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Discover Digital

Discover Digital was a partnership of organisations funded through the UK Community Renewal Fund. It was developed to tackle digital exclusion in Stoke-on-Trent help people to access and use digital and online services. Whether that was with hardware or software, Discover Digital aimed to make sure that everyone could find and use the digital services they need.

The Discover Digital project has now concluded but this legacy still contains some of the learning, resources, and research that were developed during the project.

Discover Digital, a collaborative cross-sector project, was created to raise the bar of digital inclusivity across Stoke-on-Trent.

Research by Stoke-on-Trent’s Collaborative Network identified that young people, parents, and older people were three primary at-risk groups for digital exclusion.

After identifying the numerous barriers to accessing digital equipment and developing digital skills, a group of organisations from the private, public, and voluntary sectors came together and formed a plan to help tackle the city’s widening digital gap. That plan was Discover Digital and it provided tailored support to improve their access to equipment and connectivity, digital skills, and online safety.

Following an award from Stoke-on-Trent City Council from their UK Community Renewal Fund allocation, Discover Digital used a carefully designed programme to address the city’s unequal access to digital technologies and online services through a number of ways:

  • Digital Skills Training to help people gain confidence in using technology and accessing online services.
  • Get Connected Grants to provide people with the funds to get the equipment and connectivity they need.
  • The Digital Access Fund to help people overcome any barriers they may face in accessing digital including travel, childcare, software, and accessibility.
  • Innovation Grants for local community organisations to lead small digital projects within their communities.
  • Community Connectors to explore the everyday barriers the public face to accessing digital technologies and identify what is needed to overcome them.
  • Digital Champions Programme where participants can use their training to help support others that may feel less confident about getting online.

The project included a dedicated research team from Staffordshire University who ran consultations with different community organisations and in a pop-up shop located within a high-footfall area of a shopping centre the heart of the community. The research aimed to identify what people were doing online, what other things they would like to do, and what it was that stopped them from being able to do these things. This enabled the team to, amongst other things, identify community training requirements and find ways to increase digital engagement across the city.

By combining the Community Connectors research and by utilising existing community relationships, the project was able to increase participation and gather information from a large sample size.

Over the course of the project, Discover Digital partners used a number of different research methods to inform and tailor the programme, evaluate the success, and assess the impact of the project following a year of delivery.

These reports highlight the results of a digital skills consultation with people in the community by voluntary sector organisations and community connectors supporting the project, a digital health consultation carried out by The Dove Service, and a thorough evaluation of the project as a whole by Keele University.

  • Community Research Findings: This report explores the findings from research carried out by Discover Digital’s Community Connectors during their consultation sessions with the community, and in the pop-up shop. It explores what people do and want to do online and what barriers they face.
  • Health Mini Enquiries: This report outlines the results of research carried out by The Dove Service exploring how people were accessing online health services and how they felt about them. Initially, this research focused on the impact of digital adjustments organisations had to make during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how these adjustments affected their staff, volunteers, and clients. Following this, the research was opened up to the wider Stoke-on-Trent community.

  • Discover Digital Evaluation Report: As an extensive project evaluation, this report covers all aspects of the project including the background, context, and delivery. It also provides a thorough evaluation of the pop-up shop activities, bite-sized and longer training programmes, and Get Connected funding.

The resources below were created as part of the Discover Digital project, and remain publicly available to download. Please note, these were created for Discover Digital in 2022 and may not be completely up to date.