Disability & Technology Advice (D.A.T.A.) is an exciting new partnership between Millennium Community Solutions and ClearCommunityWeb to support disabled residents, carers and others with access needs with digital technology.

Through a programme of drop-in’s, courses, workshops and home support; D.A.T.A will also help to develop routes to employment and independence by providing routes to assistive technology, building skills & confidence and community-based learning.

D.A.T.A will also seek to inspire with new technologies and skills including VR, AI and opportunities to learn coding and multi-media.

This programme launches throughout Lambeth in May 2023 and extends into Croydon June/ July 2023.

Weekly Drop-ins

Our Disability & Technology Advice (D.A.T.A.) Drop-Ins provide friendly digital support for disabled residents, carers & neurodiverse adults.

They are a safe space for you to come and get advice or information on how to set up or use a device in a way that is right for you.

We can help assess your needs, provide access to the right device and offer support to set goals for personal learning.

Or come along to practice is a supportive environment and build your own skills and confidence.

The sessions are free and there is no need to book.

Where

Every Wednesday 10-1

Akerman Health Centre, 60 Patmos Road, London, SW9 6AF

Bus routes: P5 or 36,185,436 (Vassall Road)

Further information

Contact: 07523 646 277 or info@clearcommunityweb.co.uk.

What do we mean by Disabled residents?

When we refer to “Disabled Residents” we refer to people with physical or sensory impairments, neurodiversity, mental health survivors, people with learning difficulties or learning disabilities and people with long term health conditions.

We include people who may face other access issues to traditional support available.

About Millennium Community Solutions

Millennium Community Solutions works to ensure people living with disabilities in Lambeth and neighbouring boroughs are valued as the important contributors to society they are. Central to this is the right of people living with disability to have equal access to training and technology to support day-to-day life, employment and social connectivity alongside dignity and respect for their individual circumstances and needs.

Contact: Rev Gail Thompson gail@millenniumcommunitysolutions.com

About ClearCommunityWeb

ClearCommunityWeb provides digital skill training, advice and critical support services to community groups, older people, vulnerable adults and carers across South London.

They worked with over 500 residents throughout 2022. Through their person centred approach they put the residents ahead of the technology and find the right fit.

Contact: Caspar Kennerdale caspar@clearcommunityweb.co.uk

Exciting news, Croydon has launched its own Lottery to support the voluntary sector and organizations just like ours.

A chance to win £25,000 and during the draw an additional £300 worth of vouchers are up for grabs.

60% of all proceeds go to the VCS, a much needed income stream after the withdrawal of funding across the Borough

We help people feel more confident and comfortable with technology through classes, workshops and individual support.

We run regular Digital drop-in sessions in Thornton Heath, Purley and Upper Norwood as well as Mobile Phone Boot Camps in Central Croydon and New Addington as well.

We also assist in helping people access online services via a network of Community Hubs across the Borough to help with the Cost of Living Crisis as well as providing access to donated devices.

Finally, we also provide home support to residents referred by local charities and services as well as
providing assistance to disabled people and carers.

We are one of a few organizations that do this critical work full time and the only one based in Croydon.

We regularly support over 60 Croydon residents per week via our programme (500 per year) and is a demand that keeps on rising and so we seek your help to maintain this level of support throughout Croydon.

Please spread the word!

Every Monday from 10, the team are providing Online Services Support alongside other services and groups including Croydon Mind, Age UK Croydon, Croydon Mencap, Housing and St Christophers.

The Community Hub hosted by ARCC Community Facilitators Beena and Nasreen is party of the Croydon VCS response to the cost of living crisis, Covid recovery and of course, rebuilding, after the council’s financial collapse which saw many groups and services lose critical funding.

Lead by Croydon Voluntary Action with central support from One Croydon they have followed a locality model of support creating hubs in the centre of communities where access to support is either inconsistent or where communities are not able to or feel comfortable accessing the historical support available.

Our Online Services Support is a direct precursor to other services such as South London Law Centre, Age UK PIC services or Citizens Advice, where we can help recover accounts, complete forms online and help residents in their ’readiness’ to make an application.

We can also provide information about reducing internet costs, accessing donated devices and social tariffs.

We have previously tested this model working alongside the Healthy Living Platform in Lambeth; supporting residents at the Moorlands Estate as well as in Myatt’s Field North.

We hope to roll this out in other hubs such as in Purely, Woodside and New Addington.

Come and say hi!

Well, well, well, this is something we have been waiting for quite a while.  We have finally delivered our in-person Digital Volunteer Training courtesy of our hosts WLM St Lukes.

A cohort of sixteen people attended the first of 4 monthly sessions exploring the challenges, discussing approaches and looking at some of the techniques we have developed to support people in this area.

These techniques have allowed us to work with over 500 different people in 2022 alone across a range of different projects.

Our person-centred approach puts the learner or resident right in front of the tech. We explore subjects such as active listening, demonstrating vs instructing and, crucial to our approach, how NOT to be the expert and developing helpful interactions.

This sounds all good and proper when you put it like this but fundamentally, we sit with people and work things out with them.

A mixture of existing volunteers, other groups and community connectors all joined to share their experiences which is what really makes the content rich and becomes a learning tool for all involved.

There are still places available for the next session and we will be running the whole course at different locations over the next two years so please get in touch if you’d like to register or are interested in running this for your volunteers.

We recently held our Help for Households event in partnership with the Upper Norwood Library Hub, and over 60 people attended a range of stalls, activities and health support.

We wanted to bring local residents and groups together under one roof in a social and equitable way, sharing food and learning something new.

Its easy to look at barriers and obstacles in hard times and anything that can soften and open relationships scan only be a good thing.

Being quite honest, we have been to too many ‘community events’ over the last ear with the same faces and too few residents. We really wanted to break that deadlock and have some fun.

Very many thanking you to Laura and It’s a Playground, Kim and the Norwood Forum, Sue at Invisible Palace, Danny and the Hive Choir, Kemi at the Paxton Green Timebank and Zen Laughter Yoga.

We are also strongly supported by the fantastic Lambeth Together Health & Wellbeing Bus as well as the South West London ICS

Can’t wait for the next one