Slingshot Sponsorship signs Carphone Warehouse as Headline Partner of Award-Winning Spring Online Campaign 22nd January, 2014

After the success of last year’s partnership, Digital Unite has announced that Carphone Warehouse will again act as Headline Partner for Spring Online, one of the UK’s leading digital inclusion campaigns which will run from 31st March – 4th April 2014.

Around 7 million people across the UK have never used the internet, of which just over 6 million are aged over 55 years. Many more can’t do basic online tasks such as send an email or browse the web.

Since 2002, Digital Unite’s Spring Online campaign has sought to inspire people, particularly older people, to achieve a lasting use of the internet by supporting volunteers and organisations to hold hundreds of free internet taster events across the UK.  Last year around 1,000 Spring Online events were held helping over 20,000 people to get online.

The successful partnership between Carphone Warehouse and Spring Online 2013 saw a number of Carphone Warehouse stores actively participate in the campaign with their own Spring Online events.   One store in particular, Carphone Warehouse Billericay , received a Spring Online 2013 Best Event Award for its enthusiasm and commitment to the initiative as the in-store team hosted their event on a Sunday when the store is normally closed.  Such was the success and interest by local people that the Billericay store has continued to remain open one Sunday every month to help more people learn about digital technology.

Kesah Trowell, CSR Lead at Carphone Warehouse said “Getting to grips with technology can be daunting for many older people yet they can have the most to gain, whether it’s keeping in touch with friends and family, internet shopping and banking or finding out about community events and activities. At Carphone Warehouse we’ve been guiding people through the complexities of the connected world for 25 years and are keen to share our knowledge and experience to help combat digital and social exclusion”.

Now in its 13th year, the Spring Online campaign has been instrumental in successfully helping tens of thousands of people make technology a part of their everyday lives and helped even more so through the partnership with Carphone Warehouse.  Carphone Warehouse’s sponsorship of the Spring Online campaign will be administered by Digital Unite’s charitable arm, the Digital Unite Trust.

Judith Graham, Operations Manager for Spring Online said: “We are delighted to have Carphone Warehouse as Headline Partner for Spring Online again this year.  The way the stores took time out from business as usual to get involved in the campaign and effectively meet the needs of local older people was terrific. We’re looking forward to building on these successful foundations with Carphone Warehouse to help even more people in 2014.”


Slingshot Helps Digitally Excluded People to Spring Online 29th April, 2013

On Friday 26 April, Slingshot hosted our very own Spring Online event, “Slingshot’s Online Skills for Beginners.”

Spring Online in association with Carphone Warehouse takes place every year between 22–26 April and is an award-winning campaign that provides a unique platform to help people understand, explore and enjoy digital technology. The campaign encourages residents to throw open their doors and hold free digital taster events for their local communities; all with the aim of helping thousands of older people and other less confident users take their first steps online.

The Slingshot team worked together to get people down to our Spring Online event. The team visited local care homes, housing associations and doctor’s surgeries, posted flyers in coffee shops and publicised the event via Spring Online’s media partner Streetlife, an online platform for local communities.

On the afternoon of Friday 26 April, Slingshot’s offices were bursting at the seams with attendees learning how to set up their own email accounts, exploring the wonders of shopping online and singing along to their favourite artists such as Tony Bennett and One Direction on YouTube!

One attendee, who had been given an iPad by her Grandchildren but had little knowledge of how to use it, enjoyed the event so much she asked whether she could attend every Friday and nearly all of the attendees asked where they could buy a computer.

My Grandchildren gave me an iPad for Christmas and I have hardly used it. Today I have learnt to shop online, download cooking apps and I am so excited to go home and play games. I can’t thank you enough Slingshot!

Slingshot is the exclusive sponsorship agency for Spring Online which is supported by Headline Sponsors Carphone Warehouse and Supporting Sponsors BMI Healthcare and Marks & Spencer. To find out more about Spring online and its sponsors click here.