Northamptonshire Sport and Barclays partner to deliver community Covid relief
With the support of Barclays, local charity Northamptonshire Sport is providing new laptops to local school children who currently don’t have access to suitable devices. The grant of 50K is part of a community Covid-19 relief effort, where eleven Northamptonshire schools will receive new laptops to help support those pupils most in need.
In total, 195 laptops have been sourced and delivered with the help of Northampton-based IT company – ACS, who themselves recently supported the #TechTogether campaign by offering their technical expertise to refurbish donated machines. The campaign launched by business publication – All Things Business encouraged people to donate laptops no longer needed to support families with home schooling.
During the lockdowns, Northamptonshire Sport whose mission is to support Northamptonshire residents to ‘get more active, more often’ were forced to find creative ways to carry on with their work. One of the ways the team continued to engage school-aged children was to organise a series of virtual Lockdown Leagues and Virtual School Games, where schools competed to be the most active and logged activities. To participate in these and future digital events, a good quality device is essential. Unfortunately, many families don’t have access to this. With this in mind, the Northamptonshire Sport team looked for ways to help.
By using their existing network of school sports managers and development officers working with schools supporting the delivery of the PE curriculum, Northamptonshire Sport, has been able to quickly identify where the new laptops are needed most. Delivery is set to take place this week.
Chris Homes, Director at Northamptonshire Sport said:
“The acceleration of digitalisation brought about by the pandemic means that access to quality tech items has changed from a ‘nice to have’ to an essential item. We’re in a different place compared to 12 months ago. Some research is showing that society has sped 8 years ahead in how we depend on tech in everyday life.Even as society begins to open up again, there will be a continued dependence on digital platforms, our habits have changed. These laptops will support students in their academic education but also continue to access virtual resources to stay active.I’d like to thank Barclays for their generosity and for supporting the project which will undoubtedly make a big impact in the daily lives of the recipients of the laptops.”
Amanda Allan, Market Director Barclays in Northamptonshire said:
“Whilst the return to classrooms has been hugely beneficial for our children, the digital divide exposed over the last year will not disappear as schools revert to face-to-face learning. Initiatives such as this remain vital, ensuring that children have equal access to the technology required for homework, exam preparation and learning catch-up.“We are proud to be supporting Northamptonshire Sport through our Covid-19 Community Aid Package. It continues our ambition to help people of all ages, in communities across the UK, have the digital skills they need, and to help them stay safe online.”
“I hope others will join us in backing this initiative to ensure all children across the UK have the resources they need to learn.”
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