About Us
Digital Kent is part of Kent County Council's Helping Hands Scheme created back in 2021 initially to support residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of living. Five years later we now support 1000's of residents across multiple projects to increase digital inclusion across the county. Our projects are designed to help improve either health, education or employment outcomes, focussing on digital skills, connectivity and access.
Since receiving support through the scheme, many residents have benefitted from:
- Increased digital skills
- Better management of benefits advice and payments
- Attending online appointments
- Access to online learning and development and information
- Improved financial management
- Access to job opportunities
- Staying connected to family, friends and support networks
Digital Kent's Guiding Principles are:
Inclusive: Making digital opportunities accessible to all.
Collaborative: Creating greater impact through partnership and shared purpose.
Empowering: Building confidence, capability and independence.
Connected: Bridging the gap between people, technology and opportunity.
Holistic: Addressing the wider barriers that influence digital inclusion.
Digital Kent is one of several projects funded through Kent County Council's Helping Hands Scheme. Our wider programme focuses on:
- Supporting residents with financial wellbeing, digital inclusion, employability, health and education in a holistic and meaningful way.
- Working together as a programme to provide long term improvements to residents through short term support, seeing tangible outcomes by reaching the parts where other teams cannot.
- Building and maintaining strong partnerships with organisations across the county to support the work we are doing, encourage collaboration, generating new ideas and creating sustainability.
For information or advice on any of our projects, Contact Us:
by email at digitalinclusion@kent.gov.uk or call 03000 410 950
Our wider work includes:
Kent Money Advice Hub - providing free debt advice and financial support through Citizens Advice and partner organisations across Kent - Kent Advice Hub
Crisis and Resilience Fund - this will provide support to households struggling with money for essential costs if they face a serious financial shock and will be delivered by Kent County Council and partners - Crisis and Resilience Fund
ReferKent - an online referral platform that helps professionals connect residents with local support services, including financial, wellbeing and community support - ReferKent
Further advice with cost of living support can be found on the Kent County Council website - Cost of Living Support
Together, these programmes help residents improve their financial resilience, access support services, and build skills for the future.
If you need help using this information:
- call Kent Together on 03000 41 92 92 (text relay 18001 03000 41 92 92)
- for access via British Sign Language contact the Sensory Services Team via SMS on 07920 154 315 or via SignLive VRS on the community directory.
The Kent Together helpline cannot provide you with any financial advice, but can help direct you to a service that can help.
