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Tottenham community group wins grant to tackle digital poverty

Code1 Community Group is one of 20 grantees selected to receive multi-year funding
By Olivia Opara

Daniel Thomas via Unsplash
Daniel Thomas via Unsplash

A Tottenham community group has received a £15k grant to tackle digital poverty.

Today (Thursday, 8th December) Code1 Community Group is set to receive grant funding from the national charity UK Youth and the international legal practice Osbourne Clarke. Code1 will receive £15k across three years to improve digital skills and access for young people in the area and is one of 20 grantees chosen to benefit from Osborne Clarke’s grant funding to create long-term and sustainable digital accessibility. 

Code1 provides tailored support for Black communities across Tottenham and Enfield through community projects and arts-based enrichment activities. It runs weekly a after school programme for young people and works with Haringey council, local schools and Pupil Referral Units. 

Bevali Mckenzie, the CEO of Code1, said: “Demand for digital training, devices and digital inclusion is high in our community. This grant will ensure that young people and their families get the digital support needed to keep them up to date with technology and advance their future prospects.”

With this funding, Code1 plans to continue running its workshop and podcasting programmes and purchase laptops to loan out to young people to access their educational requirements. It also plans to get digital training for its youth workers and volunteers and to host digital learning sessions for families. 

In 2021, the Digital Youth Index found that 2.1 million young people in the UK were at risk of becoming ‘digital castaways’ and that almost a third of young people had no access to home broadband. To combat this, Osbourne Clarke has committed half a million pounds to supporting UK Youth in addressing the lack of digital skills and resources for young people in “digital coldspots”.  

Bola Gibson, the head of inclusion and corporate responsibility at Osborne Clarke, said: “As a business, we ultimately benefit when young people are better prepared to enter the workforce. So we feel investing our resources in our local communities to help young people develop their digital skills, which will set them up for the future, is the right thing to do.”


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