Wester’ly to launch new digital inclusion campaign

Wester’ly, a coalition of groups devoted to overcoming the digital divide, will launch their website and new campaign next Wednesday, 26 August. The launch event will be streamed online, marking the culmination of months of work,

Bec Reidy is the Centre Coordinator at Bidwill Uniting, one of the coalition partners in Wester’ly.

“Digital exclusion has been a problem in Australia for years, but COVID has shone a glaring spotlight on the cracks within the digital systems of our society, and exacerbated the existing gap between wealth and disadvantage,” Ms Reidy said.

“A number of organisations who work with disadvantaged communities across Western Sydney experienced and witnessed first-hand the extreme exclusion that was occurring during the first lockdown (and is continuing).”

“We came together to learn from each other and seek solutions in this space for communities being left behind.”

Bidwill Uniting and the Parramatta Nepean Presbytery were also recently successful in getting a $50,000 grant to train up 80 digital mentors across the Parramatta Nepean Presbytery over the next 10 months.

“This is very exciting because it builds on the work that Parramatta Nepean Presbytery and Bidwill Uniting are already doing and aims to train up people who are embedded in their own communities to get alongside people and help them learn digital skills in an effective and sustainable way,” Ms Reidy said.

Wester’ly launch their campaign and website on Wednesday 26 August at 10.30am.

Register for the event via Zoom here ,or tune in to Western Sydney Community Forum’s YouTube channel on the day.