Doncaster Council
Doncaster Council is the local council of Knowledge pool and has supported our organisation from inception through referrals and links to pieces of training and resources. In 2020 Doncaster sponsored the digital capability support initiative of Knowledge Pool through the Covid-19 fighting back funding. This project saw KP create a digital guidebook titled ‘’Getting Started with Digital Devices’’. 200 copies were distributed across the Doncaster area to support individuals connect to their families during the Covid-19 pandemic period. The guidebook provides information on using digital devices from a digital novice perspective. Another initiative of Knowledge Pool ‘’Smart Buddies’’ was sponsored by the Doncaster Council (through the Local Solution Investment) in collaboration with the Community Fund and Craig Macdonald Digital Leaders Award (please provide a hyperlink with Smart buddies that will open to the page for it on the website)
Online Centres Network
A social movement with a shared vision. Brought together by Good Things Foundation, the Online Centres Network is made up of thousands of grassroots organisations like Knowledge Pool (Centre ID800594), all working to tackle digital and social exclusion by providing people with the skills and confidence they need to access digital technology. Knowledge Pool got funded by Google.org through the Good Things Foundation to deliver a project tagged ‘’Make it Click’’. Over 100 people gained access to free digital training and online resources to build digital competency through this funding.
Polypipe
One of Europe’s largest and most innovative manufacturers of piping, underfloor heating and energy-efficient ventilation. The apprenticeship and career fair organised by Knowledge Pool was sponsored by Polypipe in 2020. This saw young people and their parents from all over the UK in attendance. Speakers from Sheffield Hallam University, Lloyds Banking Group, BT Doncaster Chamber of Commerce, and the Mayor of Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones gave presentations on the value of apprenticeships and learning on the job. This initiative aims to encourage the participation of young people, especially females and children, from BAME in the apprenticeship scheme.
community Fund
Digital Capability Training to support people with no/low digital knowledge in our community. These people include people from low-income backgrounds, the elderly, asylum seekers, parents’ home schooling, etc. Knowledge Pool offers supports like pieces of training, devices set up, and digital guide books. Over two hundred people had benefitted from this opportunity.
FutureDotNow
Knowledge Pool received a donation of digital tablets from FutureDotNow in 2020 with internet access to give away to members of the community who couldn’t afford them during the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 10 tablets were distributed.
South Yorkshire Community Foundation (SYCF)
Funding for digital training and our second guidebook titled ‘’Getting Started with Online Meetings.’’ This guidebook provides top-to-bottom information on how to have meetings online using applications like ‘’Zoom’’ From App download to setting up a meeting and security settings. It has supported over a hundred people who need to join or create an online meeting.
Lloyds Banking Group
The Lloyds Banking Group digital capability funding helped improve the quality of our training by allowing us to purchase equipment like cameras, webcams, and headsets to deliver better training. It also allows us to make a significant investment in our customer relationship management system. We now have a proper customer database that we can use to find people connect them with us, and then help us get them set up on our learning platform. We also have new marketing capabilities, such as measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns
This funding was given to help us develop our platform. It has supported us in creating a new website with a search engine optimization that has helped us reach more people and make our website more user-friendly. It also provided the funding to buy equipment like computers to create the media for our training materials and videos and digital tablets for our volunteers.
Community Wealth Builders
We received the barrier buster funding of £500 to sponsor part of the training we run at Age UK Doncaster: 4 sessions. The sessions focused on online safety. We had in attendance six elderly people from age 70-80. They were taught how to identify online scams and prevent themselves from them. They learnt about identifying malicious websites and fraudulent messages. They learnt how to block unwanted calls and messages on their digital devices. 100% agreed they felt more confident and safer using their digital devices.
Social Enterprise Exchange Fund