Bridging the Gap: Laptops Empower Young People at Inspire Suffolk

For young people striving to reconnect with education and career opportunities in the UK, access to and understanding of technology is a necessity.

Recognising this need, unconnected.org recently teamed up with Inspire Suffolk, a charity in the East of England committed to supporting young individuals on their educational and professional journeys.

Through this partnership, laptops were donated, making a profound impact on the lives of countless youths under the guidance of passionate professionals like Jay Wallace-Langan, the Pre-16 Project Coordinator, and Maddie Killworth, the Post-16 Project Manager, at Inspire Suffolk.

Killworth, who assumed her role as Post-16 Project Manager in November 2023, is deeply dedicated to helping individuals aged 16-25 navigate the challenges of finding employment or returning to education.

Describing her role, she said, “I manage all of the services where we support anyone over the age of 16 who isn't in employment or education.”

Killworth’s journey with Inspire Suffolk began at the age of 16, during a time of personal upheaval when living in a youth hostel.

“I just had a bit of a family breakdown and I had very little direction,” she recounted.

“At first I was like, 'there is absolutely no way I'm doing it'. It was my absolute worst nightmare but I did it, and it was the best thing I ever did.”

Her experience in her teenage years highlights the transformative impact of programs ran by organisations like Inspire Suffolk in giving youngsters the opportunity to reengage with education and enter the workforce.

Wallace-Langan, meanwhile, who is tasked with the role of going into secondary schools across the county and engaging schoolchildren over the age of 11, also draws on his own adolescent experiences in seeing the value in such programs.

Though his background in entertainment as a former touring magician and illusionist, might seem to bring a unique perspective to his role as Pre-16 Project Coordinator, he had also worked for over two years for The Prince’s Trust.

As a teenager he did his Prince's Trust project with Merseyside Fire and Rescue after having suffered with anorexia, which meant he had to leave musical theatre college and drop out of education, so the Prince’s Trust served as an opportunity to bridge the gap between his recovery and his education.

“Without doing the program, I probably wouldn't be where I am now. I've grown up in a very deprived area of Liverpool with a lot of gangs and crime and drugs happening around the local area. That could have ended up being me.”

Wallace-Langan continued: “For both of us I think it kind of stemmed from the fact that we've gone through the things that the young people have gone through, and now we can talk about our experiences and try and make sure that the young people don't go through what we've been through.”

At the older cohort, Killworth identifies both economic pressure and boredom as key factors in young people’s educational disengagement.

She cites the cost-of-living crisis as a distraction, disabling youngsters “to retain their interest in anything that isn’t bringing in direct income”.

There are not just pressures to provide for their family, but also a lack of government services to entertain adolescents as they grow up in rural parts of the country like Suffolk.

Kilworth feels a great sense of compassion for the youngsters as even since she was their age a decade ago, there were plenty more services available like a local youth centre and a community which have since been axed.

“Boredom is now replaced with antisocial behaviour and as much as I would never condone any of that, I can't blame these young people for turning to that.”

Kilworth states that it is not a lack of drive that prevents the young people at Inspire but rather a lack of resources.

This is where unconnected.org came into to help; Killworth’s group of approximately 500 young people, aged 16-25, now have access to laptops, facilitating various activities such as skill-building exercises, job searches, and CV creations.

 “The young people we're working with, they're usually very vulnerable, very marginalised young people, so their access to IT is really limited,” explained Kilworth.

“I grew up with a computer, I feel like I was really lucky that I had digital skills going into a job, but these people, they don't have those so they've been able to really develop those skills ready for them to be employable.”

The computers are also essential for those youngsters with neurodivergence.

At Inspire there are teens with dyslexia who can use a dyslexic-friendly font, those with dyspraxia whose motor skills are assisted with having a computer and even those with sensory issues when it comes to writing that a laptop can assist them with.

“Some people that can't get their words down onto paper they can press the microphone and talk into the laptop and it does everything for them,” said Wallace-Langan.

Thinking back to how a laptop would have served him during his school days in Liverpool he reflected, “I'm dyslexic, ADHD and all the rest of it and if 'd have had that opportunity at school I think I probably would have got better grades.”

Seeing the laptops in action, unconnected.org also spoke to Corey, 17, and Heath, 20, who had both been working on their CV at the centre in Ipswich.

We wish Corey all the best in his ambitions to become a plasterer and hope that Heath finds the apprenticeship that he is looking for in either accountancy or sports coaching, and hope the laptops can help even just a little bit in bringing them closer to fulfilling their potential.