Martha Lane Fox urges Liverpudlians online
Liverpool gets set to kick off the Go ON Give an Hour campaign with UK Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox’s national Race Online 2012 partners
• Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision, local businesses, community organisations and charities today launch an ambitious campaign to inspire 25,000 Liverpool residents who have never been on the internet to take their first steps online by June 2012
• The Go ON it’s Liverpool campaign kicks off with the Go ON Give an Hour weekend at Liverpool One shopping centre on the 29-30 October with a range of free IT taster events across the city from 31 October – 4 November
• Go ON it’s Liverpool aims to recruit 5,000 local digital champions to provide one to one support to the offline community across the City
A whole host of local and national partners are backing this campaign to reduce the digital divide by 25% across the City to support local people to be able to access all the benefits that online brings – improved employment opportunities; savings on household bills and improved opportunities for older people to stay in touch with family and friends.
• TalkTalk will be supporting Go ON It’s Liverpool by offering 1,000 digitally excluded families in Liverpool a year’s free internet access by working with local partners. TalkTalk staff will also encourage more people to get online as local Digital Champions. In addition, TalkTalk Business will be offering support for local Liverpool SMEs to help them get online and make the most of the internet.
• Liverpool is currently the pilot for a Google outreach programme called Getting Liverpool Businesses Online, providing free workshops and one-to-one internet skills and website support consultations to encourage businesses to use the internet at its Juice Bar. This will be available for Go On it’s Liverpool between September and December across various Liverpool locations
Go On it’s Liverpool is a series of ‘Go ON places’ initiatives that are being rolled out nationwide in 2011-2012 as local authorities and communities show support for UK Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox’s vision to build a UK where everyone can use the web.
Go ON it’s Liverpool will kick off with a high profile recruitment drive to sign up a minimum of 5,000 digital champions to coincide with the BBC ‘Give an Hour’ campaign on the weekend of 29-30 October. When the clocks go back on the night of 29 October we will all be asked to give the extra hour we gain to give someone who has never used the internet, their first experience online.
UK Digital Champion, Martha Lane Fox said: ‘Digital know-how is now a fundamental life-skill – arguably as vital as knowing how to read and write. We believe there is both a moral and social case for sustained local assistance to help offline residents across the UK develop web skills. 4 million of the 8.7 million adults in the UK who have never used the internet are society’s most socially and economically disadvantaged. This is unacceptable especially when 90% of new jobs require IT skills, you’re 25% more likely to get work when you know how to use the internet and once in work you’ll earn 10% more.’
Race Online 2012 recently announced a 100,000 strong national network of local volunteer ‘digital champions’ This recruitment drive is part of a national Race Online 2012 challenge to the 30 million daily internet users in the UK to pass their skills on to those who are yet to go online.
Lane Fox continued: ‘Go ON it’s Liverpool is a fantastic demonstration of how, with strong local leadership, our brilliant Race Online 2012 local digital champion network and cross-sector partners can work with individuals and organizations to make our vision of fairer more networked communities a reality.’
City Councillor Nick Small, Liverpool's Cabinet Member for Employment, Enterprise and Skills, said: "I welcome this initiative to get more people online. Being computer and internet literate gives people a huge advantage when competing for jobs and is vitally important. Using the web is crucial to so many things in modern life and is only going to become more important in the future. This is a great scheme which will harness the enthusiasm of those who are already web savvy and encourage them to give an hour of their time to help get others online."
Max Steinberg, Chief Executive of Liverpool Vision, said: "This is a brand new approach to digital inclusion and a very important project which will help tackle the digital divide that exists in Liverpool. Our network of community groups and businesses will play a vital role in spreading the word and encourage people to become ‘digital champions. By giving just an hour of their time, people can potentially help transform the lives of others by providing essential skills which could help secure employment.”
For more details about the events taking place to launch Go On it’s Liverpool between 29th October and 4th November or to hold your own event or volunteer as a digital champion please visit the Go ON It's Liverpool Facebook group or call 0800 771234 to find a free beginners course near you. For more information on all events being held across Liverpool please go to www.raceonline2012.org/liverpool
Call to action
Become a Digital Champion
• Please pledge your hour at www.go-on.co.uk/giveanhour and get access to exciting ideas, info and offers from the many partners Race Online 2012 is working with on this campaign.
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