With effect from today (31st January) we are really pleased to announce that they are available in our Edinburgh Support Hub and our Glasgow Access Hub, where they are available to those who need them most.
Through Vodafone’s ‘Charities Connected’ initiative, Simon Community Scotland received a donation of 550 SIM cards, each with free calls/texts and 40 gigabytes of data for a total of 6 months.
Our Digital Inclusion team is always looking for new ways to deliver access to the digital world to people experiencing homelessness. Our Get Connected 100 & 500 projects have clearly evidenced the benefits of digital inclusion.
Ease of access is important, saving time is important, which is why we have now made the decision to store a number of these SIMs in our hubs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Siobhan Page, Service Lead for Simon Community Scotland’s Glasgow Access Hub said: “These SIM cards are lifesavers for the people we support, it helps them keep in touch with us, family, friends and emergency services if they need it. They can also keep on top of their UC claim but managing this online, we can provide digital support should they need this also.”
Gillian Drysdale, service lead for Streetwork at Simon Community Scotland’s Edinburgh Support Hub said: “Having the free Vodafone SIM’s has allowed us to support people, not only with digital inclusion but also to alleviate some of the pressures of the cost of living crisis. Having this resource at hand has been invaluable to keeping people connected with support services and also socially.”
Simon Community Scotland and the Get Digital team are grateful for the donation made by Vodafone. We will continue to explore new avenues to bring digitally excluded people access to the digital world.
