On Friday 22nd January, 10am, Sheffield City Council is hosting a Digital Inclusion Summit’ for an action focused conversation to explore how we can take a coordinated, city-wide approach to address the digital divide in Sheffield.

The Summit intends to build on all of the good work that is already happening in this area, and seeing how we might join it up or do more of it. And residents are greatly encouraged to sign-up – and so far over 150 people have booked their place. 

Although the digital divide is not a new issue, we know that Covid has massively exacerbated the impact of it on those people in Sheffield who are already digitally excluded. We also know that there are significant issues with digital access and skills across the city, often massively correlated with other deprivation indices. The third lockdown, particularly with mass school closures, has also highlighted the challenges faced by families who need to access the internet for work or school.

Councillor Terry Fox, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Lead for Finance, Governance, Resources:

“This isn’t just about devices as we know, this is also about skills and connectivity and we want to understand what we are already doing across the city, what we can do collectively to help address these challenges in Sheffield and what resources we might be able to bring to this agenda as a collective.

This has never been more important, so I really hope you will be able to join me for this initial conversation. You can get your free ticket at the Eventbrite page  and further joining information will be added there prior to the session”

The event link is: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/working-together-to-remove-the-digital-divide-in-sheffield-tickets-136000494139