Include Digitally - Developing Digital Skills in Disadvantaged Groups

<< Background >>The proposal was written 2.5 years ago in the second year of the pandemic. It was a time when we had to face lots of social and community challenges among our target groups. Disadvantaged groups (eg. the deaf community, disabled youth, rural youth, people with heavy care loads, low-income women, digitally unskilled ageing individuals etc.) were often in a very difficult situation both economically and socially after nearly two years of lockdowns, illnesses, economic hardships and increased social exclusion. Our aim with the DigInclude project was to set up a European learning structure and ecosystem to support the already-mentioned target groups in digital inclusion, digital literacy and wellness, labour market situation and social inclusion in the IT transition. Also, we felt the need for an Eastern European and a Western European country to join forces and experience about digital inclusion to improve European cohesion in general, and in relation to (digitally) disadvantaged target groups, too. Both partners, being new to Erasmus+, we felt that a digital inclusion-related adult learning project could have a huge positive impact on the partners and the target groups as well.<< Objectives >>Our objectives were:- To create a dedicated adult learners' community of Hungarian and Dutch people, in which ongoing dialogue, long-term community learning, and co-created, progressive community initiatives can be born.- To support young disadvantaged individuals to improve their digital skills, literacy and wellness in order to support their employment success in a digital world.- To strengthen the long-term, strategic cooperation between SignCoders and HCAF around digital wellness, that is inclusive to all members of the communities around these organisations.We also wanted to create a learning space where the two partnering organisations and our target groups could learn from one another, based on 1) shared experiences of digital exclusion and 2) diversity of skills/solutions available and accessible in the different communities. It was very fortunate that even if both organisations were inexperienced with Erasmus+ projects, the previous digital-inclusion-related experiences of the different organisations and target groups resulted in lots of co-creation and knowledge-sharing. As a result, all parties involved could learn and grow significantly. A strong cooperation and common knowledge base have been developed.<< Implementation >>Activities:1. Developing a network of disadvantaged adult learners2. Upskilling trainings3. Digital literacy and digital wellness trainings4. Dissemination of the project resultsLearning materials, trainings, online and offline events and discussions were held or developed. The learning materials are going to be available after the project as well, and both partners are going to use them in their trainings in the future.<< Results >>SignCodersTwo Software Tester workshop series for people with disabilities Accessibility Tester workshop series for people with disabilitiesTwo training materials in three languages (https://signcoders.hu/digital-knowledge-dissemination/diginclude)Three barrier-free summary videos in Hungarian Sign LanguageDissemination posts on three social media platformsOnline discussion on ‘Technology: blessing or curse?’Online dissemination event for professional helpers and people with disabilities on ‘10 IT careers for disadvantaged groups’Two IRL career guidance dissemination events for hearing-impaired young adultsIRL event for the Deaf Youth on InclusionIRL CV writing workshop for people with disabilitiesTwo university dissemination talks for students of special educationHCAFTraining material in three languages (https://hekate.foundation/digincludeproject/)Online learning space and community (https://osmosiscare.net/groups/en_diginclude/activity/)Dissemination articles and postsDigital inclusion IRL event for the target groups held by HCAF (https://hekate.foundation/2023/08/15/digitalis-inkluzio-szakmai-forum/)Additional concrete outputsStrengthened knowledge base and cooperation between SC and HCAFEmpowerment tra