We are delighted to be one of Four Crystal Palace businesses to be nominated as Finalists in the 2022 Croydon Business Excellence Awards.

This is a real boost for the local area rebuilding after lockdown and a testimony to the support of our residents, the services we all provide and the support we give.

Working at a micro level, its sometimes easy to forget the impact we have in the wider economy and given the crisis in Croydon over the last few years it is nice to be able to celebrate the success of local, independent businesses and social enterprises.

So ClearCommunityWeb have been nominated for Best Social Enterprise and the other three finalists are ShopSE19, Craft & Courage & Haven Wellness and we are against some stiff competition.

To state our case, we work daily with older people, vulnerable adults and carers providing access to and building confidence with technology.

We provide classes, workshops, drop-ins and critical support in the home.

We work with both social prescribers and community leaders to reach the people most in need but also to help identify other areas of support such as with mental health and the cost of living so partnership work and a duty of care are essential.

As a team we are constantly evaluation and adapting the way we work to provide a better service and to also create opportunities for work and volunteering.

As a fairly new and growing organization we are really proud of this nomination as it really establishes us locally.

So, please, vote for us here

So who else was nominated?

We are all in different categories which means you can vote for more than one of us. Take a look at the other local nominees and vote for them as well 😉

Shop SE19 was founded in 2019 to formalize the links between local independent businesses in Crystal Palace. ShopSE19 has grown to offer much-needed peer support to local independent businesses, help them weather the storm during the height of the pandemic and to promote and increase the profile of our local high streets. Vote for ShopSE19 here.

Craft & Courage has just celebrated its 5-year anniversary in Crystal Palace and like many hospitality businesses soldiered on during the many different phases of lockdown. Craft & Courage did this by partnering with local food businesses and launching new products. Their latest venture is an in-house gin distillery producing Antenna Gin with their own botanical family recipe. Vote for Craft & Courage here.

Haven Wellness is a shop, apothecary and suite of therapy rooms height of lockdown in 2020 and has rapidly gained a following, offer wellness products. Vote for Haven Wellness here.

Since January we have been working with Kings College students to help design a research project to enable us to understand in more detail the triggers in anxiety caused by using technology and in particular around online safety.

We can all feel uneasy when we‘re faced with something new or there is something we don’t quite understand, however we also noticed that our devices themselves or the internet can be even more frustrating or worse.

So what if we were able to dig deep and understand this in more detail and even provide a set of tools helping people to take a step back, think the problem through and use this to build confidence?

Well, that is our plan, and using research gained directly from interviews and surveys from over 100 people we will run a series of ‘Safety Surgeries’ later in the using helping residents overcome some of these challenges by sharing experience and small group activities.

The Civic Challenge was an opportunity to bring this idea to life and lean upon the expertise of students in this field. A HUGE thanks goes to Cristian Escudero for leading on this project at Kings College and we are excited to see where this will take us.

It was also a perfect moment for our Programme Coordinator for Community Tech Support, Eve Miller-Biot, getting this over the line after recently becoming full time with us.

Watch this space!

Exciting times to be making new connections and never more so than to extend our work into the neighbouring borough of Bromley.

This is something we have been slowly working on the background and getting to understand the needs of the community.

With a combination of grant support from both the BTSE Innovation fund  and the London Community Foundation Bromley Community Fund we will be delivering a combination of different sessions throughout the rest of the year.

We start by launching our first Bromley Community Tech Support drop-in at Anerley Town Hall, every Monday 11.00-13.00 from 16^th May. We have also set dates for our Community learning program as well as some of our Mobile Phone Boot Camps.

We are already talking to various partners within Bromley to provide another drop-in as well as to extend our hand to support other organizations with digital training and volunteers. The support so far from Bromley Well had been outstanding (thank you Nicola and Sue!) as well from Crystal Palace Community Trust.

You can see everything we have coming up in Bromley here and will keep this updated as and when new dates are announced.

Changing times ahead as we confirm our Community Tech Support Drop-in schedule for the Spring. 

We have some new partners for this project which we have been working on in the background as well as bringing our work to new communities. 

Community Tech Support provides friendly & informal drop-in support for computers, tablets & mobile phones. We can help you use your device, ensure it is safe and help you develop your skills.  

We can also help to set up or recover accounts, install apps or transfer files. 

“A place to get support, quietly practice or ask for advice.” 

Due to the planned refurbishment at the Platform Café in Loughborough Junction we will now be working alongside the fantastic Healthy Living Platform in their new home in the Moorlands Community Centre. 

We will be providing Community Tech Support there every Thursday at 10.00 from the 12th May. 

Directions can be found here. 

Next up we will also be starting weekly drop-ins every Monday 11.00-13.00 from the 16th May at the Anerley Town Hall. This is something we have been working on for a little while now and is part of a broader programme we are about to launch in Bromley. 

The complete schedule of Community Tech Support can be found here. 

So does this sound familiar?

“Nani, I showed you that last week, for the tenth time, why cant you remember?”

Or how about this?

“I can’t right now, I’m busy”

Or how about?

“It’s really easy, why don’t you understand it?”

For many older people looking to family members for advice or help with their mobile phone or laptop this is exactly what they hear.

However, in turn, we hear:

“The younger generation go too fast, they do not have time for us”

And

“We are not stupid, we have learned complicated things, we just don’t understanding this bit and we are being forced to use it”

As well as

“This technology business is the future but we don’t know where to start”

All of this can make you stressed and when you are stressed it’s hard to concentrate and learn new things.

So we created the Mobile Phone Boot Camp; an opportunity for older people to go right back to basics and learn fundamentals such as changing settings, checking email, using maps or installing apps whilst practicing in small groups.

Even better, helping each other!