Denise Charlton: Digital inequality, our biggest post-Covid challenge
The digital divide and its different impacts on people, such as in the case of homeschooling, has been emphasised by the pandemic. Picture: iStock
Coping with the long shadow of Covid-19 and responding to the challenges it casts is a huge job of work which will require another national effort. The palpable relief over vaccine roll-out must not be mistaken as the end of this crisis.
The pandemic has surfaced underlying challenges ignored for too long but are now critical if we are ever to become a country of equals. These are in no-way unique to our communities.
It is no coincidence that when the United Nations marks World Day of Social Justice on Saturday, February 20, it will do so under the theme ‘A Call for Social Justice in the Digital Economy’.
The call could not be more pertinent than it is here in a country which sells itself as the ‘Silicon Valley of Europe’ but excludes entire communities, towns and even counties from harnessing any tangible benefits.
Once accepted as just another example of our many urban-rural divides, the pandemic has laid bare that our failure to deliver digital equality cuts much deeper. It has, over the past 12 months, caused isolation, ill-health, as well as undermining fundamental rights such as access to work and school.
For the homeless, families in emergency accommodation and households without broadband it means not only an inability to socialise like the rest of us but also denial of access to lifelines providing help, support and the company of loved ones.
Even for many households which are online life is difficult. Juggling a single computer and maybe a few mobile phones between the many demands of work and schooling increases tensions and stress.
When income has been impacted by health restrictions, of course upgrading is not an option.
The United Nations requires governments to create solid frameworks to achieve a “society for all”. The world body tasks countries to create ‘equal opportunities for job seekers, allowing equitable distribution of income, and offering greater access to resources via equality and equity’.
On each, it is fair to say that as a country we have let people down.
The Community Foundation for Ireland has been overwhelmed by frontline volunteers, community groups and charities who were suddenly and dramatically facing the challenges of switching to a virtual world not just for internal operations but also to reach people who were themselves digitally cut off.
Our funders believe in strategic, sustainable giving with long-term impact. Nothing ticks that box more than providing the digital infrastructure needed so frontline community services can continue through a pandemic, in all weathers and, in fact, in all conceivable circumstances.
It has accounted for much of the €15m in 1,377 grants we provided in 2020. With our donors, we put refurbished computers in Direct Provision Centres, moved aftercare services for stroke victims online and made health and wellbeing supports accessible for children and older people.
Getting laptops to young people ...we are playing our part in #Tech2Students ....Are You? @RTE2fm @CamaraIreland @AccessTCD @rte pic.twitter.com/zzepmUr3Pu
— Community Foundation Ireland (@CommunityFound) February 17, 2021
We have seen groups like Helium Arts, which does hospital theatre quickly move online. Artists now bring colour, love and joy digitally to thousands of sick children, their families and carers online across 10 counties.
Similarly, the National Concert Hall was given the ability to host Afternoon Tea Dance concerts for people with living with dementia and their carers.
The Farranree Community Association in Cork was provided with tablets to get more than 60 local older people trained up and active online. This type of programme is being repeated by groups and Family Resource Centres across the country.
Domestic Violence supports have been developed further online, while helpline hours have been expanded. Special digital measures have been introduced which give victims new protections when trapped by lockdown with their abuser – these include rapid screen shut-down.
While we celebrate our successes with partner organisations working on the ground, there is a reality that every-time we open for grant applications demand always far outstrips the support we can provide. That is the challenge.
The national conversation around Covid is beginning to switch from immediate emergency response to looking at our collective actions over the past 12 months. What did we get right? What did we get wrong? What lessons must we learn?
How people were left behind because they could not access the digital world is one of those hard questions we must address. Answering at a time when public finances will undoubtedly be under immense pressure will not be easy.
Philanthropy can have a role. Private donations, legacies or inheritance giving can be tapped not just to fund individual projects which deliver for a single community but through match funding with Government to provide wider change with bigger benefits.
Yet there are many more who are still denied the opportunity of that transformation.
We are ready to work with partners to ensure that when we again face a public health emergency, a severe weather event or a national emergency that we have the infrastructure to keep going digitally - and next time leave no-one behind.
- Denise Charlton is Chief Executive of The Community Foundation for Ireland
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