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Digital Heroes Awards 2011

South West

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Chris Dredger who is the South West Digital Hero 2011. Well done on scooping the £5,000 prize!

Well done to Andy Weeds and Jayne Hardy who were finalists.

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Winner

Chris Dredger

Chris Dredger

Winner!

Storybook Dads helps maintain the vital emotional bond between prisoners and their children by helping offenders to record bedtime stories for their kids on CDs and DVDs. The imprisoned parent records a story and a message which is then edited and enhanced using digital audio software.

The editing process means that poor readers - and even non-readers - can still participate. A mentor simply reads each line for them to repeat and then the mentor’s voice is edited out. Storybook Dads also runs another project called DVD Dads, where a prisoner is recorded via video camera reading a book to his child. Storybook Mums also runs in women’s prisons.

The project’s goal is to bring families together using digital technology, as research shows that keeping families together helps to reduce re-offending by up to six times. Chris is an ex-offender himself and wants to help others, just as he was helped by Storybook Dads when he was imprisoned. He has been working for Storybook Dads since his release.

The grant will help buy new video equipment to roll out the project in other prisons, as well as extending it to the Armed Forces.

http://www.storybookdads.org.uk

Finalists

Andy Weeds

Andy Weeds - nominated by Sue Sandberg

The Open Blue Trust uses a double decker play bus to travel to isolated communities across North Wiltshire. The bus has been completely refurbished and is now used to offer toddler clubs, after-school clubs and a cafe for residents. Founded in 2002, the Trust’s aim is ‘delivering opportunity’ and a key part of this is providing computer and internet access on the bus to these rural communities.

The Trust is currently visiting the Thingley Park travellers’ site in Thingley, where 30 people regularly use the bus. The traveller education professionals say, "it’s hard to believe how much has changed in terms of behaviour, compliance and respect to others."

The grant would fund the project for another year and help to buy an extra laptop.

http://www.openblue.org.uk

Jayne Hardy

Jayne Hardy - nominated by Samantha Hadadi

The Blurt Foundation has two ambitious aims: to tackle the stigma surrounding depression, and to make sufferers realise that they are not alone.

Through the website (www.blurtitout.org) and Twitter (@BlurtAlerts), Blurt provides people who are feeling isolated with an online mentor. Each mentor has experienced depression and, while they cannot give advice, they listen and support mentees so that they can recognise that there is always hope.

Samantha nominated Jayne because she believes that, "Jayne has dedicated every spare second, every spare minute, to Blurt and to helping others benefit from her experiences."

As soon as the website launched in the summer, the foundation had to enlist the help of voluntary mentors to deal with hundreds of emails. The grant would help provide training to mentors so that Blurt can help even more, go into schools, as well as making further improvements to the website.

http://www.blurtitout.org

Meet the Judges

Find out more about the panel of judges who will be helping select the TalkTalk Digital Heroes for 2011.

Find out more