Andrew Dismore

Team London Initiative

Question No: 2103 / 2012

Andrew Dismore

The Team London initiative was a fantastic opportunity for my constituents in Barnet. It funded a fantastically successful intergenerational project, MiCommunity, delivered by Age UK Barnet, which had young volunteers in schools teaching older people how to use computers and the internet. But I was surprised to find it was funded for less than a year, and even though it has proven results, is struggling to find more funding. Will you look at funding similar projects to keep successful cost effective initiatives such as this going?

Written response from the Mayor

I am extremely pleased with the ‘Connecting Older People – MiCommunity’ project, especially the outcomes that you highlight, as well as the broader achievements which were set out within AgeUK London’s evaluation report.

The project was kindly funded by the Reuben Foundation and was designed to utilise volunteers to deliver on the four priorities of Team London: Building Stronger Communities, Improving Youth Opportunities, Cutting Crime and Cleaning and Greening. Part of the criteria for selecting the project was sustainability, to ensure that the benefits of the project were felt after the end of the funding. As such, you may be interested in the toolkit which AgeUK have launched specifically for anyone interested in running a digital inclusion project. This can be found at: (http://www.ageuk.org.uk/london/Our-services/MiCommunity-project/MiCommunity-toolkit/).

The current round of Reuben Foundation funding ended in May 2012. We are currently evaluating the impact of our Team London funded projects. Details of any further funding or any additional information regarding Team London, will be published on our website at www.london.gov.uk/teamlondon.