Blog Posts

‘The New Normal’ – Hartlepool Action Lab

‘The New Normal’ – a statement many of us will now relate to Zoom calls instead of team meetings, FaceTime instead of family gatherings and phone calls instead of a drink in the pub with friends.  Since the Coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown, it has turned our worlds upside down, with many people being utterly grateful for their access to technology, using it as a lifeline to connect to the outside world. However, for those Read more…

By aplecollective, ago

It’s not the Coronavirus I’m worried about – It’s falling behind at school. (Poverty Truth Community)

We all know what young people are thinking and feeling and worrying about just now, right?  We remember what it was like to be at school – we can guess, we can imagine?  Right?  This week The Poverty Truth Community caught up with 8 young people in Glasgow aged 11-16 and decided to make sure we do.  Talking the digital divide, school, glockenspiels and guilt; the main thing they told us is this  – just Read more…

By aplecollective, ago

APLE Collectve mention in BBC article- Coronavirus: Eight things that have kept us going in lockdown

The APLE Collective have been mentioned in an article on the BBC website. “Coronavirus has forced people around the world to change the way they live their lives. In Britain we have been spending most of our time at home, attempting to educate our own children and leaving the house only for essential reasons. What has kept us going? Here are eight things British people have been doing to cope with life in lockdown.” To Read more…

By aplecollective, ago

APLE Collective mentioned in LGC- Helen Barnard- What councils must do to tackle poverty after pandemic

The APLE Collective have been mentioned in an article for the LGC website, written by Helen Barnard. “@HartActionLab and @ThriveTeesside, members of @ApleCollective, say local government should work more closely with those using key services so they are designed and delivered as accessibly as possible” To read the full article:

By aplecollective, ago

APLE mention on Rethinking Poverty- WORK WITH ALL MEMBERS OF OUR SOCIETY TO #BUILDBACKBETTER

The APLE Collective have been mentioned in an article featured on the ‘Rethinking Poverty‘ website- written by Katy Goldstraw and John Diamond. “The unprecedented challenges created by the global COVID-19 pandemic have brought about many examples of human kindness, compassion and value-driven policy responses. Painted rainbows in windows across the country and a weekly clap for NHS workers are tangible examples of how much, in the face of adversity, the nation values its key workers. Read more…

By aplecollective, ago

Hartlepool Action Lab- Digital Exclusion

In this digital age we now live in the world seems so much smaller and accessible than ever before, but only for some. For those not riding high on the wave of new technology, the digital divide is an ever-growing expanse of exclusion, isolation and despair.           Coronavirus has taken us all into a new way of living and working. Our social and business interactions have been replaced with digital substitutes such as Zoom or Read more…

By aplecollective, ago

APLE Collective featured in The Guardian- Digital divide ‘isolates and endangers’ millions of UK’s poorest

Charities warn of ‘devastating effect’ as most vulnerable households left without access to web. The APLE Collective has been quoted in a piece in The Guardian on the ‘Digital Divide’ and the affect it’s having on low income communities. From the article, Yet anti-poverty groups such as the Aple Collective, a network of people who have experienced poverty, say not enough is being done. “We welcome the positive and compassionate moves being made by government and the Read more…

By aplecollective, ago

Crossing the Digital Divide is essential to ensuring that the response to COVID-19 includes us all

The APLE Collective have an article featured on the SW2020-COVID19 website, “For the APLE (Addressing Poverty with Lived Experience) Collective, digital exclusion means exclusion from voice, from an ability to participate in the everyday, it means being silenced. It means our knowledge is ignored which exacerbates economic and social divides, as a result a digital divide opens. Digital divide doesn’t just mean having access to wifi, but the ability to pay for it. Our communities who Read more…

By aplecollective, ago

Putting meaning to the ‘Digital Divide’ in the North East of England (Thrive Teesside)

The daily realities of the digital divide in the North East of England – a call to connect our community members ‘As an organisation that responds to the needs in our low income communities by, in the first instance, developing trusting relationships with people who live in very difficult circumstances, I never imagined a world whereby social distancing measures would be implemented. The difficulties associated with trying to stay connected with the people that pass Read more…

By aplecollective, ago

The Disconnect: Swallowing Pride and Feeling Locked Out

Accessing the internet has always been an uphill battle for people in poverty. Now that social distancing measures have pulled the shutters down on public places that offered free access, that struggle is even harder. “Before the lockdown, my daughter stayed after school every day to use the internet there for her homework. Now, without wifi of our own, I had to swallow my pride to ask our neighbour if we could piggyback onto his Read more…

By aplecollective, ago