Digital Champions for Community Success Erasmus Project

Project Title

Digital Champions for Community Success

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

The term Digital Champion is not new, so a distinction should be made: EU Digital Champions are ambassadors for the Digital Single Market, appointed by their Members States to help every European become digital. Community Digital Champions have the same goals but work from the bottom up rather than top-down. Digital Champions are the essential elements of our approach to digital transformation – they get the work done on the ground and make a huge difference to their communities.

The Digital Champions for Community Success project brought together 5 partners from 4 EU countries to develop a Training package and Methodology to be used by adult educators and particularly by Trainers and Carers of vulnerable adults facing obstacles such as: disabilities and/or learning difficulties, vulnerable adults with social obstacles: low-skilled migrants, long-term unemployed, elderly in care. Trainers and carers are able to boost the impact of their work with the target communities and foster digital champions, who will continue to work within their communities to support their peers.

As acutely highlighted by the Covid19 pandemic, in this age of digitisation of almost every aspect of our everyday lives, these adults are even more isolated and either dependent on external help or just excluded from participation in society. Often the approach was to solve their immediate needs, instead of empowering them to solve their needs by themselves and have a sense of achievement.

The project drew on partners’ experience and newest research to create a Training Package for adult educators and carers who work with disadvantaged adults in different communities, no matter what the local context or type of community. The project created an integrated platform hosting a space for users, as well as 3 comprehensive training modules based on a training framework designed at the beginning of the project.

Module 1 (Digital Skills) presents in 6 thematic groups various digital skills necessary to navigate modern life. They are structured by levels of ability, taking into account corresponding literacy, numeracy and transferable skills.

Module 2 (How to be a Digital Champion) focuses on the competences that an educator / trainer / coach / facilitator of vulnerable adults should have or acquire in order to improve their practice of working with vulnerable adults. There is also a list of online tools which can be used for the support sessions with vulnerable adults.

Module 3 (How to become a Digital Champion) describes the best practice when identifying suitable members of a community to become digital champions. It provides an insight into motivational and support strategies for the digital champions.

A mini handbook has been prepared for the digital champions as first hand support in their new role.

The training modules are complemented by a 9 case studies, illustrating the good practice in order to inspire the take up of the DCCS approach by communities of vulnerable adults.

Stakeholders, such as other practitioners, local authorities and support organisations were involved through a comprehensive dissemination strategy and face-to-face or online multiplier events in each partner country: UK, Germany, Italy and Cyprus.

This project is innovative on several levels:

• Adult education sector – new approach of delivering and improving the retention of basic digital skills
• Learning methodology – the Digital Champions for Community Success methodology is a catalyst to any training programme delivered by support organisations to vulnerable adults
• Learning content – the self-learning modules offer an interactive way of exploring this new methodology
• Skills development – after completion of the self-learning modules, educators will have gained new work skills, but most importantly the vulnerable adults will gain from the new methodology
• Access to information – vulnerable adult learners will be able to access online services such as online banking, government services, and also this improved access to information online will help them make better consumer choices.
• Geographical context – this project will benefit all the partner countries and the wider EU in different ways depending on the local situation.
This project is important not only for its innovation in adult learning focused on vulnerable adults, but also for its impact on their social inclusion.

Project Website

http://digitalchampions.community

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 181135 Eur

Project Coordinator

A1 Community Works Ltd & Country: UK

Project Partners

• A & A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd
• WISAMAR BILDUNGSGESELLSCHAFT GEMEINNUTZIGE GMBH
• Les Cultures
• edEUcation ltd