Tech to Connect case studies

News – Blog

Tech to Connect case studies

15 June 2020

Who are the Tech to Connect finalists?

Learn more about the ten Tech to Connect Challenge finalists.

CareToConnect by Marie Curie

Finalist of the Tech To Connect Challenge

“Technology can facilitate communication and connections because it makes it so much easier and accessible to ‘meet’ and catch-up with people. Likewise, it gives people the opportunity to quickly connect with someone in a similar experience, who is also living through an emotionally challenging time. We believe our idea will help tackle social isolation for carers in a very simple and affordable way, with the potential to help many individuals right across England.”

Chatty Cafe

Runner Up of the Tech To Connect Challenge (£75,000 prize)

“To critics who say that technology is actually contributing to social isolation, we would say that although we are a digital company using tech to connect people, we are encouraging and offering spaces where face-to-face interaction can take place. Therefore, technology can be used positively to connect people who then have real life, human conversation. Instead of challenging or competing with tech, we are actively trying to make it easy to use.”

CONNECT by The Proud Trust

Finalist of the Tech To Connect Challenge

“Tech can and must be used for social good. The LGBT+ community has always been dispersed and marginalised and as such have often learnt to be early adopters of technology as a tool to link in and find one another for support and acceptance. It’s not about whether the new wave of tech is good or bad, that ship has sailed – it just IS, and it’s our job to harness that for good ends.”

Happy Place by Suffolk Libraries

Finalist of the Tech To Connect Challenge

“Happy Place harnesses technology to deliver a tangible, real world intervention that draws from a huge pool of readily available activities, events and experiences. Technology acts as the facilitator of change, referring users to interventions proven to address the root causes of social isolation and loneliness.”

Mirthy

Runner Up of the Tech To Connect Challenge (£75,000 prize)

“Mirthy’s advantage is that the human and physical resources exist and with their spare capacity, it’s simply a matter of enabling and connecting them. Creating human and physical assets requires excessive time, funding and resources, whereas leveraging existing resources is fast and efficient – this approach will have a net contribution to combating social isolation on a national scale.”

Music Memory Box by Studio Meineck

Finalist of the Tech To Connect Challenge and Winner of the Pargiter Trust Award, £25,000

“We have been mindful of how technology has been adapted into our product to enhance rather than detract from the ‘human’ element of regular care. Whilst screen-based technologies are often criticized for supporting activities that replace the need for others, Music Memory Box multiplies the opportunities for personal contact and creative activities with important wellbeing outcomes that can be done together, such as singing, dancing and holding hands.”

PlaceCal – the community calendar by Manchester Age Friendly Neighbourhoods (MAFN)

Finalist of the Tech To Connect Challenge

“We see PlaceCal as a collaborative tool and shared methodology that can be used nationwide to enable residents and community groups to work better together to reduce social isolation and loneliness.”

What’s It Like? by People with Alternative Learning Styles (PALS)

Finalist of the Tech To Connect Challenge

“What’s It Like? service is a repurposing of existing technology and builds on the fragmented approach that currently exists. The graded approach, taking people stepby-step towards inclusion and the use of beneficiaries to design, build and implement the service has received incredible levels of interest from beneficiaries, users and clinicians alike.”