Caspar Kennerdale

UK Emergency Alerts

Mar 26, 2023

On Sunday 23 April 2023, there will be a national test of the UK Emergency Alerts service.

What is it?
Emergency Alerts is a UK government service that will warn you if there’s a danger to life nearby. In an emergency, your mobile phone or tablet will receive an alert with advice about how to stay safe.

What will it sound like?
A siren-like bleep that will go for approx 10-15 seconds even if the phone is set to silent. If you are hard of hearing or visually impaired your phone may vibrate or give an audio message.

What to I do when I see or hear it?
You will not need to do anything during the test, just observe the message. If you see a similar message in the future, STOP what you are doing, take note of any instructions and FACT CHECK!

Am I being monitored?
Your phone number has not been given to the government and it does not need to know your location to send an alert.
It is being transmitted across all 4G and 5G networks.

How do I know if it is genuine?
After the test, be mindful of future alerts as it is possible that scammers could use this to trick you.

FACT CHECK before doing anything and DO NOT automatically click a link or answer a call if it looks like its from the Government or the Police.

The alert will not replace other sources of news or information such as the radio or TV. If you are unable to check with a friend of family member then try to FACT CHECK for yourself when you see the alert.

Can I turn it off completely?
You can turn this off completely within your “Settings”. Look for “Emergency Alerts” or within your notifications.

Further info can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/alerts or search Google for ’emergency alert uk’

FACTSHEET

We’re back at WLM St Lukes!

Mar 16, 2023

WLM ST Lukes is a little haven tucked away in Kennington. Their neighbourhood skills hub has a real focus on both financial and digital inclusion; helping local residents build their own resilience to these challeneges.

Pre-Covid it was the home of the Lambeth Digi-Buddy project which helped many people across the Borough. It is a true honour to pick up where this project left off.

Last year we delivered several of our Community Learning courses in partnership with WLM, we worked alongside the Norwood & Brixton Foodbank to provide Cost of Living support as well as supported several local residents in the home via our connections with local housing groups.

We will now be delivering a weekly Digital Drop-In every Thursday 2pm-4pm providing a space where you can come along and get questions answered, problems solved or practice on a supported environment from a member of staff or volunteer.

After Easter we will also be launching a full Spring programme including digital life skills workshops and digital volunteer training, so watch this space.

We are always looking for volunteers and you if you are interest then please get in touch. We are not looking for super technical people, just someone who can listen, be patient and help someone find their way through a challenge. Is this you?

We will be there every Thursday 2pm – 4pm
25A Wincott Street, Kennington, London SE11 4NT
Get Directions

Digital Volunteer training is finally underway

Mar 1, 2023

It was great to finally get our volunteer training programme underway. A great morning was spent exploring the challenges and barriers people face accessing or learning ‘digital stuff’

We also looked at active listening, setting boundaries, safer spaces as well as understanding motivation.

Good grounding to work either as a Digital Volunteer or within any community group as the skills are both universal and useful.

We will be developing our programme further throughout the year offering this to volunteer, community groups and partners

Keep ‘em peeled!

Could you get more from Google?

Feb 12, 2023

Many of us use Gmail as our email address or have a smart phone set up to use Play services and download apps from there, but it is not always clear that these are both part of the same Google account.

There are many other features we can use and access within this account, such as creating playlists and uploading video to YouTube, creating letters and budgets with both Google Docs and Google Sheets.

We can also manage our search history, have all of our contacts in a single place as well as create calendar alerts and invites but is can also be a bit confusing when we don’t know how it all works together and may also be affected but things we hear about privacy and the cloud.

Getting more from Google is designed to make this clearer for you and to help you choose what right for you and to help you be safer online and enjoy more things.

We are now taking registrations for 2 cohorts of this 6-week course:

Thornton Heath Library

Mondays 2pm-4pm from the 27th February

Anerley Town Hall

Wednesdays 2pm-4pm from the 1st March

More information and how to apply can be found here or email us here.

Can you build community connections in Croydon North West?

Feb 9, 2023

We are recruiting a full time Community Builder to work across North- West Croydon (including Norbury Park, Norbury and Pollards Hill, Bensham Manor and West Thornton).

You will identify, unite and help to develop individuals and groups to reach their potential, develop their ideas and enhance our local community.

You will work in communities: bring partners together, share insights from people who are seldom heard and work across the locality to meet the priorities of the Local Community Partnership.

The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal skills, the ability to connect people to bring about positive change, and a passion to help people overcome inequality and exclusion.

So what is community building? This happens when people and organisations from across the community come together to envision how their ideal community should look. They then begin to develop plans to mobilise all of the community’s resources to achieve their visions.

Community Builder will initiate conversations with residents in the community to identify and work with ‘Community Connectors’ to nurture community led activity and connect them with local assets.

This is a fixed term contract up to 31st December 2024 with an immediate start.

Some weekend or evening work may be required to ensure we are able to reach as many people as we can.

Application Deadline: 24 February. 12pm. Interviews 3rd March

This post is part of One Croydon’s Locality model, funded by The Kings Fund with the aim to ‘shift power and authority to local people and communities.

Job Description

Application Form

How to apply:

Fill in the Application Form CB and send to recruitment@clearcommunityweb.co.uk

Deadline:

Application deadline- Friday 24^th Feb. 12.00 noon

Interviews on Friday 3^rd March

—

ClearCommunityWeb are a local social enterprise helping people feel more confident and comfortable with technology through classes, workshops and individual support in the home. We primarily work with older people, vulnerable adults and carers in South London, both directly and through our network of local partners.

We work closely with organisations such as Age Uk Croydon and Croydon BME Forum as well as grassroots VCS to identify where needs are and how we can meet them together.