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LIMA helps residents get online as part of Transform Housing’s digital inclusion project
LIMA has been proud to support Transform Housing on a digital inclusion project that helps young people get online to access the vital support services they need.
Transform Housing support people to reach their goals and live independent and fulfilling lives. They provide housing and support for more than 2,000 people each year in Surrey, West Sussex, Berkshire and south-west London.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, it became increasingly apparent that some of Transform’s residents living in shared accommodation were struggling to access Universal Credit and other online support groups. With job centres and libraries closed, access to online digital services was extremely limited.
Transform successfully secured funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and The Community Foundation for Surrey for a total of £13,600. This funding helped purchase the essential IT equipment to support their residents through this difficult time and into the future.
LIMA’s IT experts set up internet café
LIMA was delighted to work in collaboration with Transform, utilising our partner relationship with Dell to secure the best value deal for 28 laptops and Microsoft Licences, ensuring that we could get as many people online as possible. Our IT experts then helped to set up a secure, internet style café which included being able to limit certain access for users under 18 years.
The laptops needed to be secure for multiple clients to use and be easily remotely managed by the Transform IT Team. LIMA helped ensure that the laptops were securely managed by Microsoft Intune and were configured using Windows Kiosk mode to provide internet café-style access.
Technology changing lives
The laptops were then delivered to eight housing and support service teams across the country including Elmbridge, Woking, Reigate, Farnham, Guildford, Spelthorne, Runnymede and Sutton. From there, they were distributed to 28 shared properties which are home to a selection of Transform’s residents that are most in need of them.
Moving forward, the laptops will be used by people who need to access Universal Credit services (only available online), to make and attend virtual GP appointments and other online support services. They will also offer people the chance to benefit from education and personal development courses, particularly those opportunities that are only advertised online and must be applied for online.
Initially benefitting over 100 socially excluded people, Transform expect these numbers to increase as more residents successfully progress from shared accommodation, greatly helped by using online services.