Volunteer update

Begin Together – Digi Money Programme

Advice NI is delighted to have recently trained 14 new Digi Money Champion volunteers as part of the new Begin Together - Digi Money project, funded by the Bank of Ireland. The volunteers from migrant communities all speak a language in addition to English. We have had individuals participating from Eritrea, Zimbabwe, China, Kenya and Somalia. The aim of the programme is that the volunteers will participate in digital skills training and will then cascade this learning by delivering at least 5 hours of digital support to those in their own communities to help improve their basic digital skills and financial wellbeing. Advice NI will provide ongoing support to help the volunteers facilitate their programmes.

Each Digi Money Champion volunteer attended training facilitated by Advice NI over 5 weeks. Every volunteer who completed the training was provided with a digital tablet with an amount of data to keep as their own to enable them to run their own programmes. These community volunteer led courses will be aimed at adult beginners and will help learners acquire IT skills and digital capability. Participants will also gain the skills they need to become regular, confident, capable and safe users of digital technology.

Rights 4 Seniors Programme

Our Digital Skills volunteers have been busy again delivering our Rights 4 Seniors programmes. These programmes, funded by Nationwide, focus on delivering basic Digi Skills sessions to older people’s groups. The courses are delivered over a period of 5 weeks and focus on topics like how to use Zoom, getting online and staying safe, email and shopping online.

The courses can be delivered via Zoom or now face to face and are important as they are often a vital first step to tackling potential social isolation by helping people feel more confident and connected.

During November and December, we recruited and trained 6 new volunteers for the project.  Since the beginning of the year programmes have been delivered in U3A Derry, Men’s Shed Antrim, Habinteg Ulster- with residents joining remotely from Rostrevor and Kilrea. Sessions were also delivered to Radius staff to help them better support their residents to confidently get online and stay safe . Our volunteers are currently delivering in Donegal Pass Community Centre in association with Engage with Age, and there are plans to deliver in Radius Broughshane, Ballymena and Hillsborough and also Sunnyside House in Bangor and Trinity House in Garvagh in the coming months.