These Community Impact Awards conjure up some incredible stories.

The fish & chip shop that became a digital champion.

A basic computer class taking people on incredible journeys.

Sex-workers saved by a mobile APP.

Our Community Impact Award sees us delve into worlds where digital technology is having an amazing impact in some unlikely places.

Taylors/Starting Point

Surrounded by empty shops, in a run down 1960’s shopping centre in Stockport, Taylors, a family run fish and chip shop, knew something needed to change. Feedback from the community and staff told them that people were desperate for more learning opportunities and help with computer skills.

So, they decided to create a learning centre and digital café called Starting Point. Our winner in 2011, it breathed fresh life into the area. The project inspired different generations of the community to get online and come together over a coffee.

The transformative social enterprise helped change the community for the better, tackling issues like loneliness, unemployment and community inclusion.

The Stroke Survivors Group

A chance visit by two friends to a library inspired another of our winning projects.  One of the friends had suffered a stroke. The other thought a computer class could help him practice his fine-motor skills.  The outcome has been inspiring.

It quickly became apparent that this class could have much wider benefits than just learning computer skills. So, they established the Stroke Survivors Group, which ran a weekly computer class. It quickly grew and was helping people in ways no one had imagined.

Strokes can often leave people feeling debilitated and isolated, struggling to rebuild their confidence and self-esteem. The computer class was helping people regain their confidence, talk and laugh again.

As a result of winning our Tech4Good Award in 2011 and traveling to London, one stroke survivor regained his confidence to travel. He now spends his weekend cycling around Cornwall and Devon.

Safetynets/Ugly Mugs

There are 80,000 sex-workers at risk of violence in the UK. They are less likely to report crimes and therefore at greater risk from serial offenders, who think workers won’t report the crimes.

In 2015, a mobile phone App called SafetyNets won our Community Impact Award. It was developed to allow sex workers to alert each other, in real-time, of any dangerous men in the area.

It’s shifting some of the power back to the sex-workers in those communities. As well as giving descriptions and locations of possible offenders to other sex-workers, the information is also sent to the police.

Powerful community tech stories to share

For more information on how to enter the Community Impact Award check our website.