I am not tech-savvy
Developing an integrated appointments system to support refugees and asylum seekers. Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (CARAS) Weeknotes 1
“ I am not tech-savvy” — this is a phrase we hear a lot in charity sector network meetings, and a phrase I still use to this day- a lot! All of a sudden in April 2020 we had to become Zoom experts. And use emojis. We had to learn how to use WhatsApp (I still do not have it on my personal phone) and sound fun, bringing our in-person energy into the virtual space! Some of us may have even practiced a dance or two on Tik Tok. And we have risen to the challenge. Sure, we still start talking whilst on mute. We still do not always set the Zoom sharing settings correctly, and may still not use the correct emoji. But these are small things compared to the huge steps we have taken already!
In March 2020 CARAS ran one computer class, and although the need was known and out there, it was only one class in a week of activities to get young people digitally trained. Prior to COVID, the thought of online activities was low down on our agenda, but suddenly we were faced with a challenge: How can we be a community organisation online? There’s no way it will work!
Yet it had to be done as we headed into lockdown, and the young people we work with rose to the challenge. They joined online classes for school, installed unheard of programmes. Zoom became our community space, and WhatsApp became a space for informal chats. CARAS change had begun, just like in every household across the world.
In a month of hard work, our staff members with the incredible support of partner organisations and the irreplaceable effort of volunteers managed to recreate a full programme with diverse activities: education, sport, wellbeing, arts, social activities, and practical support. All became available online for people to choose from, but we were faced with new challenges. We didn’t realise how much admin time was needed to create virtual programs — time spent on the phone explaining how our activities were still going ahead, how to use Zoom, and reminding people about activities they’d signed up for. Without our physical space, we had to invest time to hold people close to CARAS.
In 2021 we have started a new era, and we’re excited to be working with SIDElabs to make our online work more efficient, allowing us to do more for those we serve. Together we’ll be learning how to communicate more efficiently with our beneficiaries, using tech to make CARAS activities more accessible. This new era may be very uncomfortable, with no change to the uncertainty we feel, but it’s a new era none the less. We know what we need to do, and we are excited to working with SIDElabs to find those answers!
