Update from end-April 2021
Welcome to the end of April 2021 issue of Digital WM News and our fourth issue of 2021.
We continue to help you and your organisation/community-led group to increase your digital skills and knowledge, and digital inclusion across the West Midlands.
In this issue we include:
- News including Wolves Tech Aid, Data 4 Good Festival programme, tickets and fringe, Charity Digital Skills report survey 2021, UK & Ireland Tech For Good Organisers Network launch
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- Events and Training incl Getting Started with Digital, Birmingham Charity Meetup, Working in the Purpose-Driven sector as a Person of Colour, Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2021 Launch Event, and The Curve: Digital Skills training for the third sector
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- People: Amna Akhtar, GirlDreamer
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- Resources incl How to create a digital literacy curriculum in 7 easy steps & other resources
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- Vacancies: incl Head of Communications at The Access Project, Digital Media Assistants (2) at Citizen Coaching (Kickstarter vacancies)
We continue to increase digital skills and inclusion in the VCSE sectors, continuing Project 2020, by curating the most useful items we see on the web during the month.
As we said towards the end of 2020, this includes other stuff from the web, not nec. 'digital' or 'tech' related, more 'solidarity' work (credit to @touretteshero for this wording, via @dandawcp)
Digital Stories request
We'd love to hear your stories of increasing digital skills and digital inclusion too.
We'd also like to hear from you if you are a digital lead in your organisation with a view to having a get together with other digital leads from organisations across the West Midlands
Please email your stories and details to Pauline at paulineroche.news@gmail.com
Subscribers
For our new subscribers in April, we welcome you! We'd love to hear from you so please email or tweet us at DigitalWMNews.
Please note that this issue and all previous issues can be found on our website here
Readership
In 2021 we continue our aim of reaching at least one person in every small charity, non-profit and social enterprise in the West Midlands.
You can help us increase our reach and increase digital skills in the West Midlands by encouraging your colleagues and friends to subscribe to Digital WM News in 2021.
They can SIGN UP HERE to ensure they receive the latest issue as soon as it is published.
Regards
Pauline Roche,
Editor, Digital WM News
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New project gets digital kit to children and young people in Wolverhampton
Wolves Tech Aid has been launched in Wolverhampton, joining other schemes in the West Midlands region to help address the digital divide.
This project joins several other schemes in the West Midlands, some of which we reported on in our January issue. Qasim Majid of the Wow Group, which runs a similar project, the Wow Dot scheme, has donated 20 fully-refurbished laptops to Wolves Tech Aid. These devices join others going on to children and students across the Wolverhampton area.
Wolves Tech Aid is a not-for-profit initiative serving Wolverhampton. Its focus is to identify and repurpose a wide variety of technology to eliminate the inequality of access to digital education within the home for families across the city. It is supported by a number of partners including Pat McFadden MP, Learn Play Foundation and City of Woverhampton Council.
UK & Ireland Tech for Good Organisers Network launched
The UK & Ireland Tech For Good Organisers network held their soft launch event online on April 28th and it was a resounding success with up to 80 guests in attendance.
Photo: Madelaine Stark
The network welcomes anyone who runs a tech for good network or is thnking about it, and who agrees to stick to the network principles.
Full details of how to get involved are here, including what the principles are.
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Data 4 Good Festival May 10-12 - Tickets still available
RnR Organisation is a partner at the Data4Good Festival from 10-12 May 2021.
The programme is now live and it’s jam-packed with different sessions to help social sector organisations transform their impact. We’re speaking on Mon 10th May in a session about Setting up a place-based data group and would love to see you there!
There’ll also be sessions from charities sharing their data journeys, including Citizens Advice, London’s Air Ambulance Charity, Sustrans, Teach First, Cause4 and the British Red Cross, plenty of technical ‘how to’ sessions, discussions on data and diversity, and sessions for funders and those interested in grantmaking data.
Find out more and get your ticket here https://data4goodfest.org.uk/programme/
Festival Fringe:
If you’re running an event in May that fits in with the @Data4GoodFest, submit it to the Fringe and they’ll share it alongside the Festival!
Events can be skill shares, debates, meetups, and any innovative events focussed on #Data4Good
Add your event 👉 https://data4goodfest.org.uk/call-for-contributions/
Charity Digital Skills report survey 2021
Our friend and charity digital expert Zoe Amar writes: "How has the way you use digital evolved over the last year? There are so many brilliant examples of how organisations have used digital to adapt during the pandemic, whether those actions were big or small. Does this mark a significant shift? And what do these changes tell us about the future of the sector?
Those are the big questions we want to answer in the 2021 Charity Digital Skills Report. With your help, the report has become an annual barometer of where charities are at with digital. After a year of living through a global emergency we want to help your organisation and the sector track its progress, share learnings and plan where it goes next.
We've redesigned the survey significantly this year to help you do this. What we've heard from charities involved in user testing is that it's been really useful to complete together with colleagues, helping them reflect on what they've done during COVID-19.
We'll share the results with you in July. We're thrilled to be working with Skills Platform again on this research, and we're grateful to Catalyst for partnering with us.
Our survey takes 20 minutes and we have 10 x £20 Amazon vouchers to give away".
Please respond to the survey here
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NOTE: All events subject to latest government guidance on responding to the Corona Virus
Wed 5th May 10-1
CAST Telling Your Story With Impact Part 1 and 2 (5th and 12th May)
A two part online workshop to help you use your impact data to tell a better story about your organisation.
Wed 5th May 14.30-15.30
Establishing a Data Driven Culture in Not for Profit Organisations
BizData, along with guest presenter, Adrian Stagg, CIO at Save the Children invite you to take part in a unique session exploring the importance of establishing a data driven culture within a not-for-profit organisation, to better develop outcomes-based campaign strategies, evidence-based funding streams, and digitally attract and retain new donors and supporters to the mission.
Mon 10th-Wed 12th May
Data 4 Good Festival
An online programme of events in May 2021.
Brought to you by more than 20 partner organisations, including West Midlands-based RnR Organisation, the festival is designed to help social sector organisations make better use of data.
Mon 10th May 9.30-11.00
Getting Started with Digital
Totally Stoked Digital and WEA Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire are bringing a series of new events to provide tech support and training to help others to navigate the digital world.
This first session is a perfect introduction to using digital technology, building confidence and providing the opportunity to explore the tech and it's navigation. Suitable for beginners, this session will also include all-important jargon-busting.
This is session one of four. Further sessions take place on 12th, 18th and 20th May 2021.
Tues 11th May 10-12
Birmingham Charity Meetup
Better your brand
Hosts: Vicky Kangurs and Hope Drew
These events are open to all, but will be particularly relevant to people working in a comms, fundraising or marketing role.
Wed 12th May 12.30-13.15
Creating supportive online environments for support workers
This session provides an overview of the Catalyst Sector Challenge project that intended to create supportive online environments for remote support workers. The team (Tectonic, Children NE, Every-one, Peabody, Samaritans, TogetherCo, Trustlinks) will share their learning journey and insights they’ve gathered on the way.
You’ll learn:
- How the team used design thinking methods to develop and test their wellbeing tool ‘Reflect’
- Future plans and aspirations for the tool
- How you could make use of ‘Reflect’ in your nonprofit
Speakers: Joshua McGovern, Mionah Abbassi Larsen
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Thurs May 13th 10-11.30
How to make the most out of your data(base)
A session dedicated to practical tips and tricks on how to get your data working hard for your organisation
Thurs May 13th 12-13.30
Working in the purpose-driven sector as a Person of Colour
On Purpose London, Year Here and _SocialStarters invite you to an event focusing on the experiences of People of Colour working in the purpose-driven sector.
The event will be hosted by Jon Cornejo, an Anti-Racism Consultant and an Organiser at #CharitySoWhite.
Fri May 14th 9.15-11.30
Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2021 Launch Event
Discover how the digital and financial landscape has evolved for the UK, including a spotlight on the impact of the pandemic on digital behaviours and ambitions.
Tues 25th May 19.00-20.30
Solidarity Session: social media - how to have impact without going viral
Social media can be a great tool for campaigning, but how can we make the most of it to have impact?
Thurs 27th May 10-12
Digital Fundraising Workshops Session 2 - Digital Fundraising Tools
Online fundraising is ever growing and more and more people are using this technology due to its ease and simplicity.
Voluntary Centre Services are delivering digital fundraising sessions to ensure that charities within the county are confident in their abilities to engage with this medium and are familiar with the tools and services available.
The sessions will be split into 2 parts:
Part 1 - Building your Following & Supporters - Thursday 20th May - 10am - 12noon
We will look at our charities and community organisations can build their following & supporters in readiness to launch their digital fundraising campaigns and when the best time to use it.
Part 2 - Online Fundraising Tools - Thursday 27th May - 10am - 12noon
We will take a look at some of the different ways you can fundraise online including taking a look at setting up a Crowdfunding campaign and fundraising page including some top tips on how to make your campaign a success.
Thurs 27th May 13.00-14.30
Achieving Digital Equity in the 21st Century
The RSA in partnership with the Learning Foundation, The Institute of Engineering and Technology, Digital Access for All and Dixons Carphone invite you to an online event exploring how we can enable digital equity for all.
The event will explore what the needs, opportunities and barriers are to achieving digital equity in the 21st century. We will bring together key stakeholders to explore:
• The impact of digital inequity on our wellbeing.
• What we need to do to enable more equity of access.
• Who have roles and responsibilities for supporting and enacting change.
Regular Meetups
Brum Social Media Cafe – monthly (last Fri, 11am) social media meetup
Tech Wednesday – monthly meet up for like-minded individuals in tech industry in Birmingham area
Ongoing
IT courses
Fircroft College, Birmingham
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Amna Akhtar, co-founder Girl Dreamer
Birmingham-based British-Pakistani Amna Akhtar, the co-founder of Girl Dreamer, has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 List in the Social Impact category.
Girl Dreamer is a digital platform that caters to personal and professional development programs for women of color.
"Over 12,000 young women of color turn to Girl Dreamer for personal and professional development programs. As the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, Amna Akhtar is building the type of network she wished she had when she was younger (including an all-women-of-color longboard crew),” according to Amna's profile on the official Forbes site.
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"...7 simple steps to creating your own digital literacy curriculum. It’s not as challenging as you may think to introduce digital literacy across the curriculum you currently teach; just be sure to consider these 7 things before getting started and looking for resources..."
Full article by Popkids
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Why we need the ONS to measure charities’ output effectively
"As part of the work on the Data Collective project, we looked at what's needed to improve data on the charity sector. One of the key things we heard is that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) needs to collect better data on charities, and on all civil society, in the form of satellite accounts. We look at what that might mean"
Full blogpost by David Ainsworth in Catalyst News.
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All listed vacancies are in the West Midlands - positions are listed by closing date (unless otherwise stated); please note we will only list vacancies where salaries (or a range) are stated
6th May
Young People’s Digital & Engagement Officer - Maternity Cover
Children's Liver Disease Foundation
Birmingham
Part Time – 4 days per week – salary £24,000- £27,000, (pro rata) dependent on experience
Temporary contract for 12 months or until the substantive post holder returns
10th May
Head of Communications
The Access Project
London or Birmingham (with travel to London for meetings). Remote working initially until staff return to office-based working.
£35,000 - £39,000 per year (+ £3,000 London Weighting, where applicable)
18th June
Digital Learning Facilitator
Elim Pentecostal Church
Malvern, Worcestershire
£25,000 - £27,000 per year (pro rata)
Kickstarter vacancies (16-24 yr olds only) - apply through your local Job Centre
Digital Media Assistant x 2
Citizen Coaching
Birmingham
No closing date
Digital skills manager
upReach
£27,500 - £35,000 per year
Need a freelancer to help with a project or even step in as an interim?
Take a look at freelancefinders.co.uk Tiny businesses with big talent. (HT @ByTheWaves on Twitter)
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