18 St John Street Chambers are proud to have supported the GM Tech Fund Digital Donation Day today.
Thank you to @18stjohn for their very generous donation of £6,000 to the #GMTechFund as part of our Digital Donation Day with @greatermcr and @BITC https://t.co/3omHMJnkw1
— Manchester Family / Emma Gill (@familymanc) January 22, 2021
From the Manchester Evening News: Thousands of youngsters across Greater Manchester are without the devices, data and internet connections to be able to remote learn while schools are closed to all but key worker and vulnerable children.
Some schools and colleges have yet to receive their full promised allocations of devices from the government, but even when they do, it’s estimated that 20,000 young people will still be without either a device or data to give them the digital access they’ll need.
And with it looking increasingly unlikely that schools will be reopening in full anytime soon, it’s even more important to help plug that digital gap.
We have teamed up with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) – which is made up of the region’s 10 councils and Mayor Andy Burnham – to support the Greater Manchester Tech Fund.
Created last year, with the aim of helping vulnerable families, phase two has now launched amid the current lockdown – and aims to raise £300,000 to help 1,000 digitally excluded young people across Greater Manchester, through the donation of funds, new tech and data packages and used devices.
It’s just a small portion of the 6,000 plus pupils that 39 of the region’s schools have already made a plea to the fund for, but it’s a start and hopefully Manchester can come together to help even more of them over the coming weeks.