Delivery of the Digital Footprints Social Programme with ExtraCare
At Version 1 we have worked hard over the last 25 years to deliver on three commitments; making a real difference for our customers, building an empowering culture for our people, and growing a strong organisation for the future, that supports and gives back to the communities in which we live and work. This is the Version 1 Difference.
As we adapt to a Digital First world, Version 1 is investing and evolving our Social Value approach to ensure we are making a real difference locally through working closely with our customers to provide community benefit for their stakeholders. Through developing collaborative partnerships that match the industry expertise of Version 1 with the community specialism of organisations from the public and third sector, Social Value are piloting a range of programmes throughout 2021 for our Public Sector customers. In this article, learn about the social value delivered for ExtraCare Charitable Trust.
ExtraCare Charitable Trust provides independent living accommodation to people aged 55+. Through internal surveys, they had identified a need for service users over 75 with little to no experience with technology and the internet to get better connected, particularly in response to COVID. Version 1 were approached by ExtraCare to support the delivery of a pilot programme to allow them to begin meeting the needs of their residents.
Version 1 worked with staff and volunteers at ExtraCare to draft a module outline, recruiting internally to provide technology experts to write and deliver the training and to support the volunteers from ExtraCare to repeat the content independently to create a legacy programme.
The key objectives for this initiative were to be:
- Fast –responding to immediate need for access
- Relevant –content guided by accurate research
- Excellent –matching Version 1 experts with community needs
- Sustainable –a legacy initiative for ExtraCare to continue
Following successful delivery of the pilot, Version 1 were able to work with ExtraCare to adapt the training materials into three modules that ExtraCare will deliver in sites throughout their organisation. Through a working998 partnership, that brought the technological expertise of Version 1 to collaborate with the community specialism of ExtraCare a sustainable digital skills initiative was launched within 2 calendar months.
Shirley Hall: Head of Innovation and Wellbeing, ExtraCare, said:
The collaboration was brilliant, weekly check ins made the process easy and kept the momentum going.
As a result of this engagement, the following highlights were delivered to ExtraCare:
- 5 residents, 2 volunteers, 2 technology experts, and 4 coordination staff
- 42 hours donated by Version 1 staff to improve digital skills for people over 75
- ExtraCare to roll out Digital Footprints –First Steps Safely in multiple sites throughout 2021
About ExtraCare
The ExtraCare Charitable Trust is the UK’s leading not-for-profit developer of housing for over 55s. Since 1988, ExtraCare have operated retirement villages and smaller housing developments around our Midlands base and further south. Today, ExtraCare support older people in 16 retirement villages and 5 housing schemes.
