Newsletter
Community learning at the Centre for the Aston Family.
Birmingham Settlement’s Development and Ageing Well teams are taking part in the eReading Rooms project pilot run by UK Online Centres. The eReading Rooms will provide a free service to promote informal learning where any topic or interest can be explored via the Internet.
These eReading Rooms aspire to put informal learning at the heart of communities, where knowledge and information can be shared to help people enhance their skills. Birmingham Settlement will be providing members of the community with the opportunity to access ‘The Learning Zone’ to learn about any topic they are interested in, from gardening to history. We will offer the latest technology for people to access the site and provide a friendly and helpful environment for their interests to grow.
This is a great way for members of the community to explore their interests and gain new knowledge and skills, but also to enhance their computer and Internet skills.
One in a Million
Head of Development, Meena Bharadwa and I set off for a very humid London on Tuesday to share UK Online’s celebration of one million learners accessing the internet. The afternoon was kindly hosted by Facebook’s UK office and we had a great tour of what goes on there. Facebook’s Director of Policy chatted about the importance of the work that UK Online Centres do in helping to reduce social exclusion across the country and UK Online’s Managing Director, Helen Milner provided an inspiring insight into the work that’s already been carried out, compelling us towards another million! To see more about the impact that this work is having in the UK check out Helen Milner‘s blog. It was a great day all round and we met some fantastic organisations involved in this work like Action Acton. We chatted to one of their volunteers who had previously been a UK Online learner. He saw so much value in what Action Acton do that he now volunteers to support other people get online and involved. Birmingham Settlement is a registered UK Online Centre and we’ve got some great stories like the one below about how people are benefiting from a bit of support to get online.
Digital Inclusion Project
Birmingham Settlement has been funded by UK Online to be a UK Online Centre. The purpose of Online Centres is to encourage and support people who do not use the internet or other digital technology, to do so.
We are recruiting Digital Champions. A Digital Champion is anyone who shows, or supports another person to get online. Some of our Digital Champions volunteer at our Centre for the Aston Family, by spending a couple of hours a week supporting new IT users at our cyber suite. If you would like to volunteer to simply help someone new to computers to access the internet, contact Sourour Trevelyan on 0121 250 3003.