Our partners
UK online centres work in partnership with organisations across the public, private and third sector in order to reach more people, deliver more projects, or raise awareness of digital take-up. We work very closely with the Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox and her Race Online team, who have helped broker some of our key relationships.
- Centre partners
-
The most important partners we work with are the organisations that run UK online centres. Each centre operates as its own business, and their UK online centre operation is often part of a much wider remit. Each of these organisations is a key partner for UK online centres, helping to support digital inclusion right in the heart of communities.
- Government partners
-
Within government we work very closely with our sponsoring department, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). We also work with other relevant departments including Communities and Local Government (CLG), the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Education (DfE).
- Public sector partners
-
Other public sector partners include Directgov, Jobcentre Plus, the Post Office and NHS Choices. Nearly a third of UK online centres users are referred to us by local Jobcentre Plus offices, and we’ve helped both local Jobcentres and branches of the Post Office team up with local centres to work together to get more people online in their communities.
- Private sector partners
-
Private sector partners include the BBC, BT, Three, Wetherspoons, Mecca and Microsoft. Our work with Microsoft has seen charity sector UK online centres receive more than £3 million worth of Microsoft software donations, and given all centres the opportunity to use the Microsoft Digital Literacy Curriculum. Meanwhile our partnership with Mecca has seen us help branches team up with local UK online centres to deliver outreach sessions to Mecca customers. Working with the BBC, we’ve ensured our marketing complements the First Click initiative, and as a result we’ve been able to deliver high profile marketing campaigns which have inspired hundreds and thousands of new people to get online.
- Third sector partners
-
Partners in the voluntary and community sector include Age UK, AbilityNet and Digital Unite, who run a national Silver Surfers' Day which we support each year in May.
