windmill hill city farm

Background

In September 2006, the Cabinet Office launched its Social Exclusion Action Plan. The plan set out the actions to be taken across government to improve the life chances of people caught in a cycle of social, financial and aspirational disadvantage.

Also announced in the plan was a £2 million grant for UK online centres, funded by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

The SID grants were for UK online centre-led projects working in partnership with other community organisations to reach socially disadvantaged people and engage them in ICT activities. The projects test the hypothesis that becoming competent and confident in using computers increases personal and social confidence and reduces social exclusion. The SID projects also establish models of best practise for finding, motivating and progressing some of the hardest to reach groups in society. These were identified as; families in poverty, older people, those supporting children in care, teenage parents and those at risk of pregnancy and adults with mental health issues.

The 20 projects were picked by a panel of judges, including representatives from the public, private and voluntary sectors. They were looking for innovation in both engagement strategies and the use of ICT, strong and relevant community partnerships and quality, not just quantity, of participation.

More than 150 UK online centres were involved in delivering the 20 SID projects, which ran for up to 15 months from January 2007 to March 2008 involving a total of 12,000 people through that period. The nature of the different projects was intentionally varied, but all were designed to get people online for the first time and help them learn new skills, connect with their communities and interact with public services.

Make IT Yours - MiY 

As one of the 20 successful SID projects in the country, Windmill Hill City Farm Computer Centre joined forces with the farms Community Involvement Team and Children & Family Centre to specifically target families living in poverty and adults with mental health issues.

We named our project 'Make IT Yours' (MiY) which offered a seven-step programme covering ICT basics, literacy and numeracy skills checks, support with finding employment (writing CVs, job applications etc), ICT training for families, a MiY digital photography project combining images & words, computer hardware/software skills training and mentoring support for people moving on to further training or employment in and around the ICT field.