The Andalusian Digital Commitment project aims to mobilise citizens towards their integration into the knowledge and information society by incorporating technology into the daily lives of the ENTIRE Andalusian population.

Specific objectives:• To promote a culture of solidarity through collaboration,

commitment and volunteer participation.• Use third sector bodies to unite groups at risk of being socially

excluded from the information society.• Identify and enhance the group of public and/or private

resources available for everyone and in particular for the project.

Achievement of the project objectives relies on a special component: the volunteer.

The relationship between the participant and the volunteer is known as Digital Support.

Project Objectives

Digital Support

Digital Support is the way in which the volunteers:

• Raise participants’ and users’ awareness of the importance of accessing to the Information Society as a way of promoting social integration, inclusion for marginalised groups and conciliation of family and work life, etc.• Identify the needs of project participants and translate them into possibilities.• Share technological knowledge with others• Provide information, tools and resources for the use of new technologies.

Where can this support be found? In any participating centre of the network, or even in a person’s own home.

Public Objectives

The main target population of the project is the users.

The initial design of the project envisaged its potential users as being the older

Andalusian population with different levels of ITC literacy. But the project has

been set in motion with the help of social and community entities and currently

user belong to all types of underprivileged groups living out of reach of new

technologies.

Although it does depend on demand, in general users tend to be those with a low

level of education, or those who tend to reject the use of ITC. • People with disabilities

• Immigrants

• The older population

• People at risk of social/digital exclusion (youths in shelters, recovering addicts, prostitutes,,

prisoners on day release, the homeless)

Public Objectives

The volunteer network

Their work is altruistic. They are the backbone of the project and play a key role in

disseminating the rest of the Junta de Andalucía programmes for development of the

Information Society.

Their role is to identify users’ needs. A key factor is their close relationship with users.

Some of the volunteers have a social or technically-oriented background, but on the whole

they are mainly university students, their level of technological knowledge is not uniform and

the leader assigns the volunteers in accordance with the users’ needs.

Age: 36.17% of the volunteers are between 16 and 25 years old. 31.71% are between

26 and 35 years of age and 16.12% are aged between 35 and 45.

Profiles: of the total number of volunteers, 55.95% are male and 44.05% are female;

5.64% of the volunteers are immigrants; 4.27% have different degrees of disability; and

1.30% are elder people.

2% of the volunteers are ‘corporate’, in other words they come from sponsoring

companies.

Collaboration

The ADC project promotes collaboration. Civil society, third sector organisations, companies, public and private institutions and the government all join forces to assist in growing and developing the project.

• AFFILIATES: Third sector companies that directly participate in the implementation of the project, energising and raising awareness of their action groups.

• COLLABORATING BODIES: Organisations and public or private institutions (public administration bodies, universities, professional associations) that guarantee the project by collaborating in different fields.

• DIGITAL SPONSORS: Private companies that are actively committed to achieving the project’s objectives and goals, and who collaborate by providing resources or quantifiable services. There is a sponsorship plan with 8 defined collaboration lines aimed at in incorporating the maximum number of companies.

Design and Implementation

The volunteer network is spread across the country via 9 centres that coordinate activities.

• The centres have specific personnel with knowledge and experience in mobilising volunteers (the Red Cross*)

• They recruit, train and incorporate volunteers into the network.• They identify users’ needs.• They coordinate volunteer and citizen activities.

* The relationship with the Spanish Red Cross in Andalusia is formalised via a framework agreement that has been in place since 2007 and which specifically sets out activities for periods of approximately 20 months.

The project management is supported by a management office in Sandetel that carries out general project follow-up and is assigned specific activities:

• Development of alliances with companies and/or other bodies• Provision of relevant management tools• Continuous assessment• Design and implementation of communication strategies• Development and/or adaptation of training resources to support the

citizen and the volunteer network

Project Resources

For volunteers and leaders:

http://www.andaluciacompromisodigital.org

Training resourcesTechnological resourceareas

Indicators

Since 2007… …1547 active volunteers … 77,815 digital supports … 21,060 users … more than 160 municipalities with project-presence … 138 bodies with affiliated volunteers … 16 sponsoring companies

… 10 collaborating bodies

Collaboration - IndicatorsSince the sponsorship programme began at the end of 2008…

…32 active corporate volunteers that have carried out 156 hours of activity

… 18 people in the process of becoming corporative volunteers

… 722 placements on specialised training courses with an approximate

cost of €150,000

… 92 hours of use of adapted premises for celebrating Andalucia Digital

sessions.

… More than twenty free publicity appearances (radio spots, reports in the

media, dissemination of press reports in specialised media, micro-slots on

programmes, etc)

… €11,000 a year for financing the Regional Volunteer Meeting.

… More than 30 donations of technological goods to voluntary bodies

affiliated with the project.

… Technological materials donated to the project that are adapted for those

with disabilities - to the value of €25,400

… The Second Sadiel Awards (II premios Sadiel) for Social Commitment

and Innovation (€6000) for those volunteer bodies collaborating in the

ADC project.

Acknowledgements

• 2008 Technet Awards (PremiosTecnet 2008) for the best project for breaching the digital gap.

• 2008 Autelsi Award (Premio Autelsi 2008 ) for Dissemination and Promotion of ITC.

• 2009 Huelva Youth Award (Premio Huelva Joven 2009) . Awarded by the Instituto Andaluz de la Juventud.

• The project has appeared widely in the media (radio, TV, generalist and specialised press) thanks to the interest that has arisen in the media, the support from the two communication campaigns carried out in 2008 and 2009, and the support from sponsors, all which contributes to the visibility of the project.

Future Challenges

Every year the ADC project renews its objectives.

The Sandetel project Management Office submits the goals for the year to the Consejería de Economía, Innovación y Ciencia, and once a consensus is reached, the goals are communicated in a modulated form to all the collaborators: volunteers, the Red Cross, businesses, voluntary bodies, collaborating bodies, in forums reserved for said purpose:

• Digital Volunteers Regional Meeting.• Annual Committee for Sponsors.• Follow-up of the Framework Agreement with the Spanish Red

Cross in Andalusia. • Meetings with voluntary bodies.• The Annual Committee of Collaborating Bodies

In 2010 the goals that characterise our activities are:• Expansion of the project to rural communities, with the

Fernando de los Ríos Consortium involved as a strategic collaborator• Approach to immigrant groups where the digital gap is more frequent• Maintaining the volunteer training plan with resources provided by

private companies.• Increasing the amounts given by sponsoring companies as a whole, for:

supporting the visibility and financing of events (end goal: self-financing).

• Subscribing to collaboration agreements with the 10 Andalusian universities with the aim of expanding the project in the university community

• Formalising agreements with specific professional associations that guarantee and give credibility to the project

• Promote support of voluntary bodies that carry out their work in rural areas to strengthen the presence of the project outside the province’s main towns.

• Implement a strong communication plan with internal project actors so as to optimise the collaborations that have been established to date.

Future Goals