The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BB.
Guide to place-based digital inclusion
Place-based digital inclusion is about building sustainable solutions to digital exclusion, taking into consideration the assets, and needs, of a specific place. This guide shares some best practice on how to do this.
SCVO's place-based digital inclusion journey
Our place-based journey started in 2019, as part of a large programme supporting 29 housing associations from across Scotland. This highlighted the power of digital being used to support the wider community. Following the pandemic in 2020, and our delivery of the Connecting Scotland programme, we started to notice appetite for more localised initiatives to support digital inclusion across our networks.
In 2021 we started a learning project as a test of concept. Taking an agile approach to our project delivery, and following the principles of the Scottish Approach to Service Design, we worked iteratively and in collaboration with a range of places to identify, understand and look to develop solutions to their digital exclusion issues. In February 2022, we released our interim report ‘Taking a Place-based Approach to Digital Inclusion: The Journey so Far’ reflecting our learning from work in Renfrewshire and in Berwickshire.
Since then we have been working with a variety of different 'places' including communities in Dundee, North Ayrshire and Grantown-on-Spey, to refine our understanding and approach. All our learning from this work is reflected in this guide.