Forest Voluntary Action Forum with Alex Digby

A brief overview of what the VAF aims to do

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Alex Digby from Forest Point Action Forum and I'm a Digital Inclusion Projects Manager.

00:05The hubs themselves, which FVAF facilitate here in Forest City, it's very much focused on

00:12individuals, it's not prescribed. So if someone came in off the street and was just, look, I'm

00:16really stuck with this, it might be, for example, I've been told to use the NHS app but I don't know

00:21how to download it, we'll happily sit there with them, no judgment at all, there's no silly answers

00:27that can ever be asked and we will walk through them what they need to do with the aim to improve

00:31their skills, their confidence and access to the online world. But we also want to reiterate is that

00:38we're not pushing digital on people, we want to make that link because unfortunately decisions

00:44have been made out of our control where digital is becoming first, so we need to ensure people

00:49can be supported on that transition to an online world. We are developing this into a community hub

00:56where we've got a variety of different services and charities or present within the building to

01:02support communities to live healthy, resilient lives. I think it's about providing space to

01:10enable people to find things that they enjoy, that they're passionate about and to do things in the way

01:16that they want to do. So it's not about doing to, it's about doing with and fostering opportunities with

01:21them in mind and to create sort of more of a sense of community for the forest. I think we're trying

01:28to work within a system to create more opportunities, so whether it's more social opportunities or more

01:36employment opportunities, it's about providing that stepping stone for people to be able to thrive

01:43and with a thriving community, it brings more money back into the economy and then you can all benefit from that.