Digital Champion - Starting Point and Friendly Fridays

Role

Friendly Fridays have a regular, intergenerational meet up every Friday. They run fun activities based around the 5 ways to wellbeing, including crafts, jigsaws, games, toys for toddlers - and some digital help and activities! Every week they offer snacks, a welcoming, accessible space, and lots of friendly chat. Digital Champions have been part of their volunteer team for over a year now, and they need some more helpers - can you be part of the Friendly Fridays team?

Starting Point support people in Stockport with devices, data and digital skills -that's where you come in! We know there are carers at Friendly Fridays who struggle with digital, but also don't have time or are not able to travel to our other sessions - that's why we are teaming up.

As a Digital Champion, you will be part of the Friendly Fridays volunteer team. They meet every Friday at the Rose Walker Community Centre. We'd love your help every week, but we will have a rota, so you don't have to! You will be part of a team of volunteers, as we look for 2-4 volunteers for each role.

To get to know people who come along to the session, you'll need to be willing to pitch in with non-digital tasks as well, such as chatting to participants, setting up activities, joining in with activities, making teas and coffees, and tidying up at the end of the session.

We call these informal Digital Champion roles 'Cafe chat' sessions, as the chat is as important as the digital support. This role will suit you if you love talking to new people, feel confident to start conversations, and can be proactive about offering support to participants. Around 1/3 to 1/2 of the time you will be offering help with digital problems. This may be more as you get to know more people, and they feel comfortable talking to you about their tech troubles!

You'll be helping Friendly Fridays participants feel more confident using devices, going online or completing everyday digital tasks they need to do. This could be applying for work online, booking an online GP appointment, using a new phone, filling in an online form, browsing the web, being safer online or using their emails more confidently.
Sometimes you may have to do some googling yourself to find a solution and work with Signpost staff or other volunteers. You'll make sure that people you support are able to learn as much as they can and hopefully feel more confident next time a digital problem or task comes up!

Friendly Fridays would love Digital Champions to run some fun digital activities alongside their regular activities - can you show people how to do online jigsaws, watch You tube for instructions for a craft, use Wordle, or look at Google maps to plan a walk? If you are interested in teaching, training or running activities, this is a great role for you. We will give you ideas and support to do this if you want to give it a try.

Full training will be given for this role, and you will have support from staff when you volunteer. As a Digital Champion you will have access to Starting Point's digital guides, monthly top up training, and support from our volunteering lead.