Bristol Wireless Wiki - Wireless St Pauls

This is a project to connect people in the immediate vicinity of Halston Drive to our wireless network.

Due to the nature of the project participation is by invitation only. We will be contacting people directly who are eligible.

Project participants will be offered a reconditioned computer (normal resale price £50) and 1 year's internet access through our wireless network.

The wireless network will help to give people access to information about a range of services offered by the council or voluntary sector. It will mean, for example, that more people can access online portals such as the http://www.stpaulsunlimited.org.uk website.

The aim of the project is demonstrate the social impact that these types of projects can have on involving digitally excluded people, helping people find jobs, learning and social inclusion in an urban/inner city region. The target groups are:

older people;
families in poverty;
adults with mental illness;
teenage parents/teenagers with an above-average risk of pregnancy;
adults supporting children in care.

We will ask project participants to complete the First time online assessment that is offered by UK Online; this will allow us to advise people about what further training is appropriate. We also expect project participants to undertake further online learning. We will be supporting the home-based learning with regular home visits.

If you are completely new to computers, then please try the beginner's guide from the BBC.

Work already done

We are part-way through a project in the Halston drive area. Everyone in the coverage area has had a visit or a letter offering a free computer and internet connection for a year. Each household that takes part in the project takes part in a on-line skills assessment, and takes part in four hours of structured one to one training. So far we have connected 12 households as part of the structured training program. Of these 4 households are of Afro- Caribbean descent, six have been of Somali descent and one has been Caucasian. Approximately 19 adults have benefited. Approximately 21 children and young people live in these households. The children now have access to word processing, educational games, and access to the internet (controlled by their parents). In addition to the families who have been connected with a free computer 29 additional users connect using their own equipment (laptops). In total 69 people have directly benefited.

This project has been funded by UFI (learning and skills council) We have enough budget to connect approximately another 15 households in the area which we will be doing over the coming months.

Why this approach

When we undertake training in peoples homes we try to involve the whole family in learning. We often find that parents are keen to find out more about the educational potential of the internet.

Why it is important

Educational attainment in St Pauls is lower than it should be. Put simply PC's in the home translates into better grades at GCSE and A level.

“In our tests of PC ownership on six types of educational outcomes, we find evidence of a positive, statistically significant, association between ownership of a PC and the number of GSCE grade A*-C and also the number of A level passes, conditional on a variety of individual, household and area characteristics. More weakly, the frequency of PC use appears to be correlated with positive educational outcomes at age 16. We also find that ownership of other household assets that could proxy household wealth, such as cars, dryers, and dishwashers generally does not have the same effects on educational attainment as PCs.” http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0625.pdf

Taking part in the project

Please check InfoStPaulsParticipants if you would like to take part

As part of the project we have also created a free-to access wireless mesh in the area; StPaulsMesh

Feedback

390025 - Bob- I have enjoyed having access to the internet. I mostly use the BBC website but have also been shown how to search using Google.

390026 - Nimo - It is a really useful scheme. It has given me a good idea of some skills that I can work on, and importantly has given me the means to improve them too.

390027 Matthew Holker - Having the internet at home has been useful to access my bank accounts online at my leisure. I am not a big user of the internet, but I have also used it to keep in touch with my father via email as he is abroad at the moment. It is extremely useful to have the access at home.

390028 - Hen - thanks very much for helping me get online at home - i use the connection for bank info and bbc and research for work and daughter's homework. I hope you can continue to get more people online in the same way.

390029 - Wes - It has a been useful scheme - I now have a email address which I did not have before. I have been able to use it as part of a course that I am now doing. Wikipedia has been recommended to me a a really useful resource and I am glad that I will be able to use it for research.

My confidence with using the internet has improved and it's good to have access to all the information when I need it.

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Mohamed - Having access to the internet has been useful to me because I have been able to look up how to do email and web-browsing. The skills assesment has been good for me and I have identified that i would like to do a written Enlish coures now.

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