Hard to reach or just not trying

Hard to reach or just not trying?
Simon Davey, preponderate.net

There’s a lot of discussion about ‘hard to reach’ groups in the voluntary sector, much of which is meaningless. No one is really hard to reach. They might be not reached, or need a different route to reach them but hard to reach? And what can ICT do about them? It’s a long while since anyone believed ‘build a website and they will come’… isn’t it?

In an ideal world, your clients and service users would know where to find you, access your services and you would be appropriately funded (by them or someone else) for your hard work. So what happens when (a) they don’t know you exist, (b) they can’t access your services directly and (c) you can’t make it pay?

This article looks at four groups often tagged as ‘hard to reach’: (a) rural, (b) BME groups, (c) older people and (d) the disengaged.

Geographical issues

If your users are just around the corner, you can go visit, sell your wares and if you’ve anything worth having, your service users will hopefully come back or refer their friends.

If you service a wide geographical area, face to face contact is more difficult. Having a website won’t make a difference if people don’t know it’s there. This is where ‘real’ marketing comes in. Working through partners (so called trusted intermediaries) and using different channels (perhaps flyers inserted in other organisation’s mailings, posters in local community venues, writing in other email newsletters or holding events) is a good start to building your community.

If you are working in rural communities then ICT in the form of email and websites can be a great asset but don’t expect it to build your relationships for you – you’ll still have to get out and talk to people and build those partnerships and marketing channels.

Case study – Five counties ICT project www.icthub.org.uk/publications/Collaborating_to_support_ICT/5_Counties_ICT.html
Case study – Community First www.icthub.org.uk/publications/Collaborating_to_support_ICT/Community_First.html

BME and refugee groups

There’s a misleading assumption that BME groups are very different from the rest of the voluntary sector. Truth is, it’s more of a size and capacity issue.
Research conducted by the Confederation of Indian Organisations shows that 30% of South Asian voluntary and community organisations have no computer whilst 80% have no website. Many of them use hotmail for email. But these issues aren’t restricted to South Asian or BME organisations – they apply to most very small organisations heavily dependent on volunteers. If you don’t have time, money or the knowledge and expertise to get hold of ICT and use it to maximum potential, all the training in the world won’t help.

Language can be an issue in South Asian community organisations but in a number of instances the problem is literacy rather than whether something is printed in English or Gujarati. There are opportunities to start disseminating material through audio files (MP3s or podcasts) but again it doesn’t help it people don’t have a PC let alone an internet connection. Most groups aren’t using ICT with their clients.

If you are trying to reach more black and ethnic minority individuals or organisations then partnership is the way to go – don’t rely on people and organisations coming through your front door or finding your website. There are many organisations working, often with specialist services, in the BME sector and it’s a case of building your networks and finding the right way to communicate and maintain that relationship – not always through ICT.

Older people

Digital Unite (of Silver Surfers fame) are campaigning to bring the internet to all 14 million older people in the UK. It’s a hell of a challenge and will take some time but there’s a partnership behind it and they are using different ways to engage, from training and national PR campaigns to working through Age Concern and providing hard copy guides with Help the Aged.

The success of Silver Surfers has proved that once older people get enthused, the internet will become a big part of their life. They don’t need a PC at home – granted sufficiently mobility, the local library often provides all the resource they need.

One of the ‘hooks’ for this is the digital switchover. As we all move to Digital TV (like it or not and in Whitehaven it’s already happened), it’s a great opportunity to link people up with the internet and sell the benefits. The Digital Unite campaign and link to Silver Surfers week is a great example of bringing together a partnership committed to making a difference and with the reach and dynamic to change things.

Can’t be bothered

How do you engage people or organisations with ICT and reach out? You give them a good reason why it will make their life, work or situation better! ICT offers access to limitless resources and information, new ways to communicate and share ideas and materials, opportunities to collaborate, better ways to store and manage information, time saving, learning and fun things to do. One size won’t fit all – the older person wanting to email her grandson won’t have their same needs and expectations as the 12yo asylum seeker who wants to learn English or the volunteer group who want an easy way to record 200 names and addresses. Stop thinking about ICT and start thinking about individual and community needs and interests – there’s usually a clever way of involving ICT in anything. Just make sure it’s not a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Conclusion

ICT won’t solve the problems of ‘hard to reach’ groups. It can provide excellent communications tools, bring people together and offer new opportunities to learn and develop – to do things better and to do better things.

As one organisation puts it, tackling ‘hard to reach’ is about offering thoughtful and creative solutions to marketing and dissemination issues concerning IT and the benefits of IT. You need access to expert advice and practical experience of IT usability and accessibility issues and know why you want to, and how you will, make a difference.

You need to understand the person and the organisation and deal with resource issues and sustainability implications. There will always be people who don’t want to use ICT and it’s pointless trying to make them change. If the service and opportunity is good and interesting enough, all you need to do is put it in front of them. If you’ve reached them in the first place that is…

Resources and related articles

Contact details
Simon Davey
www.preponderate.net
simon@preponderate.net

web design & technology by Futurate