In July 2023, River Kids Charity Manager Jack Christine sought support from the Scottish Tech Army (STA) to enhance their website. River Kids, a Scottish charity dedicated to helping underprivileged children and families in West Lothian, had recently undergone a brand refresh and sought a more professional online presence. The goal was to create a website that would clearly communicate their services, attract corporate sponsors, and inspire community support.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise’s) Regiment was created under the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders (raised 1794) and 93rd Sutherland Highlanders (raised 1799) but traces its history back to the raising of the Stirlingshire Militia in 1639.

The Tarbat Historic Trust is a charity that preserves and shares the history of the Tarbat Peninsula. It runs the Discovery Centre at Tarbat Old Parish Church, which is full of Pictish and Medieval artifacts. To make these treasures more accessible, the charity asked the Scottish Tech Army (STA) for help.

The Daisy Project (Domestic Abuse Integrated Support for You) provides integrated domestic abuse advocacy and support services to families across the South of Glasgow. Originally named the Castlemilk Domestic Violence Project, the charity was formed in 2000 based on a need identified within the local community and is now run by a dedicated team of five qualified Independent Domestic Abuse Advocates (IDAAs) who have extensive experience of supporting women long-term.

Guest blog from Toni Scullion, a Computing Science teacher and founder of nonprofit charity dressCode.

Baby steps 20+, a Falkirk-based charity, was established in 2020 to provide a recycling and upcycling service for baby goods, offering paid employment to local people with special needs. It enlisted the help of the Scottish Tech Army in order to help promote the social enterprise by developing an online community shop selling pre-loved baby and toddler items.

ISEE’s Journey to Establishing a Digital Presence with the Scottish Tech Army’s Expertise. As a new charitable organisation, ISEE is dedicated to achieving its mission of raising awareness of Irlen Syndrome. Irlen syndrome is a difficulty with visual perceptual processing and is not an 'eye' problem. A key part of the charity’s strategy is establishing a digital presence to help raise awareness.

Sally Coulthard, former Army Officer and founder of the Defence Gardens Scheme, shares her experience working with the Scottish Tech Army (STA) to establish their website and meet legal requirements. Volunteers Lauren Kennedy and Jason Wan provided invaluable support with website structuring, search engine optimisation, privacy notices, GDPR compliance, newsletter setup, and social media channels. The assistance received from the volunteers made a significant difference in setting up a professional showcase for the Defence Garden Scheme and proved to be an excellent communication vehicle.

Changes is a community health project in East Lothian, which works to help people in the county achieve and maintain positive mental health and wellbeing. In this video, CEO Caitlin Rodgers talks about the contributions of Scottish Tech Army volunteers across a range of activities, which resulted in more financial support from local businesses, more requests for support from younger people and greater confidence internally around cyber security.

AND Digital and the Scottish Tech Army are delighted to report on the successful completion of the first project to be delivered within the framework of the Tech for Good Alliance. This new initiative was launched by the Scottish Tech Army to drive the development of the Tech for Good ecosystem in the UK by building a bridge to connect the resources of leading companies in the tech sector with the digital needs of organisations in the third sector.

With significant experience of the stress faced by nurses during the COVID crisis it is great to see supportive tools and techniques emerging. Dr Kath MacDonald and Dr Caroline Dickson from Queen Margaret University (QMU) working with groups of community nurses have developed an interactive toolkit called CAKE, which makes use of creative storytelling to promote self-care and team wellbeing.

Lynsey Penny, MD of Transition Dundee, discusses the social enterprise's collaboration with STA volunteers to build a user-friendly website using Odoo. With a focus on climate action and community involvement, Transition Dundee's projects tackle food and clothing waste while raising awareness.

As a retiring biological data analyst, Alistair MacDougall, sought opportunities to volunteer in data-related roles for charities. He collaborated with Stable Life, a charity associated with a commercial riding stables, to configure a system that complied with GDPR regulations. Despite staffing challenges, he successfully prepared Stable Life to implement the new system.

Bertha Yakubu who founded African Women's Group Scotland in 1994, contacted the Scottish Tech Army for help in creating an online environment to support the group’s information sharing programme as part of the supportive community for African women in Scotland. The group’s primary objective is to alleviate the isolation experienced by African women in Scotland and facilitate the exchange of valuable information. Recognising the importance of this cause, the Scottish Tech Army helped by setting up a Learning Management System (LMS). This LMS became a vital tool in providing additional support to families in need.

Boghall Drop in Centre approached the Scottish Tech Army with a request for help to rebuild the web site in a user-friendly way that would enable them to keep it updated easily and make sure that the users of the service could be kept updated about everything that the Centre offers.

Euan Ross, a program manager, and Aba-Sah Dadzie, a data analyst, discuss their involvement with the STA Climate Dashboard project. Euan shares his journey in IT, his attraction to the STA's support for tech beginners and advocacy for Tech for Good policies. Aba-Sah explains the dashboard they developed, which provides insights into Scottish greenhouse gas emissions and trends during lockdown. They delve into analysing cycling and pedestrian data, the impact of weather, and visualisations created by Code Clan graduates. Both express their passion for exploration, learning, and the satisfaction of contributing their skills.

What if, after you got your COVID vaccine, you could then have helped to promote global vaccination by donating one to someone with less access to them? That’s what Got1Give1 is all about. However, it could not have been possible without the help of the Scottish Tech Army.

Everyone deserves to feel part of their neighbourhood. The Big Lunch is held in different neighbourhoods across the UK, with the aim of making neighbourhoods safer and reducing loneliness. The essence of the Big Lunch is that communities often lack connections between people, therefore the Big Lunches help to build these connections and enable more community based projects to take place.

Edinburgh-based charity Miricyl has been helping people access mental health resources in one place. Its website features a web app providing a range of online resources and can point you in the right direction to get help- and the Scottish Tech Army made it happen.