Age UK's Digital Champion Programme 2022-2026

What is the Digital Champion Programme?

The Digital Champion Programme aims to tackle digital exclusion by recruiting and training Digital Champion volunteers, who will support older people to improve their digital skills, as well as providing loan technology to those without access. As our largest ever digital inclusion programme, we will be working with 50 Age UKs/Cymrus to support older people between 2022 and 2026. The programme will be delivered across two cohorts of 25 partners, each lasting 18 months.

The Digital Champion Programme combines four key services to address the common barriers to digital inclusion. Each Age UK/Cymru who is part of this programme will offer these services:

• Digital Champions
• Awareness raising activities
• Digital skills sessions
• Provision of technology and connectivity

Programme outcomes

By 2026, the Digital Champion Programme will have:

• recruited and trained 600 volunteer Digital Champions
• delivered awareness-raising activities to 120,000 older people to inspire and motivate them to get online
• loaned technology to approximately 3,000 older people
• assisted 15,000 older people through digital skills sessions to improve their digital confidence and develop new digital skills.

The outcomes of the Digital Champion Programme are led by the need in the community, balancing both the needs of individuals and those delivering the service. The Digital Champion Programme aims to achieve the following outcomes, both for the older people engaging with the service and for the organisation.

1. Older people will feel more inspired and more motivated to get online.
2. Older people will develop digital skills and confidence and gain longer-term access to technology equipment.
3. Older people will feel less isolated and more socially connected.
4. Volunteer Digital Champions will benefit from increased confidence and skills.
5. Local Age UKs will be better equipped to provide a wide range of high-quality digital support to a greater number of older people.

The Digital Champion Programme model has been tried and tested by Age UK through our previous programmes One Digital, Think Digital, and Connected Age. With our new programme, we have further opportunities to:

• provide loan devices and connectivity to people who would otherwise not have access
• provide support over a longer period of time
• focus some of the delivery on reaching and supporting older people who are at a higher risk of digital exclusion.

Supporting the older people most in need

We know that some older people are more at risk than others when it comes to digital exclusion, and therefore will focus some of our services on supporting those people most at risk. In addition to the 18 areas delivering to the general population of older people in Cohort 1, seven areas are focussing their service on supporting a specific high-risk group to get online.

Whilst the core elements of the programme largely remain the same when working with these high-risk groups, adaptations will likely need to be made to the programme model to make sure it remains accessible and impactful for those most in need. The Digital Champion Programme high-risk services will support older people:

1. with dementia and/or memory loss
2. on low incomes
3. living alone
4. with mobility challenges
5. who are housebound.

Find a Digital Champion Programme near you – general group

• Age Cymru Dyfed 
• Age UK County Durham
• Age UK Devon 
• Age UK Gloucestershire 
• Age UK Hammersmith and Fulham 
• Age UK Herne Bay and Whitstable 
• Age UK Isle of Wight 
• Age UK Lambeth 
• Age UK Lancashire 
• Age UK Leicester Shire & Rutland 
• Age UK Lindsey 
• Age UK Milton Keynes 
• Age UK Norfolk 
• Age UK Nottingham & Nottinghamshire 
• Age UK Redbridge, Barking & Havering 
• Age UK Solihull
• Age UK Wakefield District 
• Age UK West Sussex, Brighton & Hove