Business donates laptops to support children in Brighton

Level Up Laptops, launched by Brighton-based marketing technology business SoPro in partnership with Tarner Community Project and Tech-Takeback, made the second delivery of refurbished laptops to local children who have no access to IT equipment.

The 23 refurbished laptops delivered to Carlton Hill School follow 20 that were delivered to St Luke’s Primary School earlier this week.

Headteacher, Tamsen Beer comments “At Carlton Hill, we have worked hard to create a fun and engaging online curriculum - but we realise that it is no good to our pupils if they can't access it.

"There are still many of our families who are sharing devices with their siblings and/or parents and are therefore struggling. This incredibly generous initiative by Level Up Laptops will help us to continue to tackle the wide digital divide by giving these families a refurbished laptop to support the children with their remote learning. It will also bring these children back into our school community as they will be able to communicate with classmates and teachers through our blogs and video calls.”

Level Up Laptops is asking Sussex businesses to donate unwanted devices or funds to cover refurbishment costs. Monetary donations go through Level Up Laptops charity partner the Tarner Community Project, which has close ties to St Luke's and Carlton Hill Primary schools and supports a range of community-focused activities for local children.

Rob Harlow, SoPro's co-founder and CTO : "We knew that if local businesses had spare devices or an opportunity to help close the digital divide with a donation, they would step up. Because SoPro is designed to help businesses identify prospects before creating awareness and engagement, we were able to quickly identify Sussex business owners and reach out to them with effective personalised messaging. It's just fantastic that, less than a month after launching, we're making deliveries to schools. These children could be the future developers and innovators we need to keep Brighton and Hove growing."

Dr David Greenfield is the co-founder and MD of Tech-Takeback, whose RevaluElectricals service offers all Brighton & Hove residents the ability to donate unwanted electricals via doorstep collections.

He commented; "It's fantastic that by working with Level Up Laptops, and the SoPro team, we have been able to get devices donated by our local community fully data-erased and refurbished and back out into the community, where they will have an immediate, positive impact."

Emma Jacquest, CEO of Tarner Community Project, said the devices will help many schoolchildren across Sussex; “Covid has accelerated the amount of education conducted online and it’s critical that vulnerable children don’t fall behind because of a lack of access to learning resources.

“We’re excited to be involved in this project to tackle the digital divide across Sussex and have every confidence in the generosity of local businesses. It is estimated that 2.6 million schoolchildren live below the poverty line in England alone, and Ofcom estimates that about 9% of children in the UK – up to 1.7 million - do not have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet at home.

More than 880,000 children also live in a household with only a mobile internet connection. Online Nation 2020.

Full details of the Level Up Project can be found on its website at: https://leveluplaptops.co.uk/Level Up Laptops will also accept any laptop that runs Windows 7 or later plus tablets, which many younger children need for their studies, refurbishing them and then connecting with local schools who will distribute the devices to children struggling to maintain their education remotely.

Any devices donated to Level Up Laptops go through a thorough process to, data erase, refurbish and PAT test them, conducted by our technology partners KLYK or Tech-Takeback, before they are distributed to our partner schools.