Who we are
We are Digital NNS, a digital evolution project being run by Northfield Community Partnership (NCP). The project was commissioned by Birmingham City Council’s Prevention & Communities team in the Adult Social Care Directorate. The project builds on NCP’s successful establishment and management of a digital literacy project in two of Birmingham’s constituencies (Northfield and Edgbaston) in partnership with Gateway Family Services and Age UK Birmingham.
Digital NNS aim to identify the digital maturity of each of the city’s 10 Neighbourhood Network Schemes (NNS), one in each constituency, and work with them to maximise opportunities for digital inclusion so that older citizens and citizens with long-term disabilities have access to essential digital tools, tech and services.
Neighbourhood Network Schemes
Community groups
Social workers and social prescribers
In addition to the NNSs, the team also support local community groups and organisations, as well as social workers and social prescribers to build their digital skills and capacity so they feel confident about providing the right digital support to their citizens and communities.
Digital NNS is managed by Pauline Roche, Community Lead, supported by Gena Ng, Admin & Communications Officer. The project is further supported by an independent Project Advisory Group.
Get in touch with your local NNS
If you would like to get in touch with the NNS in your constituency, find their contact details here.
How we can help
We help by giving advice and making recommendations based on what is best for you and your citizens, without being partial to any type of service, technologies or tools.
We also occasionally run webinars on topics that we have identified as the biggest concerns for the organisations we support, such as cyber security, online safety and digital trustees.
We can help you with the following:
- How to set up digital inclusion initiatives, activities, etc
- Signpost to where and how to get free or low-cost digital devices and data
- Recommend providers for digital training and support
- Provide opportunities for collaboration with other VCFSE organisations through our Community Digital Skills Network
- Support the improvement of usage and content on the Connect to Support Community Directory
Other support
We also aim to provide a space and/or forum for NNS teams working on digital inclusion to:
- Identify gaps and ways to feed into Birmingham’s Digital Strategy
- Enable people to access online activities
- Improve the visibility of digitally accessible activities and resources on the Birmingham Connect to Support website
- Provide support for people involved in local Facebook groups or hyperlocal websites
- Develop and share opportunities to access equipment and support the development of citizens’ digital skills and data access
- Help those digitally excluded in our diverse city by working with community groups to identify services