Advice NI’s vision is of a society of confident, active and informed citizens who know how to access their rights and entitlements. Together with our members, we provide free independent advice on social security benefits, debt, housing, immigration, etc. We support our members by offering training, social policy co-ordination and a case-management system and we support excluded and marginalised people by offering them digital skills training so they can access services and by doing so access their rights and entitlements.
The Digi Money project trains up Digital Money Champions from migrant and refugee communities who speak a language in addition to English. The training covers topics such as the ‘Role of a Digital Champion’, ‘Staying Safe Online’, ‘Engaging & Inspiring learners’, ‘Financial Wellbeing and Planning Delivery in your Community’. Upon completion, each participant commits to delivering 5 hours of digital skills training to their local community on a volunteer basis.
Funding enables us to gain accreditation for the Digital Champion course and deliver it to a further 12 participants. This will have a twofold impact. Firstly, migrant and refugee communities experiencing language barriers and lack of digital and money skills will be better able to get online services, supported by accredited volunteer Digital Money Champions. Secondly, those completing the Digital Champion course will gain accreditation and therefore better access to employment opportunities.