What do we hope to achieve?

The issue of lack of access to digital technology is most strongly felt in communities of concentrated socioeconomic disadvantage, like public housing estates, where there is a high proportion of:

• New settlers and people from non-English speaking backgrounds;
• People with physical or sensory disabilities;
• People with drug and/or alcohol dependency;
• Sole parent families;
• People from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background;
• People with mental illness;
• Vulnerable older people and the aged;
• Unemployed and/or underemployed people.

The Digital Inclusion Initiative (DII) is an action program that aims to implement a whole-of-community approach to community building and economic development, using new technologies as tools to provide equal access for all residents in disadvantaged communities.

DII adopts a direct-action strategy to address issues of affordable access to information technology, economic development of disadvantaged communities, increasing user IT skills, the creation of web-based content that is relevant, and the inspiration of local communities to lifelong learning.

Rather than focusing on individuals in need, DII concentrates on whole-of-community solutions to enhance social cohesion and have a mass impact, such as the wiring of the Atherton Gardens and Collingwood public housing estates in Melbourne.

The Digital Inclusion Initiative aims to mobilise government, corporate and philanthropic resources in the form of infrastructure, cash and in kind support to deliver projects in communities.