Bank of Ireland and the Community Foundation teamed up to give away £25,000 to the best technology innovations for community benefit this year.
Our ‘Techies in Residence’ programme matched local charities with technology companies to build digital solutions for social benefit.
The programme is funded by Comic Relief and six projects have each been working with a tech partner over an intensive 12 week ‘development sprint’. Each of the six projects had a prototype to present and ‘pitch’ to the audience for a share of the Bank of Ireland funds to enable them to take their work to the next stage.
The six projects pitching were:
- Centred Soul & Damgeo will develop a digital platform to enable people experiencing peri-natal mental illness and birth trauma to connect and communicate with each-other in a safe space;
- Include Youth along with Proud and Damgeo will design an inspiring web application for young people that can drive self-sufficiency and promotes independence and ownership of wellbeing and employment status;
- PPR (Participation & the Practice of Rights) and the Creative Workers Cooperative will work together to turn PPR’s existing housing rights complaints system into an online application which enables self-management, collective action and scaling;
- Foyle Parents & Friends Association & Zoo Creative to develop an app to allow people with disabilities to independently explore Derry’s walls and city centre
- Advice NI and Metadeck will create a spending tracking tool to help people manage their money better and know where to get debt advice should they need it
- Our Future Foyle and illustration and design agency Us Folk, will develop an online toolkit for families and members of the public dealing with issues relating to the suicide search and recovery process on the River Foyle.
The Community Foundation’s Paul Braithwaite said:
“Techies in Residence is now in its fourth year and we’re delighted with the support we’ve received – it really encapsulates the cross-sectoral collaboration which the programme is all about. This year’s projects are demonstrating once again the power of technology, not only to revolutionise our lives, but also to address some of social and economic challenges we face as a society.”