Storytelling Success

Last week I had the pleasure of facilitating SCVO Digital’s Storytelling Success: Describing your Digital Journey event at the William Quarrier Epilepsy Centre in Govan, Glasgow as part of our digital participation practitioner events programme. 

We were delighted to host attendees from over 15 organisations who are doing fantastic work around digital inclusion throughout the country. It was an interesting and informative day and I would like to thank everyone who came along, especially our speakers, for their enthusiasm and willingness to participate. 

I enjoyed hearing everyone’s stories, particularly the real-life examples of how organisations are helping people in communities around Scotland to become digitally included. It was also great to have some open and honest discussions about methods of reporting and measuring impact that didn’t work for people and gave me the opportunity to share some of my own mistakes! 

We had three excellent speakers from a variety of organisations who have all received Digital Participation Charter funding via SCVO. We heard about their digital journeys, from where they started, where they are currently and what they hope to achieve in the future. They also shared invaluable advice about what tools they have used to measure their achievemnts and to report back on the work they are doing.   

First up was Fiona Temple from Airdrie Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) who showed us a video they produced using Biteable to promote their digital services after receiving Charter Fund money from SCVO. Fiona spoke about the work they are doing in Airdrie to support their residents and took plenty of questions from some of the other CAB members in the room. The CAB has just received additional funding to set up a digital financial service in the area and we look forward to hearing what happens next. 

Our second speaker was Debs Allan from Linstone Housing Association in Renfrewshire. Linstone recently took part in SCVO’s Digital Champion training and are committed to supporting their tenants to improve their Essential Digital Skills. They are currently in the process of setting up a public digital pod in their main office and have also produced a video, which they have posted on You Tube. Linstone also currently offer digital drop ins through their Connect Up project, which have been well attended by people in the area. 

Our last speaker was Libby Bligh from the Libertie Project, a social enterprise based in the Highlands who run arts and crafts for ex-offenders, people at risk of offending and their families and carers. She shared some case studies of service users they had supported to improve their digital skills and details of some of their current projects, including the brilliant Christmas for £25 Digital Challenge.

Libby also led the group through a Brief Digital Intervention (a quick and informal way of teaching someone a new digital skill) and had us all signed up and logged in to the Learn My Way website in under five minutes! She went on to explain how they record these interventions and use the data to report back to their funders, in addition to demonstrating the real-life social impact the project is having in their community. 

We concluded the event with festive canapes and some networking. I enjoyed being able to put some names to faces of people I haven’t met and there was plenty of buzz in the room.  

One of the main topics I kept hearing popping up in conversation was around supporting young and/or vulnerable people to stay safe online and I’m pleased to be able to share that this will be the subject of one of our next practitioner events in the new year. 

If this is something you, or someone in your organisation, would be interested in attending please sign up to our fortnightly e:bulletin and keep an eye on our twitter @digiscot for more information.