Digital Hubs

Overview

Connecting Cambridgeshire is seeking applications from community groups and organisations to enable Digital Hubs across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. We will be supporting applicants  by providing small grants of up to £4,200 to procure connectivity solutions and digital devices to be used in their spaces by the public, and provide the local community with access to digital skills and confidence.

These hubs aim to ensure holistic digital inclusion support can be delivered locally, through trusted partners, with established relationships within their communities.

If you are interested in becoming a Digital Hub, look at our eligibility criteria and fill in our application form, which is linked in the resources section below.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to receive a grant to become a Digital Hub, the applicant must:

• Own/manage a community space that is publicly accessible
  
• The community space must have the capacity to be open to the public for a prescribed number of hours per week for digital inclusion support (this must be a reasonable availability and can be discussed between the recipient and Connecting Cambridgeshire)
  
• The community space must not be too near to an existing public service providing similar support (e.g. a Cambridgeshire Library), it is up to Connecting Cambridgeshire as the funding provider to monitor this
  
• The recipient must have the capacity to contract between themselves and a connectivity service provider directly – we will provide the funding, but the contract will solely exist between the recipient and the service provider
  
• The recipient must have the capacity to buy, store, and maintain a number of digital devices to be made available for community use during the hours made available for digital inclusion support (we can help advise what devices might be most appropriate for certain target audiences/user groups)
  
• The recipient must have a single point of contact who has the capacity to become a ‘Project Manager’ on the Digital Champions platform, so that staff and volunteers can become Digital Champions and access the relevant support and resources to help them deliver digital inclusion skills & confidence support to the community using the hub (we can provide more information on what this would entail). 
  

If you don’t meet all of the eligibility criteria but believe that becoming a ‘Digital Hub’ would positively impact your community, please get in touch to discuss your situation further.

Additional Information

If you want to become a Digital Hub, you will need to complete the application form, which is attached below. Applications will be assessed by a panel consisting of Connecting Cambridgeshire officers, County Council officers, and local partners. If successful, applicants will receive an ‘Award Letter’ outlining the maximum amount of grant money they could receive and then will be asked to complete the next stage of the process. This includes completing, signing and returning the ‘Acceptance Letter’, which will include what the grant is to be used for, how the monitoring and evaluation processes will work, and how we can support them.

Connecting Cambridgeshire will be working with successful applicants to monitor the delivery of the Hubs on an ongoing basis to learn how the grant is being used,  and the impacts experienced by their local communities.

We will also be conducting a final impact evaluation using the information gathered from the Digital Hub administrators to better understand the overall impact of the scheme.  

Additionally, we are currently offering successful applicants the opportunity to benefit from access to the National Digital Inclusion Network and  the Digital Champions platform, which will provide staff and volunteers the support and resources to help them deliver digital inclusion skills and confidence to those who attend a Digital Hub.

Resources

Please use the link below to download the Guidance, Application Form and Conditions of the grants:

• Application Guidance, Application Form and Conditions of Grant

The road to becoming a digital hub

There are six steps involved, and we’ll help to guide you through the process:

1. Apply: Fill out the application form to become a digital hub.
2. Review: A panel from Connecting Cambridgeshire will assess your application.
3. Award: If successful, you’ll get an ‘Award Letter’ with details of the grant amount.
4. Accept: Sign and return the ‘Acceptance Letter’ agreeing to the grant conditions.
5. Monitor: We’ll work with you to keep track of how the hubs are doing and help you set up your own monitoring processes.
6. Evaluate: We’ll do a final impact evaluation based on your ongoing monitoring and evaluation activities.

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