Arielle Tye is Head of Development at social enterprise and charity ProMo-Cymru, co-founder of Tech for Good Organisers UK and steering group member of Tech4Good South West.
Arielle talks about her tech for good work in Wales, her move to Bristol, and a passion to enhance youth work using digital.
Transcript
[Alicia]
Hi, welcome to Tech the Good Southwest podcast brought to you by Annie, Arielle and me, Alicia. Here at Tech for Good Southwest we're on a mission to build momentum for the Tech for Good movement here in Bristol, Bath, Exeter and across the Southwest. We are going to be joined by charities, investors, startups and initiatives to share their stories, challenges and successes. For the first three episodes, we're really excited because we're interviewing each other as the founders of Tech for Good Southwest, and today I'm speaking to Arielle. Hi, Arielle, how are you?
[Arielle]
Alicia. I'm great. Thank you!
[Alicia]
Awesome. Cool and Happy Friday! We are recording this on Friday. Ready for the weekend. Arielle, You've got an awesome background and yeah, I'm really excited to share that with the people listening today. So could you tell us a little bit about you and what you do day to day?
[Arielle]
Yes, certainly. My name is Arielle Tye, I work for an organisation in Wales called Promo Cymru. We are a social enterprise and a charity and we are really diverse as an organistion so I'm going to mainly tell you about the part of the organisation that I work in. So this is really around supporting the third sector and public sector as well with desiginign and delivering digital services.
One of our big specialist areas is around how you design and deliver youth services.
So how do you best engage people online? How do you use the right channels and in the right way to reach the audiences that you're looking for? And how do you design and deliver services that actually work for people?
So we deliver lots of training, we bring people together through tech for good good style events, we produce lots of resources, and we do a lot of consultancy which involves giving organisations skills, tools and confidence to, to work digitally. This can be from looking at their internal processes to how they communicate and actually deliver their services today. We do lots of other things, but that’s the main area that I work in in a nutshell.
Personally, I’m very passionate about the tech for good movement, so I was part of setting up the tech for good organisers network which is a network of network organisers. So this is different people who are running tech for good initiatives throughout the UK and Ireland actually. We all get together to share knowledge and expertise around how things are going in our communities, how we are running our events etc. And I actually live in Bristol so hence being part of this podcast and getting involved with Tech4Good South West.
[Alicia]
Probably next question, and you mentioned Tech for Good quite a lot there, which is obviously incredible and why we're here today, but what does what does Tech for Good actually mean to you?
[Arielle]
So that is a really good question, because when I first started getting involved with this type of work I didn't really know about the The Tech for Good movement, I didn't know it was called that.
So in Wales really our tech for good work came about from understanding a need to support charities and third sector with digital. We've always done lots of training in this space, so we set up a network called Creating Conversations where we would hold events, we would have speakers and bring people together to share their challenges from different perspectives. So we had people there from health, housing associations, people from youth services and we would have a speaker style event where we'd bring people together, people would network and share expertise. The whole idea was to support each other, to learn and to inspire each other as well.
So I think what tech for good means to me and the way I understand it, is bringing people together with different levels of expertise and experience to support each other, and lets face it, wouldn't it be great if we could work on some of these problems and issues facing society. What's really interesting about that is that is what charities are doing. A charity is set up to meet a need in a community and you then have tech companies and many of them are setting up lots of tech for good, but they have a whole range of different expertise. If they could work together with third sector and public sector then hopefully something cool will come out of that.
[Alicia]
What would you say is most important to within that realm in terms of one thing you could change what would it be?
[Arielle]
I feel like in the work that I do one of the biggest barriers is mindset and a llot of organisations, public sector staff, charities, third sector srtaff etc. So many people feel very unconfident with technology and they will say they are not very techie this isn't really for me. You get other people who are completely embracing it and you definitely see both sides. But I feel like there needs to be a mindset shift. So tech and digital does not sit with IT People and it doesn't sit with digital teams. It is now a fundamental and crucial part of how we deliver our services and should be thought about from the start and should be integrated into what we do.
So I really want a key message in the area of work we work in is around how digital can enhance your service delivery. so it is just about making it better for people who are rtrying to access support. Helping people to get the right support at the right time in a way that works for them. I really love working with organisations when they say initially I am not that technical, and they've got this slight apprehension and then you work with them and they say, "wow, I thought it was going to be really technical and there is hardly anything technical spoken about". So much is about journeys, pathways through services, its about understanding need and digging deep into the problem before you come up with loads of digital solutions. So much of the work is massively accessible if we can speak to organisations and support them in the right way.
[Alicia[
I think what you said about and I really liked that and probably something I haven't thought too much about is that digital confidence. And I think like you said, if you're not I've been in technology for 10 years, things overwhelm me every single day, let alone a charity where they don't, if you take a charity, let's say that they're Jessie May who are working with end of life for children, obviously it is such a powerful charity, unbelievable people in so much time and respect for them. Where does technology come into that? They probably haven't even thought about it because that's not the end goal for them as a charity. But equally we all know that technology can support and advance not only companies and individuals, but charities massively ,so I think that digital competencies that you spoke about, I haven't thought about before and that what digital competence is. Yeah, I just really liked it.
[Arielle]
Yeah, and I think confidence is huge and simplifying things and speaking in a language where people can understand that. Speaking about experiences we are all familiar with in our everyday lives, how we are accessing things these days. We are all prtety familiar for accessing information and support and its just about how we use this technology and this new way of doing things and bring this into our services and it enhances them and makes it better for people. There are some really small, fairly simple things that can make such a big difference.
[Alicia]
What it's like, you can feel your passion for it, and I love that but what really inspired you to get into this space?
[Arielle]
So I didn't purposefully go into this space. I did my degree in radio and started working as a freelance broadcast journalist, and at the same time doing a lot of youth work. I was teaching young people singing and DJ-ing and then a job came up at Promo Cymru that was looking for someone to be the editor of an online magazine they were running so I got the job. And interesting this online magazine is called The Sprout and its based in Cardiff and all about getting young people information and advice, but in an engaging way. So instead of saying its an information service it was an online magazine for young people where they can actually contribute content.
They wrote the stories, there was youth editorial team and they would share all sorts of amazing stories about issues and things that were going on for them and through their stories we were able to link other young people to support who were experiencing the same thing. Thats the way it worked.
I've been at Promo Cymru for 13 years, so my job has really evolved and the organisation has evolved to as I suppose digital is moving so fast, and we were there and doing it really early on. When I first started my job most youth services, most public services in fact most charities and third sector weren't really embracing social media for example, they were quite scared of it, they were looking at the risks, they were risk adverse to it, and we were some of the first people out there doing it.
So then we started to get a lot of work in helping organisations to get online, So how do you start engaging young people over social media. I did a big project with Cardiff Council quite early in my career in how to get the whole of the youth service to use social media as a youth service. Ths was about trying to think about how you set up safeguarding in an online space, how they train their staff, how they monitor things. So things really developed from there and now we really deliver a whole range of different services and a real area of expertise we work in is getting people the right information and the right advice as quickly as possible So yeah, my career has really developed this way.
[Alicia]
Because the business is Welsh, and work in Wales but do you do any work sort of specifically in the southwest?
[Arielle]
So we work all over. I mean, Wales is the place where the majority of our work happens, Our names Promo Cymru and Cymru means Wales in Welsh. So we do a lot of social impact work in Wales. We have a community centre in Ebervale called EVI and there we have a community cafe, we have just set up a community pantry there and a repair cafe and they do all sorts of things there like yoa, and a music studio and we have third secotr organisations that are based there, and ayouth service that is based there.
I work in a part of the organisation that is about building digital capacity and skills, all the things I've been talking about. But there is all sorts of other areas of our work and these projects are Welsh based. So any surplus that we are making we are also ploughing back into our organisations and our community projects. But yeah, in answer to your question we do work more widely, particularly when it comes to designing, in the area of digital youth work because we are recognised for our expertise in that area. We've done a fair bit of work with organisations throughout the whole of the UK. I am really lucky as I am working on a couple of projects now that are at a European level, so next time I'm going to be in Madrid and Brussels so its quite exciting because we do a broad range of work, and particularly when we work in Wales, but we also have this niche with digital youth work which is lots of people asking for our support and expertise in that area.
[Alicia]
I love that. What is one thing that you'd like you'd like to change I know you spoke quite a lot about kids and the next generation, and I think that world and especially charities, it's overwhelming, it's never ending, evolving, the need to keep ahead of the game and understand this is probably a challenge for charities. What is one thing that you'd like most to see and what do we need to do to get there?
[Arielle]
So I think connection, connecting services that is really important that we need to address together and we need to address at national levels. We are seeing something quite interesting happening where more and more services are going online, and more and more services are becoming accessible in a digital space.
There is all sorts of amazing support out there, if you are struggling with your mental health, there are wonderful charities and organisations who are specialist, and working in these spaces and you can now get a lot of that support online. But what is really interesting, just because an organisation is online that it is easier to find, or to know that the support even exists.
A lot of the work we are doing in Wales at the moment is around trying to think on a national level around how actually you navigate all of this support. It can still be very very hard that when you have an issue, where do you actually go for help. So it might be great there are all these services to access but how do you even know they exist and there is a massive gap there. It is very hard to signpost people to the right support at the point they need it. This is something we are really interested in at Promo Cymru so we do a lot of work around information advice. There are a lot of changes happening in Wales at the moment, and it looks like there will be a national youth service developed that we ave been advocating for and supporting for a long time.
Looking on a more national level how we connect all the different support available so it makes it really easy at that point of access for someone. So I think that is the change we really need to see happen, and its only going to be through collaboration that we can start making things easier for the people who use our services to navigate their way through all of this.
[Alicia]
Do you think, obviously the world is in a bit of a, well we've been in a very turbulent few years haven't we with Covid and the rising cost of living etc. Do you think that we're going to see more struggles in this space because of the world that we're in at the moment?
[Arielle]
Definitely. I mean there is more strain on third sector organisations, on charities at the moment. People have been struggling more with their help with their physical and mental health through covid. The cost of living crisis has a massive impact on your mental health and all sorts of other things. Being not able to put the heating on, afford food, it is a real struggle. So yes, there is going to be more need and less resource. Rally that is the perfect storm. But this is where trying to end on a positive, that hopefully technology can help with this. Technology can really make services more lean, there is always going to be an investment early on, but in the end you can meet things a lot simpler, leaner, but its not easy at the moment.
[Alicia]
Such good points and it is yeah, we need to do more. How we do more is for another day, but all the amazing people that we will speak to in the next week, years on this to hopefully make a difference. So, ya know, really, really good points.
What's next, which is a really broad question. I know that you're doing some amazing things going to Madrid, Brussels, so jealous! But what's next for you and as even the business?
[Arielle]
Yeah, so I mean, next for me, I'm feeling quite positive at the moment. In my professional life we are doing really great stuff at work. But personally I moved to Bristol about 4-5 years ago, and when I first moved to Bristol everyone said you are going to love it there, there is such a good scene and so many great organisations, but then we had covid but most of the time I’m either in my back garden or walking my dog! So there is all this stuff going on but I didn’t know about any of it!
About a year ago I started getting involved with Tech for Good Southwest and this is why I am doing this podcast now and I'm starting to feel so much more connected. So that's really cool.
In terms of work at Promo we have some really amazing projects on at the moment so any third sector organisation in Wales can now come to us and get a whole range of digital support, they can get training, resources. We’ve just set up a National Lottery community fund funded project called Digi-Cymru so the idea is that we support you and become your digital team. Yoiu can come to us with a digital challenge and we can connect you to the right person to get help with that. So thats exciting and lots of things coming to. We are looking to set up tech for good wales and thats on the horizon.
[Alicia]
Where can people usually find you? I know you said out in the garden or walking your dog but how can people get a hold of you to maybe talk about some of this in a bit more detail.
[Arielle]
So if you go to our website, so www.promo.cymru, so thats for Wales, and you can get hold of me on Twitter @litte_ari because my name is Ari, and I’m little!
[Arielle] That was amazing. But you're at a dinner party. You've got three guests alive or dead. They could be anyone! Who are they? You are only allowed 3!
[Alicia]
First one that comes to my mind, maybe Patrick Swayze. I love him, he is an absolute dream. So I can dance with him! I should try and think of someone now. Not just a celebrity. Martin Luther King I’d love to talk to him. Then The Dalai Lama. So I've got someone quite peaceful there as well. So I'll have a dance at the beginning with Patrick Swayze. And then talk about social justice with Martin Luther-King and then get super chill with the Dalai Lama.
[Alicia]
Wow you win! I’ve asked that question to a lot of people and thats a solid three! Arielle Tye, thank you so much. Yeah, so much good. Stuff 100%. I think all the stuff that you said is just really powerful. I'm sure a lot of people will connect with you after this to speak in a bit more detail. But yeah, thanks so much and looking forward to the next one!