Include-IT Mersey

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New ‘Include-IT Mersey’ project aims to get people online. It offers IT skills training and employment support for local, unemployed people, especially those aged 45 and over.

Include-IT Mersey is a new project, jointly funded by the European Social Fund and the Big Lottery Fund as part of its 2014-2020 Building Better Opportunities Programme.  The project will provide a personalised package of support to digitally excluded residents of the Liverpool City Region that are out of work to help improve their IT and online skills, confidence in using and practical access to digital technologies and, ultimately, support them towards and into employment.

The project will be delivered by a partnership of 23 not-for-profit and public sector partners spanning the six boroughs of Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, Halton and Wirral, with specific target areas in each borough.

Led by Sefton CVS, in collaboration with VOLA Consortium members, local Housing Associations and Local Authorities, this innovative multi-agency partnership is founded on partners that really care about their local communities.  It will ensure that those in need of support to help develop their IT skills, access to online services and digital technologies will receive the best possible service, whatever their starting point.  In addition to IT skills development, assistance will include employability and personal skills development to support people into or closer to employment.

Angela White, Chief Executive of Sefton CVS said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this funding and it is an honour to be leading such an innovative partnership, spanning the voluntary, public and social housing sectors.

“The online agenda is increasingly prevalent in people’s every day lives and can present an additional barrier to those people that are not online, not just in terms of their employment prospects and access to job opportunities, but in their private and social lives too. Developing IT skills and getting online can open up a whole new world to people in many different ways!  We very much look forward to working with our partners to offer this vital service to across the city region and to make a real difference to local people and communities”.

Find out more and sign up to receive updates at www.includeitmersey.org.uk.