Do you know someone who is digitally excluded?

Connecting Scotland is a Scottish Government programme set up in response to coronavirus. It provides ipads, chromebooks and support to develop digital skills for people who are digitally excluded and on low incomes.

Scottish Government is extending the Connecting Scotland initiative to include applications from organisations working with older people and disabled people who are living through social isolation and loneliness.

East Lothian has been given an allocation of iPads other devices with an unlimited data allowance for up to 24 months.

Applications will be open until 18^th January 2021 at https://connecting.scot/for-organisations/apply.

For more information contact Diann Govenlock, Connected Communities Manager at  [email protected]

Haddington & Lammermuirs

The Haddington & Lammermuir Area Partnership is one of six Area Partnerships in East Lothian. They are the “local voice of community planning” and each has a delegated budget from East Lothian Council to deliver improvements in their area.

The membership of the Area Partnership is comprised of a broad range of local community groups and local councillors. The group is also supported by a dedicated Area Manager employed by East Lothian Council.

With a substantial budget the Area Partnership is open to applications for grants or proposals from local residents.

Click on the link here to see the Area Plan for Haddington & Lammermuir.

For more information please contact the Community Council or Area Partnerships at East Lothian Council.

Do you know someone who is digitally excluded?

Connecting Scotland is a Scottish Government programme set up in response to coronavirus. It provides ipads, chromebooks and support to develop digital skills for people who are digitally excluded and on low incomes.

The criteria for phase 2 is:

1.       Digitally excluded – do not have an appropriate device and/or are not connected to the internet at home AND

2.       On low incomes so cannot afford to buy a device or pay for internet access

3.       And ARE EITHER

a.       Households with children or where a child is normally resident (this includes pregnant women with no child in the household) OR

b.       Care leavers up to the age of 26 (in line with eligibility for aftercare support)

For more information contact Diann Govenlock, Connected Communities Manager at  [email protected]

If you have been contacted by Test and Protect, and advised to self-isolate as a result of COVID 19, you may be entitled to a self-isolating grant if you meet the eligibility criteria.

For more information on self-isolating visit East Lothian Council.

Anyone at any time may have to self-isolate if for example you or anyone in your household develop COVID-19 symptoms; if you are returning from certain other countries and need to quarantine or if you’re asked to isolate via the Scottish Government’s Test, Protect and Isolate system, which is in place to identify those who may have come into direct contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. 

Most people will be able to self-isolate with help from friends, family and neighbours and by arranging grocery deliveries – however if you need extra support, please contact [email protected] or phone our helpline: 01875 824300.

You can also call the British Red Cross coronavirus support line on 0808 196 3651. This was set up to provide support to communities and people in need during the coronavirus pandemic, giving people without a support network someone to talk to, and to help them access things they may need like food, medicine and emotional support.

You can get information on Test, Protect and Isolate from the Scottish Government website. 

Al passed away in early September after a year battling cancer, an illness which few suspected as he went about his wide range of community activities till a few days before his death.  

Al’s portfolio of community interests was wide – he was one of the founders of Humbie Box Office; a member of the Community Council for more than twenty years; a trustee of DLX Community Benefit Trust (the windfarm fund); one of the instigators of HumbieNet (the community-owned local broadband infrastructure managed by Lothian Broadband), and the Humbie First Responders group; the initial energy behind the ‘Humbiehelps’ community CoVid initiative; the ‘fixer’ behind Mavis Hall corporate events; a dame in Humbie Players Christmas pantomimes; and latterly Morag Taylor’s trusty lieutenant in the Humbie Hub.  And much more.

Al, with his wife Janet’s support, had a greater impact on the community in which he lived than anyone I have come across.  Humbie is a much more vibrant and viable community because of Al. Few of us will deserve such an epitaph.  We are poorer for his passing – but richer, not just for his time amongst us, but for the way he chose to spend it.  

Thank you, Al