This project will be a rapid response to the urgent need of smart phones for people with new asylum claims and without a smart phone. People with new asylum claims are currently being accommodated in a hotel in Leeds, and some do not have any kind of digital device, due to lack of funds or losing them on the journey to the UK. Others have smartphones that are broken or old. Those seeking asylum who are living in the hotel receive £8.86 a week to live on so buying any kind of smart device is impossible.
Receiving a smart phone and a preloaded SIM card enables these people to access asylum and health support services and improve their English, which reduces their precarity. It helps them to improve their wellbeing by becoming more independent, as they are able to navigate the city, make friends by attending English classes, and connect with their family and friends in the UK and abroad. Finally, having a smart phone enables them to integrate into UK society and get involved in civic culture as they become more digitally connected, for example by volunteering.
Smart phones are a limited resource and the process of gifting is coordinated by volunteers. This project aims to explore fair and respectful ways for volunteers who support people accommodated at the hotel to establish whether somebody needs a smart phone and how to create a good and fair process for volunteers to gift the phone and give related digital support to someone seeking asylum. The team will explore ways to create feelings of safety for the volunteer and the person seeking asylum when volunteers gift a smartphone, and how best to celebrate and induct that person alongside gifting the phone.