SocialBox.biz
United Kingdom
As a part of its social impact digital inclusion initiative SocialBox.biz collects disused but still working laptop computers in order …
Good practice
Imported
★ 72
★ 56
★ 52
★ 52
The West Johnstone Digital Inclusion Project
United Kingdom · Local · See the United Kingdom profile
Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 97% 32/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice
This Project commenced in April 2002, and between June and September PCs with broadband internet access were installed in 300 households in the West Johnstone SIP area. They were allocated according to a standard banding system, prioritising young people, the unemployed, lone par
300 households
Households equipped with PC and broadband (2002)
Details
- Maturity
- Discontinued
- Promoter
- Renfrewshire Council — website
- Type
- Service
- Status
- Ended
- Target groups
- Unemployed and those facing social problems, Marginalised young people and children, Elderly people
- Period
- 2002-03-31 – 2005-03-31
- Keywords
- youth strategy, community learning, development, digital inclusion
Context
The Digital Inclusion Project arose from Renfrewshire Council's successful bid to Scotland's Better Neighbourhood Services Fund, targeting four deprived Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP) areas, including Johnstone West, to tackle the digital divide alongside wider social exclusion.
Objectives
Ensure that people already at risk of social exclusion were not further disadvantaged by the digital divide, and create a 'learning laboratory' where residents could trial and help design electronic public services.
Activities
Between June and September 2002, PCs with broadband internet access were installed in 300 households in the West Johnstone SIP area, allocated via a banding system prioritising young people, the unemployed, lone parents, referred schoolchildren, older people and people with disabilities.
Results
The evaluation reported increased skills and confidence in using ICT, increased online access to public information and services, and improved home-school links for participating households.
Implementation
- Indicative cost
- Medium (€50k–€500k)
- Time to results
- Medium (1–3 years)
- Staffing & skills
- Renfrewshire Council's Chief Executive's department, Modernising and Improvement Group and Modernising Government Community Planning Group; a community learning centre delivering local support
Conditions for success
- Local council ownership with dedicated modernising-government governance structures
- Needs-based allocation banding prioritising the most excluded households
- Positioning the project as a 'learning laboratory' feeding back into public e-service design
Commonly funded by
National / regional programmes
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
Replication kit
Reusable artefacts from this practice — as published by their sources.
Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
- MEDICI / Digital Inclusion Atlas — accessed 2026-06-14
- Practice website — accessed 2026-06-14
- Information source — accessed 2026-06-14
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