Connecting with Confidence: getting Gemma online
TBBT Member and volunteer, Gemma, took part in the Connecting with Confidence project.
“I've been involved with The Bread and Butter Thing for five or six years. I was here when it started at St. Luke's as a volunteer and as a member. I spend a lot of time helping out but I've had the benefit as well for our household.
“Our hub is very busy. We now have over 400 members. The local community here is a very deprived. In most of our schools between 60 – 80% of children have free school meals.
“This project has already had a lot of impact. We've had people with children doing it to help with their homework. We've had the older members who have no access at all to internet. I only have a phone, so this project was a godsend to me. Having a tablet and getting online properly has honestly changed so much for me and my daughters.
“The class was absolutely amazing. First we learned how to set up the tablet. The device can made video calls. The trainers helped me get that working and showed me how to safely grocery shop online. Because I've been very scared of being scammed of money online. They showed me what to look for - that padlock on the browser. Since then, I've set up Whatsapp so I've made calls to family members who don't live in Wythenshaw.
“The main thing I wanted to be able to do was online shopping because you can get cheaper food as well as shopping around for other stuff. It’s great because I can’t drive a car or carry heavy bags so now I can get deliveries.
“The biggest thing that stopped me before is money. Even the cost of topping up for the internet. And the price of a device that will actually do what you need it to is horrific.”
“Now I use it every day because I use it for reading as well. Every night I video call my friends that I live too far to travel to.
“Having the We Are Digital team here has made a massive benefit to our area. Because we are very isolated and a very poor community. I know this will change so many lives. Watching people’s faces as they come out of the training, you see them happy. And knowing that they don’t have to worry about missing some meals to top up for six months is just amazing healing.
“And having the trainers here and sticking around for a few weeks means that people are going to use it as they can come back and ask questions and the trainer's here to show them or remind them how to do something or which button to click.”