UWE Bristol donation helps boost digital skills

UWE Bristol has supported a homeless charity’s digital skills programme with a donation of laptops.  

The donation of 25 laptops were used to support St Mungo’s, one of the South West’s biggest homelessness charities, in their Game Changers Digital Inclusion programme, which aims to develop its participants’ digital skills to improve access to jobs.  

Low digital capability is one of the biggest barriers facing homeless people in their journey to employment, with 8% of the UK population having no basic digital skills (Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2018). 

Alexandra Henden, Regional Fundraising Partnership Coordinator at St Mungo's said: "We are very thankful to UWE for the donation of the laptops to our clients and Digi Local for adding in the operating systems. 

“Around 25 of our clients will be using these reused laptops to gain and develop their digital skills to aid them in completing necessary forms, searching for suitable employment and connecting with others. This would not be possible without the kind donation and goodwill of our partners locally in Bristol.” 

The partnership was set up by a graduate team at Turner and Townsend working on a project to link used tech to charities. The laptops, previously used by UWE staff, were being wiped of data before being donated to support the circular economy.  

Joanna Dainton, Head of Circular Economy and Responsible Consumption at UWE, said:  

“Supporting St Mungo’s with reused devices from UWE Bristol is a key action in our Circular Economy Plan, and one we are very proud of. St Mungo’s do incredible work in Bristol and knowing our donated tech will be used to help people learn digital skills is a fantastic use of resources.”