Telecentre Europe Awards 2016 WINNER Entry: e-Facilitator

Antonio Manuel González Pérez

Country: Spain

City/Town: Baza (Granada)

Work Place: Guadalinfo

Position: Local Innovation Agent

Years in service in current organization: 8

Years in service as e-facilitator: 12

People supported/trained: 1651

Nominated by: Luis Navarro López, Head of Projects Area, Guadalinfo

1. WORK EXPERIENCE

The telecentre where Antonio works as an e-Facilitator is located in a deprived urban neighbourhood. The centre is managed by a local neighbours association and has been supported by public funds since 2007. Since the centre location is one of the most deprived areas in South Spain, most of the supported groups belong to ethnical minorities at risk of social exclusion.

Thanks to Antonio, the telecentre has emerged as an aid centre, where users overcome personal and social barriers and are trained aiming inclusion, learning new job search methods, promoting their culture and avoiding stereotypes through building a sense of community and a co-operation environment where Social Innovation flow freely.

The scope of the courses is large: digital literacy, advanced programming, online marketing, children literacy, cybersecurity, scratch, Arduino, Android, etc. Antonio has been teaching all this subjects during these years adapting them to the users for a better chance of employability

2. PROFESSIONALISM

Main projects:

• Amudima digital: Editing and publishing a digital magazine from women to women. 
• Co-library: Collaborative project with local library where users are engaged with reading. How to make a blog and use pedias through coworking.
• BecaMOS: teaching young users to obtain official certificate in the Microsoft Office.
• Radio in your wave: Bilingual School Radio
• Your SME in the net: training SME owners to develop a digital presence of the company. Web, Social networks, Wordpress, hosting, SEO/SEM. 
• Entrepreneur: How to innovate oriented to low resources people

Besides, several courses have been run: digital literacy, video edition, graphic design, etc. This year robotics became a topic through developing collaborative project with youth based on Arduino. Other non-IT subjects of interest such as dancing, fairs, carnival, etc. are linked to inclusion and IT purposes through web searching, social networks, graphic design and construction of fair carriages, etc.

3. ONE OF A KIND

Despite the lack of funding, the e-Facilitator has kept the telecentre opened since 2007, running activities more and more innovatively. He has worked together with the users, even without functional workstations or connection, enhancing their competences, overcoming barriers and promoting positive attitudes. Spreading the word beyond the neighbourhood’s barriers has been a must these years: informative actions all over the city, engaging with Unicef projects, city hall, youth commission, etc.

The evolution of the community is a reality, from digital literacy and social inclusion in 2008 to robotics and advanced programming in 2016 aiming better digital competences and job placement.

Antonio is an exemplar worker, who feels motivated while helping people at risk of exclusion. He takes care of people, being the community and the equality of opportunities the real objective of his personal and professional career.

4. EXAMPLE

Hard to highlight only one example:
Using Scratch, Antonio has trained children 7-12. In fact, he is the pioneer in using this technology in the Guadalinfo Telecentre network to create animated stories. With Arduino children are learning C++ programming and electronics aiming at creating a robot. E.g., a 20-year-old guy is building a widget that sends SMS to the smartphone with the temperature and humidity of his father’s orchard, warning about the suitable moment to water. In a cooperative way they are expanding the project to control a water bomb that feed automatically.
In a less tech sense many examples of job placement can be referred, like a girl that after a community manager course found a job in a company, being nowadays the head of social networks. 

• Best Digital Changemaker
• Best Multi-Stakeholder Partnership 
• Best Practice