Ten months of the Challenge

It’s been 10 months since the launch of our first Challenge Fund and since then 58 projects have been supported to help get people online. We’ve also seen organisations use the funds to support their own digital development, boosting organisational capability and putting themselves in a better position to help the people they support. With the launch of round three of the Challenge Fund today, I thought this would be a good time to showcase some of the fantastic work of our current Challenge Fund supported projects. Information on all our fabulous projects can be found here, but to give a wee flavour of Challenge supported digital inclusion activity across Scotland I’ve selected a few as an example. Enjoy! Digital Inclusion through Entrepreneurship Fabulous Flourish House are leading a project to develop IT skills for beginners whilst also improving the organisation’s online fundraising capability. Kitted out with new laptops and an iPad they have embarked on a 7 week IT skills course for beginners. Orkney and Shetland Community Digital Heritage Up in beautiful Orkney and Shetland the Centre for Nordic Studies have launched a wonderful project which teaches people how to use digital technology to capture memories and record local history. Digital Audio and Radio Production Moray Firth Media Trust are doing some great work with prisoners at Inverness Prison, helping them learn digital skills through the medium of digital audio and radio broadcasting. They are also running a radio skills summer school open to anyone interested in developing their digital skills. Connecting and Communicating The lovely folk at the Scottish Council on Deafness used their Challenge funding to improve their organisation's digital infrastructure so they would be better able to communicate with their members, as well as to develop the digital skills of their staff. > If you have an exciting idea for a digital inclusion project but need some funding to get if off the ground then please check out the guidance and criteria for our Challenge Fund round three. The application (online of course!) is open now and closes on the 4^th September.