Tinder Foundation / Online Centres Foundation Annual Review
2013-2014

Tinder Foundation

Community action

Creating Digital Communities

The Creating Digital Communities Report was launched in the Autumn of 2013, evaluating two key strands of Tinder Foundation’s community action work - the Community How To website and the Community Hubs programme.

Both had a huge impact in encouraging community organisations to embrace digital tools to enable them to achieve more, and although the core activity for each strand took place in 2012-2013, the report wrapped up and evaluated this work.

The Community How To website has helped increase confidence of digital tools across the sector, with 86% of Community How To users reporting that they felt confident in their use of digital tools after using the site, compared with 28% before use. 81% of users said the site helped them to do a better job whilst 80% of users said it helped them to save time.

Furthermore, 100% of Community Hubs reported increased levels in confidence by community members and learners as a result of their capacity building programmes. 75% of Hub programmes reported improved mental well-being and self esteem of individuals they worked with, with 88% of these individuals feeling more socially included and valued within their community.

In summary, the programme fundamentally changed how Tinder Foundation works, and how we understand our role in community action and capacity building. We have always believed technology has the power to change the lives of the most vulnerable in our society, but now we’re working to make it happen not just at an individual level, but at a community level.

Through our Community action work we're supporting organisations to improve their sustainability and their communities, and creating new partnerships that actually feed learners back into their individual digital inclusion offer.


Community How To

Community How To

Community How To continues to bring together top digital tools for community organisations, organised under six key categories - communicating with your community, managing projects, managing events, fundraising, managing volunteers and measuring outputs and impact. Its aim is to inspire individuals and organisations to do more with digital, share best practice, and improve their capacity.

This year has seen Tinder Foundation focus on marketing the service to UK online centres partners and external community organisations, with new features including regular newsletters and top tool recommendations from industry experts. The site has now received over 40,000 visits since it was launched, with the most viewed and popular tools including communications tools like Storify, blogging and Google apps, plus local social network site Street Life.


Level 3 Community Development Qualification

Level 3 Community Development Qualification

Tinder Foundation’s unique Community Development Award continues to help UK online centres staff and other community workers get a Level 3 qualification to support their community activity, accredited by NOCN Yorkshire and Humber.

The Award is delivered through both face-to-face and online learning, and consists of three core units - Community Development Values and Processes, Community Group Dynamics and Social Inequality, Injustice and Diversity in Communities.

This year, there have been 23 Community Development Award graduates, with a further five awaiting external accreditation.


Case Study: Saltburn community leader gets inspired with accredited qualification

Sue Davies

Community workers across the country are doing even more to support the places they love, thanks to the Community Development qualification.

Sue Davies from Saltburn is just one of our recent graduates and is now using what she’s learnt to increase the reach and impact of her work.

For Sue, the course was a chance to get some fresh new ideas after more than 25 years in the community sector, including 8 years at Destinations@Saltburn. She says:

“The course leader Sally had a wealth of information and expertise, and I came away from every session with lots of inspiration and ideas. I’ve got plenty of experience working in the community sector but I think you can get stuck in your ways, so it was really useful to hear what problems others are facing and how they’re tackling them.

I can be very confident when working as a tutor and teaching others how to make the most of the internet, but promoting the work we do to potential partners, or even funders, made me very nervous. However, having to talk about my ideas and justify them in a group setting has well and truly inspired me to be more proactive and give it a go. I’ve started talking to local libraries and doctor’s surgeries about our services in a way we haven’t done before.

It’s not easy out there for community organisations. There’s less funding than there was, and more competition for what funding there is. The only way to stand a chance is to really understand the needs of your community and share ideas and strengths with others. Times are changing but this course has made sure we’re not getting left behind!”

Sue Davies


Community Capacity Builders

Community Capacity Builders

As part of its core digital inclusion programme, Tinder Foundation awarded grants to 19 Community Capacity Building projects, who were charged with supporting people to gain digital skills, and become confident internet users at scale by working to build the capacity of community partners and organisations to deliver in new communities.

The work of those Community Capacity Builders has helped seed best practice across the entire UK online centres network, and create a supported cascade model for community partnerships and outreach. Community Capacity Builders have also been key supporters of the Get Online Week and Start Something campaigns, helping to raise the profile of the campaigns and drive the social media buzz.


Corporate volunteering programmes

The community strand of Tinder Foundation’s work in 2013-14 has also included two large scale volunteering programmes with EE and TalkTalk. Both organisations have a commitment to supporting digital inclusion, and have created time for employees to be trained as Digital Champions and volunteer at local UK online centres.

At EE, more than 140 employees have been trained as volunteers, and at TalkTalk 50 employees have also received training. EE have focussed on digital inspiration, with volunteers running outreach sessions with new people showing them the benefits of being online. For TalkTalk volunteers, it’s been more about lending support to digital skills classes, and volunteer TalkTalk tutors are now a regular feature at several UK online centres. Both sets of volunteers have been able to build up excellent relationships, either with their local UK online centres or the learners they’ve been inspiring, getting some real value from the programme.


Case study: South Tyneside centre benefits from TalkTalk volunteers

Case study: South Tyneside centre benefits from TalkTalk volunteers

Since Summer 2012, Tinder Foundation has been training staff from telecoms companies EE and TalkTalk as Digital Champions, so they can help people in their local communities get online.

Following their training, staff have been volunteering at UK online centres all over the country. One centre that’s taken advantage of the experience and enthusiasm of Digital Champions from EE, is Age UK South Tyneside.

Their Digital Inclusion Project Manager Martin Simpson says:

“We deliver more than 30 session a week across South Tyneside, in locations like our IT centre, local libraries and at sheltered accommodation venues. Any extra help we can get is extremely valuable, so when we saw the EE volunteers might be available in area, we decided to sign up.”

At first, Martin wasn’t without reservations about the scheme. He explains:

“I have worked with companies in the past who have treated this type of activity more as a marketing exercise - they wanted a few photos to show that they were a ‘company with a conscience’. But as soon as wes tarted working with the EE Digital Champions it became clear how enthusiastic they were about giving back to the community. Most of the volunteers were from local offices, so they cared about the area as much as we did. And their passion about the power of technology was very clear to see. ”

Soon Martin was using the volunteers to support the centre’s digital inclusion work in a variety of ways: “Every volunteer comes with their own level of experience and their own skills. Some have talked to a group of learners about the benefits of the internet and why they should give it a go, others have supported learners on a 1-1 basis or even delivered whole classes.”

“We’ve been really happy with the support we’ve received from our Digital Champions - they’ve been flexible, helpful, kind and informed. Their help has meant we can reach more people, more often, and we can’t say thank you enough.”