Tameside Community Computers CIC
Putting I.T. back into the CommunITy
Welcomes You!
HELP THOSE LESS FORTUNATE
DONATE A COMPUTER TODAY
Together We Can Work Towards a Brighter Future
Who We Are
The Beginning
Tameside Community Computers CIC was founded in August 2022, it was born on the back of the great community work carried out by ZenTec Network Solutions Limited during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
ZenTec Network Solutions Limited are a Professional Business IT Support company and during the Covid 19 pandemic their directors Mr Michael Brooks & Miss Cerid Grimshaw saw a very important need to use their skills and help those in need.
Most of the businesses that ZenTec supported closed, but, as ZenTec is an IT company, they had to stay open, working from Mike's shed in his back garden due to their offices being closed.
They saw a need when schools had sent their students home to do online learning, the government had bought large stocks of computers, businesses were buying them for their staff, and the remainder of devices had tripled in price with demand being high.
They saw people posting on social media who had 2 - 5 children, all in different school years, with just one laptop or computer between them, or they were doing lessons on mobile phones.
The urgent need for tech was very apparent, so they contacted all the businesses they knew that had spare laptops and asked for them to be given to refurbish, and then gave them back out for free to families in the local area to help with their children's education.
This blew out of the water when they were contacted by the BBC to be featured on Northwest Tonight, and on their 'Give a Laptop' campaign.
Computer donations came flooding in, the logistics in coordinating these went crazy, they spent a full day driving up to Carlisle and working their way back to Dukinfield collecting devices from all over the Northwest. They had local businesses and members of the public helping by being drop-off points too.
Mr Andrew Cannell, now a Director of Tameside CIC, was the main drop-off point for the Wirral and Liverpool area taking in hundreds of devices.
From December 2020 to August 2022, ZenTec Network Solutions Limited donated 2822 devices completely free of charge to those living in digital poverty across the Northwest, and some further afield. The cost of these donated devices was an estimated £776,050.
Tameside Community Computers CIC was registered on 5th August 2022 as a not for profit organisation to carry on the work started by ZenTec.
The Last 12 months
The Focus of Our Efforts
Tameside Community Computers CIC (Community Interest Company) is a Tameside based organisation that launched in 2022 and provides refurbished Laptop and Desktop Computers, Tablets, and Mobile Phones to those most in need within the community.
Over the past twelve months we have donated, 470 Laptop and 20 Desktop computers, 38 Smartphones each with a Data and Call package, plus a further 182 SIM cards with a Data and Call package, to people experiencing digital exclusion or digital poverty, completely free of charge.
Tameside Community Computers CIC is committed to reducing electronic waste by refurbishing donated devices and, if you partner with us, you will be helping us to achieve this, which will ultimately lead to a greener future.
One of our main goals is to reduce digital exclusion and poverty. All our refurbished devices are given to those individuals and families most in need who may not otherwise have access to this technology. We monitor this through a referral process and ask those requesting devices to demonstrate that all other support avenues have been exhausted, before issuing them with a device.
Donate
We need your computer donations to help those less fortunate who are living in digital poverty and our computer donation program has a zero waste recycling program. We urgently require new and used computers, Laptops, Desktops, Apple Macs, Tablets and Mobile Phones. Our highly effective program produces a meaningful impact on the quality of life for hundreds of people in Tameside and surrounding areas.
If you have any devices you wish to donate, please fill in the contact form below and someone will be in touch. Thank you.