Zeal donates digital skills to Age UK Leeds
Howard Lake | 26 September 2018 | News
Digital and creative agency Zeal is supporting Age UK Leeds with staff volunteering their time and digital skills to help with the charity’s digital inclusion scheme for older people.
Members of the Zeal team have undertaken training to support the Age UK Leeds Digital Drop-In sessions, aimed at helping the older community learn the skills they need to get online.
Digital inclusion
Age UK Leeds provide a number of digital inclusion services in the local area and Zeal have been helping out at the weekly Digital Drop-In sessions at The Arch Café in Leeds City Centre.
The Digital Drop-In sessions are designed to help older people develop their skills and confidence to get online safely, from setting up email addresses, and Internet safety to learning how to use messaging services such as Skype and Facebook to keep connected to family, friends and the local community.
Digital exclusion is a real issue for the older generation with many unable to access the internet and perform tasks such as paying bills online and using price comparison sites to make sure they are on the most affordable rates for services such as electricity and gas. It can exacerbate loneliness.
Three Peaks challenge
In addition to skilled volunteering, Zeal staff members have also undertaken several fundraising activities to raise money for the charity. Having completed the Leeds 10K run in July and the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge, a team of staff will take part in November’s Age UK Leeds Abbey Dash to raise funds.
Lisa Burnett, Fundraising Director at Age UK Leeds, thanked Zeal for its support, saying: “In Leeds there are over 32,000 older people that are lonely or isolated and its corporate partnerships like this one that help us raise much needed funds to support as many of them as possible.”
Jane Rutter, CEO at Zeal, said: “We spent a long time looking for a charity we could partner as we wanted to make a real difference and get involved in a meaningful way, not just giving money. Age UK Leeds do such an important and amazing job. The
work they do connects and helps the elderly in a way which changes lives and makes an unbelievable difference. We are committed to fundraising, volunteering and offering our services to help them continue doing that great work.”
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.