Bright brand new week for City of Culture 2013 Derry~Londonderry

After the brilliant ‘Sons and Daughters’ Concert in Ebrington at the weekend, marking the beginning of this year's UK City of Culture 2013, where stars of stage and screen with links to Derry city, who have gone on to achieve international acclaim, came together to perform, we’re planning to get our Mums & Dads, Uncles and Aunts, Grandparents etc to come together to share their learning about the benefits of using computers and internet.  We hope that if they are asked at the end of next year if they feel digitally included, they will all be able to ‘Just Say Yes’ as well.  It’s more than a ‘Bright Brand New Day’ for the city, it’s a Bright Brand New Year for the whole of Northern Ireland, to show of the richness and diversity of talents and culture, making all visitors feel very welcome and wanting to come back to explore more.

This week I’ve been following up meetings and arranging new ones to help raise awareness of the Programme and forwarding contact information about the community groups we are working with, promoting new courses and opportunties. 

I’ve also been contacting all of our groups to confirm dates and times of courses for the New Year so that BT Digital Champions know when they're needed to volunteer their skills and expertise.

I’ve also held a train the trainer session in Enniskillen on Wednesday evening, where 5 very enthusiastic community volunteers in Cavanaleck have been trained to deliver our introductory IT sessions. They’ve even identified their first two classes, working with a women’s group and a group of young people. It’s looking like we’re going to have loads more people feeling digitally included over the next few months, if everything goes according to plan. 
 

Another two community connections award applications for free broadband has been submitted and I’m just about to go to another group in Upperlands, Maghera, who’ve been successful in their award to see if there is any other support that I can offer them in helping set up their internet cafe eg providing teaching resources for new learners etc.  I’ll let you know how I get on later!