Digital participation in Scotland: the strategy is delivery

This week is the 8th national Get Online Week, with events and activities happening across the UK for people wanting to take their first steps online. Things are getting an extra push in Scotland too. If you keep your eyes peeled then you'll see the Scottish Government's Let's Get On branding starting to appear across lots of the things the government is doing, from getting superfast broadband rolled out to promoting the benefits of being online for people and businesses. It's also a very exciting week for SCVO, as this is when lots of the things we've been working on really kick off. You'll hear much more from the team over the course of the week, but for now here's an overview of what's going on.

---

A national movement

We're encouraging organisations in Scotland - big and small, public, private and third sector - to make a public commitment to digital inclusion by signing our Digital Participation Charter. Organisations that do this will be key partners for us as we build a national movement to make Scotland one of the most digitally included societies in the world.

Funding and support

We're challenging communities across Scotland to help people get the confidence and skills to do things on the internet, and are opening up a new fund - including financial support and in-kind contributions from our partners - to help make this happen. We know that digital inclusion is best done locally, and that one size doesn't fit all, so tell us what you need and we'll do our best to get it to you.

Mapping community activity

We're mapping all of the places and organisations in Scotland that offer face-to-face help with learning to do things on the internet. If you want to find help for someone you know, then it just got much easier to search for local people and organisations for them to turn to. And if you run a course or a club or a meet-up, then you can tell us about it and we'll add you to the map so that more people can find you.

Learning resources

We're making the excellent Learn My Way courses available for more organisations in Scotland to use. If you'd like to use it with your learners then we can give you a special code for Learn My Way that will help you track how many people you are helping and how they are getting on. You can ask for this when you add your activity to our map.

Getting charities online

And last but not least, we're helping boost digital capability for third sector organisations as well as the people they serve. Over the next year we'll be backing over 100 interns to take on digital projects for Scottish charities and voluntary organisations, with mentoring and support from Scotland IS and Scottish digital businesses.

---

All of this is about building on the great work people are already doing across Scotland, and scaling it up so that no one is left behind. The programme is not perfect by any means - we are learning lots of this as we go, and we need your engagement and feedback so that we can keep improving and keep doing better for the people and communities that all of us care about. But it's a start, and like they say: actions speak louder than words.   PS: Kudos to @MTBracken and GDS for "the strategy is delivery". Spot on.