Supporting Families in a Digital Age

Helen Milner, @helenmilner 12th November 2014

Tinder Foundation makes these good things happen:

Family

In 2013-14 food banks fed 913,138 people nationwide. Of those helped, 330,205 were children

• Can’t do all of the four basic skills:– Communicate– Find Things– Share– Keep Safe

• 68% of this 9.5m have never been online• 32% are infrequent or narrow internet

users

9.5m don’t have basic digital skills (BBC/Ipsos Mori, March. 2014)

ExclusionDigital

FinancialSocial

Poverty of Aspiration & Opportunity

Goal is to create independent and confident internet users

Not about broadband infrastructureNot about one-off usage

Tinder Foundation• We are a staff-owned mutual and social

enterprise

• Vision: A better world for everyone through the use of digital technology

• Purpose: We make good things happen through digital technology

Local+

Digital+

ScaleFree

Optimised for mobile learning

Free online courses for digital inclusion, financial inclusion and employability - www.learnmyway.com

Optimised for mobile learning

> 1 million people, 5000 hyperlocal partners, 25000 volunteers

Our strategic approach

Digital Inclusion• Join the Mind the Gap campaign• Seek out parents who don’t have the basic

online skills• Partner with local UK online centres and

signpost• Link or embed Learn My Way (

www.learnmyway.com) into your Parents’ Site

Learning (Parents & Families)

• Employability, financial literacy, budgeting– Learn My Way

• Family Learning– Such as using Course Creator

• English as a Second Language– English My Way (www.englishmyway.co.uk)

Social Challenges• Unemployment: basic online skills, specialist

network supporting people ‘into work’, simple online courses

• Specialist networks for disability – (as well as for older people, and social housing)

• Exclusion … digital, financial, social• Poverty … including poverty of aspiration and

opportunity• Putting technology into the mix for the solution

Seeking the ‘sweet spot’

“Now that day has arrived … the humble school micro provides a

gateway to a world of knowledge so vast that it is breathtaking at

its first acquaintance”

March 1985

Thank You

helen@tinderfoundation.org@helenmilner on twitterwww.ukonlinecentres.comwww.learnmyway.comwww.communityhowto.com