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Background

Your Own Place is a community interest company that supports people into independence to prevent homelessness. We work with all ages across the UK but young people make up a significant proportion of our community. One of the main ways that we help young people is through the ‘Tenancy and Independent Living Skills course’ (TILS+).

The original TILS course we created was very successful in developing core skills for independent living. However, it did not include any content on digital skills or online safety. It became clear to staff delivering the sessions that even when working with young people who grew up surrounded by digital there was still a gap in their digital skills, confidence and resilience that impacted on their independent living skills and opportunities. With support from Carnegie UK Trust, we were able to refine and develop the TILS model into TILS+. This includes new modules specifically on digital skills and safety but it also has digital woven throughout all the other modules. Alongside updating the course materials we were also able to ensure staff delivering the training had the knowledge, confidence and skills to support young people in their digitally independent life.

How the framework has been helpful

The UKCIS digital resilience framework has helped us to review, refine and deliver our work more effectively

A key element of integrating digital into the TILS+ course was applying an understanding of digital resilience into our work and to consider how best we could support people whilst maintaining our unique approach.

We added digital capability questions to our referral paperwork - to give us a better understanding of trainees' confidence and capability prior to an intervention and to enable more productive conversations when we first meet with them. We also added digital inclusion questions to our referral paperwork - so that we now know exactly what access to devices people have and we can tailor our intervention accordingly to help overcome any digital inclusion barriers.

At the other end of our work, we have started tracking ‘digital confidence’ as an outcome. This is included in our reporting to commissioners who have found our insights extremely valuable in developing their own digital support strategies.

The impetus to include digital for trainees also encouraged us to explore, at an organisational level, our digital competence and aspirations. It forced us to ask whether, as a young organisation, we had the capacity, resources and wherewithal to go further. The UKCIS Digital Resilience Framework provided a helpful method for assessing this, a scaffold for creating the new digital modules and for reworking our existing materials. It also allowed our training staff to develop their own digital confidence in a way that aligned with our asset-based, collaborative approach.

We found the digital resilience framework resonates particularly well with the young people we work with. This has led to increased conversations about their digital experiences, their understanding of risk, what they know how to do and what support they have or may need to recover when things go wrong. This has enhanced our own learning and understanding of young people’s digital worlds which feeds back into our wider work.

It allowed our training staff to develop their own digital confidence in a way that aligned with our asset-based, collaborative approach

Digital resilience and independence

The rapid adjustment to remote delivery necessitated by Covid-19 has further increased the need for us to understand and support people's digital resilience.

Many of the individuals we work with are experiencing complex challenges that may make them more vulnerable online. As it is now almost essential to be online in order to access services and not be cut off from friends, family or support - ensuring people are safer and more resilient online as part of their overall independence is increasingly important in our work.

This means recognising and amplifying the positive aspects of being online as well as supporting people with any challenges they face. Through our consultations with the Your Own Place Advisory Board (YOPAB) and the remote delivery of TILS+ we have seen virtual communities form with participants making and sustaining important connections online - something that could support both their independence and digital resilience long term.

What has been learned

digital resilience is an essential part of independence

The framework has been beneficial in our overall digital transition as it provides a clear and evidence-based approach that we can apply to our existing practice. But it also raises important challenges for us as a small, profit for purpose organisation:

People - How do we ensure our volunteer mentors are also digitally resilient and able to support people in their development

Time - Our interventions are short (three days, sometime less) by design and therefore assessing participants' existing digital resilience, signposting them effectively and measuring any impact is not always possible to do in depth - finding ways to measure impact and link our work with others to provide a continuity of approach and support is a challenge

Resources - Whilst we understand the importance of integrating digital resilience and we see the positive impact on the people we work with it can be difficult for those who commission our services to fully appreciate why digital is an essential part of independent living skills and therefore finding the space within existing budgets to do this work can be difficult

We are committed to preventing homelessness by supporting people to be independent - and we now recognise that digital resilience is an essential part of independence. The UKCIS Digital Resilience Framework has helped us to review, refine and deliver our work more effectively in this area. Hopefully commissioning agencies will also see this value too - especially in the post-Covid world.

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