The winners were chosen from more than 120 entries, selected by a judging panel including George Clarke, Material Focus, Good Things Foundation, as well as Hubbub and Virgin Media 02.
Now in its second year, the Time After Time fund was established in 2022 in response to the nation’s growing e-waste problem.
Dana Haidan, chief sustainability officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “The winners of this year’s Time After Time fund are an amazing set of innovative and inspiring projects led by talented people across the country, which share our vision of stopping unwanted tech going to landfill, where instead it can be rehomed with people who need it so they can get online.
“With Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub’s £500,000 funding, these brilliant initiatives will transform communities – providing devices, digital skills, support and training, that will enrich people’s lives, give tech a second life, and help protect the planet.”
Gavin Ellis, co-founder and director at Hubbub said: “There is an abundance of smart devices in households and businesses that have potential to help the estimated 1.5 million households are digitally disconnected get online. These projects will tackle digital exclusion through research, training and the redistribution of devices and continue to raise awareness about the issues of e-waste and digital inclusion.”
Winners
The first winner is the Single Homeless Project has been awarded a grant of £52,600 for a project providing tailored digital skills training and rehomed devices to people experiencing homelessness. The devices aim to help people to access essential online services such as applying for jobs, locating food banks, booking medical appointments and contacting loved ones.
SOFEA in Oxfordshire won a grant of £100,000, and will repair and upgrade second-hand smartphones, laptops and tablets, and provide them to disadvantaged young people across Oxfordshire, along with training to improve their skills to help them get into work.
Coventry City Council’s #CovConnects programme will use an £80,000 grant to run a device lending bank to distribute end-of-life council devices to people in need across the city, helping them to get online.
The Green Alliance’s grant of £70,000 will support the charity’s research project into redistributing e-waste to tackle digital exclusion and will create a series of policy recommendations for government.
Screen Share UK’s £46,700 grant will fund a laptop repair skills training programme and provide refurbished devices to more than 500 refugees and asylum seekers across the UK. This will help them access essential online websites, such as booking medical appointments, accessing benefits, training and job opportunities, and to connect with loved ones.
Charity Giroscope has been awarded a grant of £59,000 to expand its project which rehomes refurbished donated computers, laptops and smartphones with people in need across Hull, and provides skills and work experience for neurodivergent young people.
Thanks to a £36,400 grant, Power 2 Connect will recycle, refurbish and redistribute donated smartphones, laptops and tablets to people who need them across Wandsworth. The charity will also hold digital skills training sessions to help people use their gifted devices.
The Making Room will use a £55,300 grant to run the Blackburn Repair Space project which will rehome hundreds of unwanted laptops with young people who are digitally excluded, and provide digital skills and laptop repair training sessions to help them get into work.
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