News Articles

Advice NI Calls for urgent action to combat digital exclusion and protect vulnerable communities.

Advice NI is seeking to recruit volunteers from rural communities to deliver on a LINK funded project. As part of LINK's access to cash activities, LINK wishes to support and encourage digital inclusion in the UK, including through initiatives with selected groups and individuals.

Advice NI have partnered with SENAC to deliver a tailored Digital Skills programme for parents of children with additional needs.

Northern Ireland has the highest rate of non-internet users on these islands at 14.7% (Office of National Statistics, 2021. Digital 2021: Ireland).

Advice NI, in partnership with the Special Educational Needs Advice Centre (SENAC), plan to support carers of children with learning difficulties to become more digitally included enabling them to engage with policy and decision makers and to access their rights and entitlements. Funded by the Department of Health, this project will support carers to learn the digital skills to go online safely and to access their rights and entitlements. We will be sharing more updates on this project in our next edition of Advice Matters.

We are delighted to launch our latest training brochure which is packed with lots of new and exciting courses and training programmes.

Aimed at older peoples’ groups province wide, ‘Managing Your Money Better’ talks are funded by Comic Relief and delivered by Outreach Worker John Bradbury.

The talks are free, last about forty five minutes and cover a range of topics including: budgeting, maximising your income, dealing with debt, saving, borrowing and credit and avoiding scams.

‘I also give people some additional information, benefits information and contact details within Advice NI for further free advice.

‘So far, we have reached over 1,000 people with almost half living in rural isolated areas. The talks are aimed primarily at people over sixty and over 350 people reached are aged over 75.

‘I usually find people are most interested  in benefits uptake and avoiding scams. As an organisation, we are delighted to provide as much help and information as possible,’ added John.

So far, community groups, womens’ groups and churches have been amongst the venues visited.

More talks are planned for late Winter and Spring. If you would like a contact, please contact John.

Advice NI has proved that technology isn’t just for the young. The organisation has just won an all-Ireland award for its older person’s digital inclusion project, Supporting Active Engagement, which is funded by Big Lottery Fund.

Volunteers' Week is an annual celebration of the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated group of volunteers who work on the Supporting Active Engagement project.