Powering Up: Progress and learning report
This interim learning report is sharing learnings and insights against the seven recommendations for national impact, seven months into the Power Up initiative.
Power Up is a pioneering new approach to funding social impact, embedding digital confidence, motivation and skills within social interventions for jobs and skills, financial health and small business support. This interim learning report is sharing learnings and insights against the seven recommendations for national impact, seven months into the Power Up initiative. It also describes how the 15 Power Up projects in England and Scotland have been working to drive positive social and economic change for individuals and their communities, most recently against the backdrop of Covid-19.
With the financial support of the J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation, and delivered by Good Things Foundation in England and Scotland, Power Up aims to break new ground, using digital to address economic inequality and creating new practice that can inform policy and programme design across all sectors.
Underpinned by dedicated research into demand for digital skills and its interaction with social and economic exclusion, Power Up began in November 2019 following a process of application, assessment and grant award. Delivered in Bournemouth, East London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, it focuses on areas of high deprivation, working on the ground through 15 local projects to drive positive economic and social change for individuals and their communities.
In the new context of Covid-19, the aims and ambition of Power Up are more urgent and relevant than ever.
The programme seeks to:
- Power Up People – by building digital confidence, so that people are motivated to learn and keep on learning, and apply digital skills in their lives, businesses and at work.
- Power Up Places – by connecting local organisations, service providers and others to provide individuals, businesses and communities with the joined up support they need to thrive.
- Power Up Provision – by improving what is already offered by embedding digital into existing programmes so that digital skills support is not siloed or ‘bolted on’, drawing on what is already known about effective support, to improve tangible outcomes for individuals.