Mansfield Building Society has donated £500 to a community project that aims to to make online education available to all families in the area.

The building society gave the money from its Community Support Scheme to The Musketeers CIC, three businesspeople who are championing community projects in Mansfield and Ashfield.

They aim to link the projects with local businesses in the hope of gaining wider audience participation for charitable causes

The £500 will go towards the We Make ICT Possible initiative, which is distributing donated second-hand IT equipment to schools and also to adults who otherwise would not be able to go online. Students from West Nottinghamshire College are refurbishing the equipment.

The Mansfield’s donation bolsters this work by enabling the project to also buy and donate new equipment — allowing access to online education for children, connection to the wider digital world for adults, and providing an option for sourcing online income streams.

Gary Jordan, co-founder of The Musketeers CIC alongside Katie Cooper-Lewis and Martin Rigley, said: “Local Facts 2020 stated that 27% of Mansfield and Ashfield people had no access to computers or tablets and 30% have no digital skills at all. In a time when home education and working is at an all-time high, as a result of the pandemic — and hybrid working is increasingly becoming standard practice for companies — those in digital poverty are cut off from those opportunities. We are striving to change that.”

Louise Holland, who presented the £500 cheque on behalf of Mansfield Building Society, added: “It is an assumption of most people that laptops, tablets and smartphones are a staple of all households for both children and adults, but the pandemic highlighted that this simply isn’t the case.

“Making sure children have access to home school resources was a huge concern for parents and schools, including many of our colleagues. We are thrilled to support the work The Musketeers are doing to increase digital opportunities to the communities in our heartland area.”

The Musketeers CIC are hosting their first Annual Charity Golf Day on Thursday, 26th May at Rufford Park Golf Club to raise money for We Make ICT Possible and other local causes.
Anyone interested in taking part can sign up by emailing [email protected]
To find out more about the work of The Musketeers CIC search for TheMusketeersCIC on Facebook.

One example of the work of We Make ICT Possible was a recent donation of computer equipment to St Peter’s Church of England Primary Academy, Mansfield.

One of The Musketeers, Katie Cooper-Price, visited the school to delivered five all-in-one PCs and five traditional PCs with new keyboards, mice and cables.

Teacher and ICT lead Miss Wood, pictured with head teacher James Marshall, said: “This is a great and exciting donation. We can set up a computer club, which will help all our pupils in addition to our ICT curriculum. We are extremely appreciative of the support from The Musketeers — thank you!”

If you would like to support the campaign and help tackle digital poverty in our local area, look in your garage, shed, attic, the back of your wardrobe, etc and see if you have any usable laptops or computers you could donate. If you do, contact the project via the below social media channels to discuss a drop off or arrange a collection – both of which would be COVID safe.

If you do not have any equipment but still want to support the cause, you can make a charitable donation.

Facebook: wemakeictpossible
Twitter: @wemakeictposs
Instagram: wemakeictpossible
LinkedIn: wemakeictpossible