Ten years of getting Dorset online

Dorset Council’s volunteer digital champion service is ten years old and to celebrate is holding a ‘get online’ roadshow.

During national ‘Get Online’ week (16-20 October) the council’s volunteers will be manning stalls in Sherborne, Bridport, Wool and Wimborne and anyone needing help to navigate the digital world are urged to come along.

The volunteer digital champions will be able to answer any questions people have and visitors will also get the chance to try out some tablets and take part in fun interactive quizzes.

And everyone who visits one of the volunteer digital champion stalls will be able to enter a free draw with the chance of winning a tablet of their own.

Dorset Council’s portfolio holder for Corporate Development and Transformation, Cllr Jill Haynes, said: “Providing ten years of digital help to thousands of our residents is a huge achievement and testament to the dedication and hard work of all our volunteers.

“When we set up the service in 2013 it was difficult to imagine just how quickly technology would evolve.

“The pandemic escalated things further and we are all now living in a predominately digital world.

“We must never lose sight of the fact that there will be people who find the fast pace of change difficult, and the services of our volunteers have never been needed more.

“I’d like to thank every single one of them for the valuable work they are doing in helping Dorset’s residents to get, and stay, online.”

The volunteer digital champion service was set up in 2013 when Dorset Council’s Superfast team realised that rolling out broadband to people was not enough to get people online.

With take-up figures of the new Superfast broadband lower than expected, the team realised that some people needed to be motivated and supported to take up the new technology now at their disposal.

And the volunteer digital champion scheme was born.

Initially set up with the help of Skills and Learning, the first few digital champions were recruited and based in some of the council’s libraries to provide face to face support to people needing help.

Since then, the army of volunteers grew and there are now 45 digital champions based at 39 locations across the county – from Verwood in the east to Lyme Regis in the west; and from Weymouth in the south to Gillingham in the north.

And in the last decade they have helped around 15,000 people in their face-to-face appointments and a further 3,500 over the phone since the Digital Hotline was launched in 2020.

The volunteer digital champions’ Get Online roadshow has been sponsored by Blandford-based Wessex Internet.

Wessex Internet’s CEO, Hector Gibson Fleming, said: “We are delighted to support this event and Dorset Council’s fantastic volunteer digital champions.

“As a Dorset based rural broadband provider, we are proud to sponsor an initiative such as this, that is helping so many residents across the county.

“While we are rolling out our full fibre broadband network to local homes and businesses, we appreciate support is needed if everyone is to reap the rewards that a high-speed connection has to offer.

“We would urge anyone who wants to find out more about getting online and using the latest technology, to come along to one of these roadshow events or book an appointment with their nearest volunteer digital champion.”

The Get Online roadshow will be part of Sherborne’s popular Pack Fair on Monday 16 October, with a stall in The Digby Hall from 10am to 12.30pm.

It then moves to Bridport on the Wednesday (18 October) for market day. The Get Online volunteers will be available in the town’s library from 10am to 12.30pm.

On the Thursday (19 October), the Get Online crew will be joining fellow stall holders at the Wool indoor market held at The D’urbeville Centre. They will be there from 10am to 11.30m.

And finally, it’s off to another indoor market for the last day of the roadshow when the Get Online roadshow finishes at the Allendale Centre in Wimborne on Friday (20 October) from 10am to 12.30pm.

Anyone who cannot make the roadshow events can find out where their nearest volunteer digital champion service is by calling the Digital Hotline on 01305 221048.