, they've been a great innovation. I'm hoping that the Population Health Planning Team that this now being set up with Leeds CCG will begin to realise the great value that the Third Sector gives to the whole Leeds economy. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

We're now going to speak to David Smith, a trustee of Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme. Crossgates and District, Good Neighbours Scheme were funded through the Time to Shine programme to support and introduce older people to the benefits of using IT. Welcome, David, tell us a little bit about your work, please. 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Thank you, Steph. I just like to say I'm very pleased to speak with Leeds Community Foundation now because they funded many projects and activities at Crossgates Good Neighbours, I'll just pick out our Lunch Club which you funded for many years now. We provide nice, healthy hot meals to about 60 older people every week actually, and with a proper sweet and lovely custard as well. Over the pandemic, we switched to delivering hot meals to people at home actually. 

Of course, everyone understands nowadays that more and more things are going online. There's lots of things that you can really only do or access online nowadays and there's a great danger that some people, many older people will become what's called digitally excluded because of that. Many older people have never had to use computers during their working lives, and so they may feel a bit anxious about technology. They may be scared by stories about online scams as well. So they need a bit of gentle encouragement, if they want to get online really. They may feel they just don't want to engage with digital, but when I say positive effects of the pandemic, and the lockdowns I mean its meant many older people realise that they just had to take the plunge. Many of them have really flourished since that time. 

Crossgates Good Neighbours have always had volunteers who would advise our members about how to use their tablets and smartphones, we've also always helped many of them to get blue badges or bus passes, or any applications that require online, and that are beyond their own capabilities. That went up a gear in 2019, when we became the first Digital Health Hub in Leeds, we achieved that with support from 100% Digital Leeds, and also from the Good Things Foundation, which is a major digital charity in Sheffield. I should mention that Rachel Benn of 100% Digital these is a really inspirational figure, not just in Leeds, but nationally, actually. She's been behind a lot of what we've achieved. For example, she arranged for supplies of tablets, our learning process, as a result of that we now have a Lend and Buy scheme: so members can rent a tablet for now and eventually buy it if they want to. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

It's brilliant just to hear there about the different funding streams that you've had, you know, for your work, you mentioned Good Things Foundation, and I know a lot of our other community groups will be really interested to hear that, and to hear a little bit more about that. And of course, everything you've partnered with us on at Leeds Community Foundation. So that's really helpful. I wondered could you tell us a little bit more about the intergenerational aspects because you've talked there quite a bit about all the people in the community? What involvement did younger people have? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Well, yes, this comes onto the intergenerational project now, and I'm especially happy to take part in this project because at Crossgates Good Neighbours, we always try to engage with younger people. Personally, I've had an overseas student pen pal at Leeds University every year for the past few years. So yes, so I really it was really interesting for me. So as you said, the project is targeted at older people who are complete internet novices. They need a lot of time and care and encouragement to take the first steps in using tablets or smartphones. That's why our intergeneration project was set up with five weekly sessions with each session lasting an hour. So it gives plenty of time for some gentle teaching. It's so easy to put learners off by going over things too quickly so that they can't remember what they've been told and then they get despondent about everything. So it's really important to take the time to do it carefully. 

We paired up one older person with one student and each pair was given a tablet with an internet connection. The students began by just gently teaching the older people how to play games on the tablets. So they learned how to how to do tapping and swiping, which they’d never done before, that's the first thing you need to know before you do anything else on a tablet or smartphone really. We had some lovely college students and one university student on our first iteration. I think that on future runs of the course we will have more university students as they come back for the new term. All the students were great, they took everything very nice and smoothly and played the games with the older people. Then on future weeks, they could move on to showing them different things about how to use tablets or smartphones. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

What kind of games did they play? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

They're playing one very easy crossword game where you had to swipe and choose the next appropriate word for the crossword. I forgot what it was called I played it myself and it was really nice and easy. It was really good for showing them how to swipe and tap on a tablet. I was one of the older participants myself, actually because you might not believe this but I've got very limited working knowledge of tablets and smartphones, myself. I was actually a scientist so I've been involved in computers, even from the 1970s, even before the IBM PC and Microsoft came in. But I've never made the jump to smartphones myself, I've still got an old Nokia. So I did actually learn a lot myself on that course, it was really very interesting doing it with a student as well. Learning what the NHS Covid App looks like and things like that, because obviously, I've never done that. They don't realise that lots of people can't do that, because they don't have a smartphone. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Tell me a little bit about how many other people there are in the community that you know that the this sort of help, what is the need for the sessions? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Well there are plenty because with our Digital Coordinator and her Digital Volunteers, during the pandemic, we trained, I think well over 50 older remote people just to be able to get onto Zoom. We trained a lot more in IT and Digital where we got big programmes now for IT and Digital Training. During the pandemic, just to be able to get on Zoom was a big thing when people were shielding at home and we set a weekly programme of digital activities, bingo, quizzes, coffee mornings, exercise classes, and a book club as well. They're still going actually because people really appreciated them and of course, the great thing now is that now people know how to contact each other on Zoom they'll be able to do things in the evening and at weekends, which are the loneliest times. So that's been one of the positive things about the lockdown. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

That's fantastic to hear. I think that's been across the generations that people have found new ways to connect in different times and in different ways. Those virtual coffees are happening, virtual clubs are happening all over the city still, which is brilliant. 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

I'm sure it's going to continue and as I say it's especially useful in evenings and weekends, especially for our older members. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Could you tell us a bit about any key highlights or the impacts on the individuals? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Well, yes, I was going to tell you that I do volunteer befriending with Crossgates Good Neighbours. People that are at risk of loneliness and isolation and also have particular health issues that contribute that prevent them from getting out by themselves and things like that. So my befriendee actually became another one of the participants on the course with me so we could both go to the course I could accompany him to the course, and also he just got his own smartphone as well. So it was an ideal time for him to learn something about using the smartphone, and he had a great time meeting everyone. He really enjoyed the sessions with the students who were really kind to him, it was a really good year. 

I think the intergenerational project is really meeting its commitment to introduce these older people to the internet and get them started. Those who want to then can progress on to further IT training with Crossgates Good Neighbours. Our Digital Coordinators have a whole team of volunteers now who deliver digital training, it’s one to one to one: either online or one to one in our office now because we're starting in person meetings again. Alternatively they can just join a weekly digital 

programme and enjoy the quizzes and book clubs and things like that. It's up to them really but a lot of the older people are really flourished with digital during the lockdown. We also have a media worker now called Ernie Dawson, a journalism graduate, who develops videos and interviews about our activities and our members actually, she's put a lot of those on a new YouTube channel. You can find lots of videos on there and also there’s training videos that show people in a very gentle way how to use Facebook and other social media, because the great thing about videos is you can go back and replay them and replay them, just to make sure that you learn properly. So if you look at our YouTube channel, you'll find that there's a whole host of videos there, which people can use, we provide them for the neighbourhood networks as well, of course. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

There's lots of brilliant things happening in Leeds, and obviously lots of fantastic work that you're doing at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme. What do you think of the gaps? What is the digital divide looking like? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

I think it's just a question of finding the people who are still digitally isolated, just finding them is the same as finding disadvantaged people anywhere who haven't connected with Statutory Services at all. One good thing that happened with the lockdowns actually, was that through the Covid health crisis services that Leeds City Council instituted, we got calls from people who haven't been in touch with the services before just because they needed help. They were referred on to us. So we've got quite a few new members that we wouldn't have found before. So that's been a good thing for us, actually. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

That's great. Community Organisations, as we've heard so many times on the podcasts, are really at the centre of that outreach and building connections and communities that leads people being able to use statutory services and get and get other support. So it's brilliant to hear that come to life, David, and what you've been saying. 

It's been brilliant to chat to you and just before you go, I would like to ask you about being a Trustee. You talked about how you used some of the support available in the project. But you're also on the board of the organisation as well, and lots of community groups we speak to struggle to get really brilliant trustees because it's a voluntary role, isn't it? You've given up so much of your time for the organisation, what's that been like for you? 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Yes, it is voluntary. I joined Crossgates Good Neighbours, after looking after my parents actually, I retired back to do that. After they'd both passed away, some of my neighbours in my street said 

obviously thought I needed to find something new to do now. They advised me to join Crossgates Good Neighbours and I did that and I really liked it. I very soon I realised that a lot of the members there do some volunteering, we've got well over 100 members who do volunteering, so I started to do the befriending, then I got involved with the Time to Shine project through that because with my scientific background, I was interested in the evaluation that they were doing. And then Joe Horsfall, invited me to become a trustee. I was happy to do that because the great thing about volunteering is that when you accumulated a lot of experience and skills during your working life, it's nice to be able to give it back, really, I was a scientist, and I used to do lots of regulatory affairs and preparing documents and things like that. I'm very happy to do that sort of thing and I've got all the time in the world because being retired, I can just say what I like to do, really. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

It's brilliant to help you do that lived experience of being somebody who benefits from the work of the organisation sitting on the board of it. I think that's really important. All community organisations benefit from having people with very diverse and different experiences, but particularly people who were really connected to the cause so thank you for doing that being one of the brilliant number of people across Leeds that keep our sector going. 

David Smith, Trustee at Crossgates and District Good Neighbours Scheme 

Yes, I think that the local care partnerships are now beginning to bring the Third Sector very much into cooperating with statutory sectors as well, they've been a great innovation. I'm hoping that the Population Health Planning Team that this now being set up with Leeds CCG will begin to realise the great value that the Third Sector gives to the whole Leeds economy. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Fantastic. Well, David Smith, a trustee of Crossgates and District Good Neighbour Scheme, David, thank you so much for joining us. 

Fantastic. Well, David Smith, a trustee of Crossgates and District Good Neighbour Scheme, David, thank you so much for joining us. 

So having heard from David about the fantastic work that's been happening in our communities around the digital divide, we're now going to hear from another friend of Leeds Community Foundation, Stuart Clark, who is co-founder of the Leeds Digital Festival with a focus on people who are a little bit more tech savvy, or they're using digital in different ways across the city now. Thanks for joining us, Stuart Clark, co-founder of the festival. Thank you, Steph. So you are a friend to Leeds Community Foundation, tell us a bit about how you got involved first to a female. 

Stuart Clarke, Leeds Digital Festival 

I think like many of these things, I was aware of for a while, that you went to one or two events, you knew a few people who are quite closely involved in it on various committees and you know, it's one of those things, you get invited, you get strong armed, you get persuaded and carried on to one of the external affairs committees and thought, you know, I could add value, could give some time and, and try to do some good. And this has been great, I've been a member of that committee for about two and a half years, I can really see a difference that the whole Foundation makes, you know, to the city and, and just the sheer numbers of projects that the Foundation is involved in. And it's just, it's just really inspiring and it's just been great to be to play a very small part in that. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Thank you Stuart.  Yeah, everybody at the Foundation is super passionate, aren't they, and they're very into strong arming people to get involved and see the social impact that takes place across communities.    

So Leeds Digital Festival, tell us a little bit more about that, and how got involved in Co-founding it. 

Stuart Clarke, Leeds Digital Festival 

All goes back to Summer of 2015, Leeds City Council put on a digital strategy day, they invited about 80 people from around the city from various large tech companies, start-ups and marketing agencies and from the back of that a bunch of us got together and thought about what can we do because it's not just about the council or the left for the government. So we met in a pub, decided to put on a digital festival. Yeah, not a new idea. We had the first one in April 2016 and in at the same, you know, looking back if they're not showing you what we were doing, but we have about 50 events that year, and it's just grown year on year on year. And last year, we had two COVID interrupted festivals.  

So we've always been 100% physical events in the city centre. Last year, we had over 400 online events across two festivals. This year is a mix, we've got 304 events, and 85 of them are physical in person events, and the rest of them are online. So it'll be interesting to see how that goes. And as you say there's the mix of events and every year the quality goes up. It's astounding the quality that comes through.  

As you say, you know, whether you're interested in coding, whether you're looking at joining the tech sector as a career, whether you're in fencing, health, a data, absolutely anything. And we also have a number of sort of events where with firms, organisations, you look at them, you think, well, they're not tech firms, but of course, everybody's using more tech. So we've got the engineering consultancy Arup, they're doing a virtual theatre with slum row Theatre Company, you've got Leeds 2023 putting on a virtual games jam every day of the festival. So, so loads of stuff happening across the whole city. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Fantastic. And you know, I guess from the perspective of those of us less involved in their digital and tech sector, it feels like COVID-19 is really kind of accelerated in a positive thing for the secretary. Anyways, is that your sense of it? 

Stuart Clarke, Leeds Digital Festival  

It is I mean, you know, over the last five years year on year, there's been growth in the tech sector in the city and the region, but yes, this last 18 months has really seen a massive growth. And in every company, every person in the tech sector that I talked to, you always get down to the fact that they've got vacancies because they've grown so fast, you know, we need more people to come into the sector and hopefully that growth within the tech sector in the region as offset or will offset some of the issues we've seen in other sectors over the last 18 months, particularly sort of retail and hospitality. So, so it's great to have that, you know, high performing fast growth sector. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Yeah and as you know, we're all about reducing inequalities and making connections. So, you know, I have to ask for the people who are impacted by those difficult challenges in other sectors, you know, how can people who are involved in the digital and tech sector give back if they want to? 

Stuart Clarke, Leeds Digital Festival 

I think there's a couple of things. I think part of it is about how to bring more people into the sector. And you know, four or five years ago, a lot of the firms were chasing the mythical graduate with two year’s experience and many of those came from privileged backgrounds. So I think what we've seen is lots of companies sponsoring apprenticeships, which really brings more people from a diverse background working with universities and colleges, not just the sort of top two or three within the region. And also I think one of the differences that's what's really made a difference over the last few years is organisations such as generation leads, code, north coders that really push out into communities that are under represent with within the tech sector and often free or discounted training courses to bring people in. And on the flip side of that, I think there's more social awareness in the sector as well. So individuals and companies are looking around at their own organisations and thinking, oh, perhaps we can represent the cities and the communities in which we live. What can we do about that, and some of that is making more positive steps to bring people into training courses and things. Another is, let's look around and look at organisations that are doing some really good work anyway, and seeing how we can support those. And you know, and again, in the last couple of years, I've probably had more conversations with people about the Foundation that they've initiated instead of me going and say, hey, let me talk to you about this amazing organisation I'm involved with. So I think I think there is much more social awareness. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Yeah, I would agree with that. We've had some fantastic conversations with organisations about not kind of reinventing the wheel, not putting money or attacking communities where projects and work already exist. But using those as that go between to really understand what's happening in the city around the digital divide and around the inequality and make sure that you know, the difference you want to make is the difference you're going to make. Lovely to speak to us. Is there anything else you'd like to say? 

Stuart Clarke, Leeds Digital Festival  

Well, I just like to say when the key things, as I mentioned, one of the reasons why I wanted to get involved with the foundation, because some of the people that Foundation's helping within Leeds, you know, 40 years ago, when I was growing up in Wakefield I would have been one of those people. So you know, and it's really important that we all give back as much as we can. And sometimes that's money sometimes that's time sometimes that's influence on other things. So it's really important to everybody thinks about their position in society and how they can help others. And as I mentioned about people being more socially aware, and that's a real key thing I think people are thinking how, how can we make our communities in which we live fairer, more inclusive, so I'd recommend anybody to get involved with the foundation in whichever way they can. 

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

We will certainly let people know how to do that later on in the podcast. But for now, Stuart Clark of platform and co-founder of Leeds Digital Festival, thank you very much for your time. 

Stuart Clark, Leeds Digital Festival 

Thank you, Steph.  

Steph Taylor, Strategy and Programmes Director at Leeds Community Foundation 

Well, it’s been a real privilege as ever to meet some inspiring folks doing great things across our brilliant city of Leeds. COVID-19 has exacerbated the digital divide. Many of the community groups we partner with rea seeing real challenges as a result. However, much of it has also been positive, creating wealth and energy in the tech sector, as we heard from Stuart, but also new opportunities to learn and develop new skills and connections. As we heard from David, if you're out there thinking I could do more to make a difference, or my business could really make an impact as a member of Leeds Community Foundation, to make Leeds more inclusive. Get in touch with us about our membership@leedscf.org.uk. Thank you for listening. And thank you so much, to David and Stuart joining us for this episode. 

Michael Sellers 

If you enjoyed this episode, take a couple of seconds to rate it on your favourite podcast platform. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our newsletter on these Community Foundation. You can also visit our website at lead cf.org.uk feel free to email us at info at lead cf.org.uk Speak to you soon for the next episode of give locally.