Reboot UK is an innovative test and learn initiative led by the Tinder Foundation together with consortium partners Homeless Link, Mind and Family Fund. It aims to investigate the impact gaining digital skills has on the quality of life of people living in poverty. The 12 month project, funded with £329,958 from the Big Lottery Fund, will provide an evidence-based model of training interventions that work for three hard to reach groups: families living in poverty (and particularly those with disabled children), homeless people and people with mental health problems.
The initiative builds on Tinder Foundation’s track record of supporting individuals and communities to realise the benefits of digital technology, primarily through its 5,000-strong network of UK online centres. It also reflects the shared goal of the consortium members to discover new ways to reach out and support people who are socially excluded.
21 specialist local partners have been recruited from within Tinder Foundation’s network of UK online centres, and from the networks of consortium partners, to deliver the action-research phase of Reboot UK, commencing in January 2016. The delivery partners were selected based on their expertise in delivering training and in-depth support to hard-to-reach groups and range from homeless charities, to employment skills training providers and specialist mental health services.
Reboot UK is evaluating the effectiveness of three particular approaches:
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peer support - engaging service users who have experienced similar challenges to the trainees, providing motivation and training, often in unconventional learning environments
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home access - lending devices for people to access the internet at home focussing on those who may have caring responsibilities and be less able to attend regular training sessions as well as people who may feel less able to attend a local organisation
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shared practice - matching digital skills experts to local services to provide training to people with moderate mental health problems and homeless people.
The programme evaluation is being led by Tinder Foundation with support from Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Research data will be collected via a range of mechanisms including webinars focussing on sharing the learning from each of the three pilot interventions, interviews with participants, as well as longer term tracking of the 1,200 participants that will have been supported beyond the end of the project.
Laurence Piercy, Researcher, Tinder Foundation, said: “Although we’ve supported over 1.7 million people (80% of whom are socially excluded), to gain basic digital skills since 2010, Tinder Foundation believes everyone has the right to digital skills, and is committed to discovering the best way to reach out to those who are currently being left behind by existing digital skills training programmes. Reboot UK will allow us to create and test evidence-based models of intervention that will support some of the most excluded groups in society. There will then be the potential to roll these interventions out on a much wider scale.”
The West Harton Churches Action Station in South Shields is one of the local delivery partners that will be piloting the ‘home access’ intervention, providing tablets to 16 people who currently aren’t online at home and measuring how this can supplement their weekly digital skills training sessions at the Action Station. They will also be delivering peer mentoring sessions to around 50 people including training sessions in homeless shelters.
“A lot of our learners have low self-esteem, are getting over drug addictions or are living with mental health problems, so the first step is getting people engaged with learning and we do that by making our training as accessible as possible, for example by delivering it in sheltered accommodation, day centres, or children’s centres”, says Louise Barbé, Silver Action Co-ordinator, West Harton Churches Action Station.
Family Fund is hoping that Reboot UK will provide important learning about how best to personalise training to help improve the quality of life of families with disabled children.
“Family Fund is committed to removing the barriers to digital inclusion by providing essential grants and support services to families raising disabled and seriously ill children and young people across the UK. Our mission is for these families to have the same opportunities as others and we know getting online opens many doors to do just that. We are pleased to be working with Tinder Foundation and the other consortium partners to test new ways to help those who need it the most,” said Cheryl Ward, Chief Executive, Family Fund.
Tasmin Maitland, Head of Innovation and Good Practice, Homeless Link, said: “This project could not be more timely for our customers given the introduction of Universal Credit - which is all managed online. In addition, simple things, such as being able to reconnect with family on Facebook, can be a big step towards rebuilding broken relationships and creating a network of support.”
Gavin Atkins, Head of Community Programmes, Mind, said: “Having the skills and confidence to be able to access health services online, as well as opportunities to volunteer and apply for jobs, are essential in this day and age. Our involvement in Reboot UK reflects our commitment to helping people who may face barriers to accessing conventional training gain the necessary digital skills in order to manage their own health and wellbeing more proactively.”