Building an infrastructure of digital opportunity in the North East

This is the open speech we wrote for the symposium we hosted at Durham University as part of the Festival of Digital Culture and Inclusion. A heartfelt Thank You to everyone who attended our event, and especially to the partners and the mentors who have made the Trusted Connections project a truly impactful project.

I want to take a moment to reflect on what we have achieved, not just as a project, but as a community committed to building digital capacity and inclusion in and for the North East.

When we talk about the North East, we are talking about a region with some of the highest levels of digital exclusion in the country, tied deeply to socio-economic factors, long histories of industrial decline, and unequal access to opportunity. But we are also talking about a region known for resilience, for generosity, and for community spirit.

That is the heart of digital inclusion as we have conceived it for this project.

It is not simply about teaching someone how to use a device. It is about ensuring they feel empowered to participate in society. It is about restoring agency. It is about dignity too.

And when that work is supported by mentors who care, by partnerships that are anchored in trust, and by people committed to working with communities rather than simply for them, then digital inclusion becomes possible.

Our project, Trusted Connections, has, from the very beginning – from  planning stage through to its execution –  been about far more than digital skills. It has been about people.

The project has been about enabling confidence, supporting independence, and creating spaces where individuals feel safe to explore, learn, question, and grow. With this in mind, community partners have built their digital hubs, spaces where community members know they can get support with their questions about their digital needs.

Throughout this project, we have witnessed the powerful impact that a trust based, community focused approach can have. We have seen how, when people are given time, encouragement, and a genuinely supportive relationship, digital capacity becomes far more than a technical skillset; it becomes a pathway to opportunity.

Today, as you engage with the project community partners, you will hear stories from those who have helped individuals take their first steps online. You will hear stories of intergenerational learning. And will hear stories of how to transform technical learning into ethical approaches.

These may sound small actions to you, but I assure you that they are not. At a personal level, they have an enormous impact. They enable participation, autonomy, and well-being when online by making people feel more reassured, safer, and more realised through their own digital abilities. And so we are reminded that digital inclusion is not a luxury; it is a foundation for full participation in modern life.

These stories also remind us of our responsibility: as researchers, as policy makers, as practitioners, and also as citizens. We all play a role in digital inclusion.

This is because digital inequalities do not happen in isolation. They are bound in structural inequalities: in income, education, housing, health, and place based differences. And that is why meaningful, effective digital inclusion requires more than devices or skills training. It requires supportive infrastructures: physical infrastructures of connectivity, no doubt. There is work to be done here in the North East to improve it, but we should also not forget the importance of social infrastructure for guidance, belonging, care, and consistent support, which are so vital for promoting safe and ethical participation online. Sorting out the technical infrastructure only creates more need to provide a social, supportive infrastructure. One should not stop the other. We need both.

And so, this means we must continue to invest in people, not only in technology.

This also means to empower libraries, community centres, neighbourhood groups, volunteers, and practitioners across the region, as they play a crucial role in sustaining digital engagement. They are, in many ways, the real “trusted connections” at the heart of this project.

If we did not know it before, we know it now: It is abundantly clear that building digital capacity is not a one-off intervention. It is an ongoing, relational work that demands collaboration, commitment, and shared responsibility between community organisations, researchers, policymakers, and funders. And today, after almost 5 months of joint work we can say that the North East has a remarkable ecosystem of partners who are ready to continue to work together.

As we look beyond the project, I want to draw on the powerful idea introduced by our own Chancellor, Dr Fiona Hill, who is a great role model for our University and the North East; she herself is a daughter of the North East. In her biographical book, she introduces a very powerful concept: “infrastructures of opportunity”.

She reminds us that opportunity does not arise by chance. It is rather created through a combination of networks, systems, and conditions that can support people to thrive in life. But this is not all, in her narrative, she also shows that it requires one to take initiative to make those opportunities work for them.

Digital inclusion is built on such conditions, too. It can be a gateway to employment, to access to health care, to learning, to civic engagement, to creativity, and to connection. It can be all of this, but it will only be all of it if those infrastructures are intentionally built, nurtured, and maintained so that people can harness the benefits they offer.

Trusted Connections has shown us what is possible when we build these infrastructures with and within communities.

As this project concludes, our task is not to step back to admire the picture we have created, but rather to step forward and continue what we have started, to keep exploring new ways to strengthen digital capacities, widen participation, and expand the infrastructures of opportunity across our region. And we need help, from all of you, to do so, because this is a true community venture.

So, today before I pass the word to my colleagues to report about their experiences on the project, I want to thank every partner, participant, and volunteer who has contributed to this work.

Your commitment has meant a lot to many people, but it has meant even more to those you have impacted, and your work will continue to guide how digital inclusion is built in your communities.

I hope we can build on this momentum, on the relationships, and the shared purpose we have created here.

Thank you.