The General Store, Selkirk

1. How has this funding impacted your organisation overall?

Our free Computer Clinic is very popular with older members of our community who are often overwhelmed by simple problems with their phones, laptops and tablets. We help them carry out online tasks, we solve technical issues to keep their tech going and show them how to communicate digitally with friends and family.

Covid taught us that we can communicate online and that video is an excellent way to stay in touch and combat loneliness. We are no longer in Covid but isolation can still be a problem, particularly in winter and in rural areas. Many of our Computer Clinic attendees have told us that they want to be more confident online and to be able to use technology to keep in touch. We wanted to expand this area of our work and Borders Community Action have supported us with funding to do that.

Our Computer Clinic sessions used to take place at a table in the retail space in our Store. We didn’t have anywhere private where we could help with confidential items or practise making video calls. In June 2025 we moved our Store to different premises with extra space, and with the funding support from BCA, we purchased a booth where we are now able to help in private. People can now confidentially discuss bank accounts, passwords, security worries etc and practise using video apps or social media in complete privacy. As we are getting busier, it also means we still have 2 spaces to see people as the shop floor is available for less private matters.

BCA also provided funding to support the development of marketing materials and pay a project manager for 6 months as we grow our Stay in Touch element of the Clinic. We have been able to produce bespoke marketing materials – both hard copy and digital – and run two (up to now) marketing campaigns. The project manager goes out to give presentations about our Computer Clinic to local groups and distributes leaflets. They also attend the Computer Clinics, help triage the problems, collate feedback and also serve tea and coffee!

2. What difference has the funding made for the people you support?

Grow the number of Clinic attendees

• 3 months (before the move and the new booth) March/April/ May clinic attendance – 78.
• 3 months (after the move and with the new booth) June/July/August clinic attendance – 89.

The holiday period and the return to school/change of season is historically a time when demand for our Computer Clinic is lower, so we are particularly pleased with this increase in numbers. This increase also happened despite the upheaval of a move to new premises and interrupted business over the same period.

Clinic attendees feel more confident with using their devices and/or online

We ask the following questions:

1. Was your Computer Clinic session helpful.
2. Would you recommend it to others?
3. Do you feel more confident online/using your device?

We are delighted to say that feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with 95% of respondents so far saying yes to all three questions. Here are some sample comments:

“A wonderful service which I will highly recommend to others”

“This service is always great for the things that stump me on my laptop. Thank you”

“Very patient. Sorted an issue (saved my sanity). A great service”

3. In what ways has the funding affected your volunteers or their involvement?

We have one volunteer K. who works at the Computer Clinic every week. She is particularly good at engaging with people socially when they come in and helping to assess their problems and indeed actually help solve a few.

She has been very motivated by our new set-up and increased busy-ness. As she recently declared when she helped with a small queue of drop in attendees- “This is how it should be!”.

4. What improvements or changes have you made to your programmes or services as a result of the funding?

The funding has really helped us market our Computer Clinic. With almost 2,000 paper leaflets distributed around Selkirk so far, we feel we have a better chance of reaching the people who need us most.

The privacy booth is such an asset – it’s private and its very professional. People comment very positively on it.

5. Has the funding led to any new collaborations or strengthened community connections?

Since June 4 x local organisations agreed to promote the Clinic via stocking leaflets and/or verbally referencing the project to their members or attendees. We have made 3 presentations to W.I. type groups and we have plans to do more.

6. How has the funding influenced your organisation’s sustainability or future plans?

This funding has allowed us to grow in the numbers we attract to our Clinic and the type of support we can offer. After only 3 months we were already seeing an upturn in numbers of attendees and we still have room to grow.

7. What feedback do you have about the funding application and award process?

Very straightforward application process with the welcome addition of workshops to help you consider evaluation as well as a range of governance issues.

8. What additional support would help you build on the success of this funding?

We find that new ideas often pop up organically out of an existing project. Funding for a dedicated individual to move these ideas into reality is always welcome as the team are so busy with “business as usual”. Hence we are particularly grateful for the funding we received for a project manager.

We would welcome that again for our next bright idea!