In the Spring Online Best Event Awards 2014 announced at an official ceremony in June, Wigan and Leigh Housing were named Joint Runners Up following their fourth successive year of being involved in the campaign.
Spring Online in association with Carphone Warehouse took place between 31 March and 4 April 2014 and saw hundreds of free internet taster events held right across the UK to help people take their first steps online.
Wigan and Leigh Housing has been running Spring Online events for four years and for 2014 they hired a digital bus which travelled to five different towns helping over 50 local people to get online.
They tied their sessions in with International Book Day, helping learners to download their favourite novels. They also helped job seekers with Universal JobMatch, a job hunting website and creating their own email accounts to support their search for employment.
Mike Ashton, Digital Inclusion Officer for Wigan and Leigh Housing said: “We’ve taken part in Spring Online for the past four years because we’ve found it to be a great and effective hook for our own digital inclusion activities. This year the interest in our digital bus was amazing and 90% of those we helped over the week signed up for future computer sessions. Doing these events brings a great feeling of accomplishment as seeing others learn to use new technology and be inspired to find out more about the internet can’t be beaten.”
The judges chose Wigan and Leigh Housing as Joint Runners Up alongside Get It Together Barnsley because of ‘their creative approach to inspire local people to use and enjoy the internet’.
Next year Spring Online is taking place between 20 – 26 April 2015.