Draft:Digital Poverty Alliance

The Digital Poverty Alliance states its objectives as being to advocate for action to end digital poverty once and for all in the United Kingdom by 2030. It is now also the working name of the Learning Foundation, a registered charity in England and Wales.

The Digital Poverty Alliance issues an annual National Delivery Plan with six missions towards ending digital poverty: and also run projects to give laptops and other support to those who are offline. One of these programmes is Tech4Families, which operates in seven areas of the UK.

Activities
The Digital Poverty Alliance, commonly known as the DPA, was established as an initiative in 2021, as part of the Learning Foundation, with support from founding partners at Currys plc and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Advocacy
Its advocacy and research work is guided by its National Delivery Plan, which was first released in 2023, and then updated in 2024. This itself was a follow up to its UK Digital Poverty Evidence Review released in 2022. These National Delivery Plans set out six missions, each with actions, that are intended to end digital poverty by 2030 if followed.

The charity also runs research projects to understand the impact of digital poverty on different communities in the UK.

They worked with Deloitte to produce a socio economic case for digital poverty in the UK, showing up to 19 million adults were in digital poverty, and one in five children.

In 2024, they launched the Charter for Digital Inclusion, an commitment that UK based organisations can sign to tackle digital exclusion. The DPA also works with businesses through their Industry Forum.

Tech4Families
The charity runs Tech4Families with Currys plc. Cash donations are collected from customers when they make purchases in Currys' stores. The charity then uses these donations to buy laptops for children in seven areas of the UK - listed as


 * Staffordshire (Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire Moorlands, Stafford, East Staffordshire, Newcastle under Lyme, Lichfield, South Staffordshire, Cannock Chase local authorities), England.
 * West Cumbria (Cumberland local authority), England.
 * Norfolk Coast (Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, North Norfolk, Great Yarmouth local authorities), England.
 * Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend, Wales
 * Ayrshire (North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire local authorities), Scotland.
 * Lincolnshire Coast (North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, East Lindsey, Boston and South Holland local authorities), England.
 * Northern Ireland.

Families from each of these areas can apply for support.

Other projects
Tech4Youth is an active scheme funded in North West Leicestershire by the Barratt Foundation.

Historical projects include Tech4Schools funded by Amazon, Tech4Teachers funded by Intel and Barclays, and Tech4Prison Leavers funded by Intel with pro bono support from Capgemini.

The charity asks businesses and individuals to donate old technology equipment to be refurbished to give out to those in need.