‘Connecting Communities’: Evaluation of a pilot project aimed at promoting digital inclusion in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

PROCOL UK Social Prosperity Prosperity Index Public Services Europe

Penny Bernstock, Pratimas Singh, Sultana Rouf, Israel Amoah-Norman, Rayhaan Lorgat and Saffron Woodcraft

The ‘Connecting Communities’ Project aims to improve digital inclusion in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets through a digital Universal Basic Services (UBS) pilot: a viable and integrated approach to providing universal access to public goods and services. The project was developed through a partnership between Poplar HARCA, the LETTA Trust, Tower Hamlets Council, and the East End Community Foundation, and forms part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ Digital Inclusion Strategy.

The ‘Connecting Communities’ project has been developed in phases. In phase 1, the intervention was rolled out to 70 households in two primary schools in Poplar coinciding with the UK’s first lockdown in March – May 2020. In phase 2 (from June 2020) the intervention has been gradually rolled out to a further 130 households in nine primary schools and rollout is ongoing.

In May 2022, the IGP was commissioned to undertake a final evaluation of the project’s second phase. The research was carried out between May and July 2022, by IGP Honorary Senior Research Fellow Dr Penny Bernstock, former IGP research intern Israel Amoah-Norman, and two Citizen Social Scientists based in Tower Hamlets, Pratimas Anil and Sultana Rouf. This report provides a final evaluation of the ‘Connecting Communities’ Project.

Read the report here.