Resource guides to help support digital inclusion
Are you or your organisation helping people with digital access? These handy resource guides have been created for three areas in regional SA:
- Getting Connected in the Yorke Peninsula council area: Digital Inclusion Solutions (resource guide)
- Getting Connected in Karoonda East Murray: Digital Inclusion Solutions (resource guide)
- Getting Connected in Peterborough: Digital Inclusion Solutions (resource guide)
We have also produced some quick-reference brochures that people can use, and which you are welcome to distribute:
- Need Help Getting Connected? Yorke Peninsula (DL brochure)
- Need Help Getting Connected? Karoonda East Murray (DL brochure)
- Need Help Getting Connected? Peterborough (DL brochure)
Find out more about digital inclusion in the Yorke and North region in our handy fact sheet.
About the Resource Guides
The South Australian Council of Social Service on 4 April 2022 has launched three locally specific resource guides, highlighting the ‘Digital Inclusion Solutions’ available for people experiencing barriers to participating online in the Yorke Peninsula, Karoonda East Murray and Peterborough local government areas.
The production of these resources was supported by a grant from the Wyatt Trust.
SACOSS has been advocating for government action on digital exclusion for several years as part of our work on addressing poverty and inequality. We know that digital exclusion exacerbates poverty and inequality and that we must ensure no one is left behind as more essential experiences and services transition online.
We were particularly concerned about digital exclusion in the Yorke Peninsula, Karoonda East Murray and Peterborough local government areas following the results of the 2021 Australian Digital Inclusion Index which highlighted a significant gap between metropolitan and regional South Australians. These three areas were forecast to be particularly adversely affected by digital exclusion across the three measurements used to calculate digital inclusion in the Australian Digital Inclusion Index – access, affordability and ability.
SACOSS worked with community leaders, groups and organisations to understand the local challenges to becoming digitally included and created a guide that outlined these challenges and presented a range of possible solutions.
We found that many community members and leaders were acutely aware that digital exclusion permeates their lives – costing them more and keeping them isolated from opportunities to connected that those living in metropolitan areas might take for granted.
We wanted to empower communities to understand the problem that digital exclusion poses, connect with solutions that would help them, and become powerful advocates for their communities.
In the lead-up to the 2022 SA State Election SACOSS called on all parties to support our policy proposal to implement a Digital Inclusion Strategy backed by a significant funding investment and addressing key benchmarks that we believe would go a long way to addressing the digital exclusion challenges faced by residents of the Karoonda East Murray, Peterborough, and Yorke Peninsula councils – and beyond.