News and views

In our long-held experience we know that getting older people to use computers and the internet is about helping them to unlock the door on the digital world so that they, and the people who support them, can realise its far-reaching potential and fling that door wide open on their own.

The unique beauty of Spring Online is the richness and diversity of the digital taster events which are run by local people for local people, and 2013 is looking to be no exception.

This April, hundreds of events are being held in a variety of venues from Carphone Warehouse and Marks and Spencers stores to housing providers, Age UK branches to libraries, churches to IT centres, coffee shops to community centres, colleges to schools. There are also events for people with visual and hearing impairments.

Members of Putney Methodist Church are getting together with the London Mosque in Southfields this month to hold a cross-faith Spring Online event, designed to help people irrespective of their social background to get online and make the most of the internet.

Leeds Life Skills Centre wants local residents to have a go at getting online as they take part in our Spring Online campaign. The non-profit organisation based at Oldfield Lane Community Centre in Wortley is opening its doors to computer beginners to learn a whole new range of skills, from digital crafting to making your own music CD.

A candle factory near St Albans is one of the most unusual venues for Spring Online this year. Owner Jo Martin is opening up 400-year-old Prae Wood Farm Barn, home of Potters Crouch Candles, to help older people in the area get online.

It’s just four weeks to go until our award-winning Spring Online campaign kicks off. That's still plenty of time to get involved so here are four great reasons why you should definitely hold a free digital taster event for local older people this April:

Just five weeks to go until our Spring Online 2013 campaign kicks off and in this newsletter we're talking about five very excellent reasons why people should get involved this year. There's also a flavour of Spring Online events already registered plus new guides, our Digifest delight, award news and more. It's well worth registering for - just your email address is all we need!

We are delighted to announce that the Digital Unite Trust in association with Carphone Warehouse is now offering grants of £100 to people and organisations who take part in Spring Online 2013 by holding free digital taster events for their local communities.

We are so chuffed to welcome BMI Healthcare as a supporter for Spring Online 2013.

We are delighted to announce that Carphone Warehouse will act as headline sponsor for this year's Spring Online campaign (22-26 April 2013).

It was in 2011 that Home Group, one of the UK’s largest providers of housing and supported housing services, first got involved with Spring Online. With no computers in their sheltered schemes at that time, a manager within their older persons’ service identified the campaign as a great opportunity to begin to bring their residents online.

We are proud to announce that we are working in partnership with Affinity Sutton, one of the largest providers of affordable housing in England, to deliver an innovative and multi-layered digital inclusion programme designed to develop, improve and embed digital skills for residents and staff.

In the first of our newsletters for 2013 we're talking about event registration for Spring Online 2013 which is now open, our free Social Housing Digifest taking place this March, new guides, oh yes, and a visit by our MD to the Palace to receive one's OBE from HRH Prince Charles... Read more here or better still, register for your own copy via our home page.

Emma Solomon, Managing Director of Digital Unite and Founder of Silver Surfers’ Day, was officially given her OBE on Friday 25 January by HRH Prince Charles.

Emma had been named in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2012 and awarded an OBE for services to digital inclusion.

An exciting new opportunity is available to become a Fundraising Intern for the Digital Unite Trust.

The Digital Unite Trust was established in autumn 2011 to help make digital skills available to everyone and to support the work of Digital Unite Limited. This new role will support the work of the Trust through researching, identifying and pursuing fundraising opportunities and would suit someone who is looking to gain valuable and broad experience in charity management and business development.

Digital Unite’s online courses make people feel like they are Digital Champions and give them new ideas and techniques for helping people to get online and stay online, according to a survey among those who had completed the Quick Start course and/or the Digital Champion ITQ.

In our final e-newsletter of 2012 we're talking about our Christmas guides, some most interesting research we recently carried out, Digital Heroes and the last chance to win a Kindle Fire. Why not make it your resolution for 2013 to register your email address so you can receive a copy straight to your inbox?

Enlisting, engaging and training volunteers is one of the main areas organisations and individuals would like funding for so they can continue to help older people to use computers and the internet.

A group of social housing residents aged between 74 and 88 years from Affinity Sutton, one of the largest housing providers in England, were recently helped by Digital Unite to take their first steps to getting online and for some it had a life-changing effect.

We've recently teamed up with myageingparent.com to create an advice guide on how to support older people to get online.

Based on our 16 years of experience in this area our advice is simple:

1) Understand why and how they want to learn

2) Help with the technical set-up

3) Find out what interests them

4) Help them overcome their fears

In this month's newsletter we're talking about Esther Rantzen at our Spring Online Best Event Awards, online polls, linking our guides to other websites and a quick quiz to test your digital savviness. It's well worth a read and so easy to subscribe to - just register your email address via our home page.

With less than 80 sleeps to Christmas (yes, we know) many people’s thoughts turn to shopping but how do you do yours? Well according to our online community nearly 9 out 10 (88%) shop online. Unsurprising perhaps, considering many of our members are engaged and active website users.

More interesting, is the fact that nearly 1 in 10 (9%) doesn’t know how to shop online and just a very few (3%) prefer to choose in person.

On Thursday 27 September 2012 six local organisations from across the UK received awards from Esther Rantzen CBE in recognition of their successful Spring Online events held in April which helped others learn about computers and the internet.

The six winning organisations were:

In September's e-newsletter we're talking about this year's special guest at our Spring Online Best Event Awards 2012, learner feedback on our online courses, national campaigns Get Online Week and Older Person's Day and how we've got a guide for every occasion.

You can take a look here, or why not register to receive our newsletter straight to your in-box every month. It's a right good read!