The 2012 TalkTalk Digital Heroes

The TalkTalk 2012 Digital Heroes Awards have taken place and the winners have been announced. This is the sixth year that Citizens Online has worked with TalkTalk on the Digital Heroes Awards and our Chief Executive, John Fisher, once again performed the role of Master of Ceremonies.

The UK’s Digital Hero for 2012 is Claire Sutcliffe, who founded Code Club, a nationwide network of volunteer-led after school coding clubs for children aged 9-11. There are now over 300 Code Clubs across the UK, all run by professional programmers who volunteer their time. Claire plans to use the grant to improve their website and expand the network of clubs even further.

There were two outstanding finalists in the new category of Young Digital Hero – May Gabriel, who founded the It’s OK campaign to tackle the stigma around depression, and Elliot Massey, who started an online information service for buses in Torbay. After much deliberation, the award went to May Gabriel, with a special commendation for Elliot.

Congratulations to all those who took part.

Successful Team Away Days

Great team away days last week - all of our project staff from across the UK came together for two days to network, share best practice and learn new skills. We had sessions on capacity building, project planning, time management and social media (to name but a few). It was also a great opportunity to meet our new trustees (some vast experience there) and to meet John Perkins from BT, who kindly gave up some of his annual leave to join in and meet the team.

 

 

 

Welcome

Welcome to the Citizens Online projects blog. Citizens Online is a national charity that was set up to tackle the issues of digital exclusion, to make sure that the Internet is available to everybody and to help individuals and communities understand and gain the benefits of being online.

The Get IT Together programme promotes digital inclusion amongst disadvantaged communities.
The approach involves a 3-year community development process, managed by a full time Project Coordinator. Get IT Together has been established in 15 locations across the UK, through a national partnership involving BT, Citizens Online and the Nominet Trust, along with 21 key local partners.

This blog will highlight the digital inclusion achievements we have made and challenges we face in the communities we work in.