Comic Relief and Paul Hamlyn Foundation are today announcing the thirteen organisations to receive funding from Tech for Good. The 2018 round is the second time that both funders have joined forces to fund tech-based initiatives that can lead to positive social change.
The grants of between £42,000 and £47,000 for each project will give organisations the chance to explore new approaches that seek to improve people’s lives. They also enable the organisations to learn, develop their own capacities in a new way and strengthen their work by developing viable and sustainable digital products. An intensive package of non-monetary support will be provided, recognising that this is an area that relies on skills and expertise as well as funding, for opportunities to be realised.
Kicking off in July 2018, the projects will last for nine months. Each includes a two-month soft development phase, an intense four-month hard development phase, followed by a three-month launch phase.
Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Comic Relief are committed to sharing the journey of these projects and the ideas they generate so that others can learn from their experiences. Please visit the Tech for Good Hub for further information and resources.
Cassie Robinson, Doteveryone and Tech For Good Global, said:
“This is an ambitious programme. Tech for Good not only helps charities adapt to a more complex and digital world, but improves people’s lives. Importantly, it also strengthens the whole sector to respond more collectively to some of the large scale social challenges we face.”
The successful Tech for Good 2018 projects are:
Addaction
Addaction will develop their online support service for drug and alcohol recovery and mental health through the implementation of a chatbot to work as a screening tool in busy times, a point of contact out of hours and a referral service.
The Children’s Society
The Children’s Society will conceptualise and test the potential of Virtual Reality tech to support children and young people’s mental health. Through the creation of fully immersive, interactive 360-degree videos, delivered via low-cost headsets, they will support children and young people to better engage, experience and grow confident in some of the most common scenarios that cause anxiety and unhappiness.
The Developer Society
The Developer Society and Disrupt Disability will build an online wheelchair fitting platform to disrupt the market, and give users more control over the fit and design of their wheelchairs.
Elizabeth Finn Care
Turn2us, which is run by Elizabeth Finn Care, will create an app matching people based on their benefit calculation and location, with a trained volunteer who can give support throughout the benefits claiming process, to increase the numbers of successful benefits claims made.
eQuality Time
The Open Voice Factory, the flagship project for eQuality Time, provides free speech aid software by converting communication boards into communication devices. Anyone can create an aid by editing and uploading a template, as it’s connected to the internet. An offline version of this will be created, in a mobile app.
Hestia Housing & Support
Hestia will develop an app to provide information for perpetrators of domestic abuse, those who feel they may become perpetrators, and anyone supporting them or aware of this risk, with the aim of reducing instances of domestic abuse.
Hope Support Services
Hope Support Services will scale up their online support for young people when a close family member is diagnosed with a serious illness. A platform will be created where young people can access safe and secure peer-support, including group chats and one to one mentoring.
Playphysio
Playphysio have created a medical attachment that, when attached to therapeutic devices used by people living with Cystic Fibrosis, allows them to gamify their daily treatment. This improves compliance and gives health practitioners caring for them insight through data collected during this app-integrated physiotherapy.
Samaritans
Samaritans will develop a surge notification system, using historical and real-time data to predict demand for the listening service and accurately identify how many volunteers are needed and when.
Spice Innovations
Spice will develop “Time Credits in a Box”; an online tool which enables communities and small organisations to get involved in Spice’s Time Credits with less direct staff support, and therefore at a lower cost, thereby giving control to local communities to unlock their own potential.
STEM4
Building on the success of their NHS-accredited “Calm Harm” app, which helps teenagers manage the urge to self-harm, STEM4 will develop an app to support teenagers who have anxiety, particularly during the gap between being referred to services and the support starting.
WellChild
Building on the success of their website, Medicines for Children, WellChild will create a Medicines for Children app, providing a complete medicines management tool for families, tailored to each individual’s circumstances.
WESC Foundation
WESC will create a point of sale ‘Speaking Shop till’ that is totally audio descriptive, from initiating a transaction to the transaction being completed. The objective of the Speaking Till is to facilitate the employment of severely visually impaired and blind till operators to enable them to be fully effective staff members.
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Media contacts: Helen Bayer at hbayer@phf.org.uk – 020 7812 3396 or the media team at Comic Relief on media@comicrelief.com – 020 7820 2500
About Comic Relief
Comic Relief is a UK charity which aims to create a just world, free from poverty where everyone is safe, healthy, educated and empowered. Since 1985, Comic Relief has raised over £1 billion. That money has helped, and is helping, vulnerable people in the UK and some of the world’s poorest communities.
For information about Comic Relief and the work it carries out, please visit www.comicrelief.com
Comic Relief, registered charity 326568 (England/Wales); SC039730 (Scotland).
About Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Paul Hamlyn Foundation was established by Paul Hamlyn in 1987. Upon his death in 2001, he left most of his estate to the Foundation, creating one of the largest independent grant-making foundations in the UK.
Our mission is to help people overcome disadvantage and lack of opportunity, so that they can realise their potential and enjoy fulfilling and creative lives. We have a particular interest in supporting young people and a strong belief in the importance of the arts and social justice is the golden thread that links all our work.
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