‘We just didn’t use it’

A study by the Royal Geographic Society identifies five key reasons people aren’t online; lack of skills, suspicions around the morality and safety of being online, a lack of motivation, access barriers including poor connection or disabilities and it just being too expensive.

For housing associations pushing to get tenants online some are easier to address than others. Free IT classes are widely available to address skills barriers, low cost broadband packages and WiFi can be fairly easily provided and putting PCs in public area improves access for those who can’t afford their own kit or connection.

However with a lack of motivation none of this will be effective. In response to a discussion on mobile internet my Great Aunt suggested ‘It’s always been there, in the air, but we just didn’t use it’ and this echoes the situation for most of our digitally excluded customers.

Better than nothing

At the end of September the Refugee Welcome Trust finished the end of it's fifth 'official' year. With a fancy new name; 'Together Now', we're come a long way since we started in July 2010.

Since then we've brought over 53 people travelling on family reunion visas to be with their loved ones who are refugees living in the UK.

That includes 40 children who now have safer more secure futures with their parents. 

We now know that you can bring salted fish with you to the UK in certain conditions and limited amounts, that if you really need one you can find a Tamil speaking taxi driver at Heathrow and that when a family is on their last chance of being together they become capable of pretty much anything asked of them.