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.

At the Scottish Tech Army (STA), we know that volunteering is a journey, not just a one-time commitment. People step in, contribute their skills, take a break when they need to, and often return with renewed energy and fresh perspectives. That’s why we’re so excited to celebrate Volunteer Returners Week, shining a light on some of the tremendous volunteers who’ve come back to STA after some time away. Their stories reflect the flexibility, purpose, and sense of community that define our organisation.

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.

There’s a scene in the first of the latest incarnation of Star Trek movies where Scotty congratulates himself on beaming 3 people from 2 locations onto 1 transporter pad and on a not-so-sunny day on 19th May, we had something of a similar sense of satisfaction when we worked with PwC to support them once again on their fantastic One Firm One Day initiative.

The Eilidh MacLeod Memorial Trust was set up in 2018 following the death of 14-year-old Eilidh MacLeod in the Manchester Arena bombing on 22nd May 2017. Eilidh was a talented bagpiper, and so the Trust was established by her family to ensure that her legacy of fun, friendship and love of music lives on for others.

I am sure you have all seen lots of information about Artificial Intelligence (AI) – at events, on social media, there are new knowledge hubs popping up weekly with large pools of resources, thought leadership pieces, videos providing introduction and guidance. So where does that leave us?

Every so often the Scottish Tech Army gets asked to realise a project that has a wow factor. As soon as you start talking about it to people you can see the lights go on. Even better when such a project connects with a basic need we all have: using a toilet.

Automation has been hailed as a game changer for productivity with the power to streamline and turbo charge repetitive tasks especially in administration. However, one small charity found itself in a nightmare scenario when its automated procedures started to break down and their whole system needed to migrate to a new platform.

In November 2023, we had the pleasure of supporting the annual ACOSVO conference for charity leaders which was held in Edinburgh. ACOSVO is the membership organisation that supports Scottish charity CEOs, senior management and Chairs. The focus this year on data, digital and AI was responding to the membership’s need for more information and an opportunity for open discussion.

The Digital Skills Gap is a major challenge in the UK, both in terms of individual skills for life and in terms of skills to be effective and productive in a work setting. We attended two events in November that highlighted initiatives designed to help address these challenges.

Estonia, like its two Baltic counterparts Latvia and Lithuania was under Soviet Occupation briefly in 1940-41 and then for 47 years between 1944-1991. It was feared that the Post-Soviet slump would continue to impact on the Estonian economy and way of life. However, as a society Estonians have made transformative changes since the early 2000s. So much so that Estonia is now a world leader in the IT and Technology industry and has become one of the most digitalised nations on the planet.

Being Santa involves some big, logistical challenges. This is why GSOC teamed up with the Scottish Tech Army (STA) to improve their online capabilities. Via The Tech For Good Alliance the Scottish Tech Army called on a team of specialists from AND Digital to improve GSOC's website and database functionality.

Over the last year a team of volunteers at the Scottish Tech Army (STA) has delivered a searchable, web-based application, which allows computer science teachers to access and present free lesson starter exercises in their classes. The idea originated from Toni Scullion, founder of dressCode and a computer science teacher herself, to improve access to engaging teaching materials for computer science.

The Tech for Good Alliance, the UK-wide skilled tech volunteering framework programme created by the Scottish Tech Army, has announced a strategic partnership with GoCodeGreen, the UK’s leading carbon diagnosis and decisioning platform for software and related technology,

The Scottish Tech Army has today announced the launch of its Soundscape service, providing a ground-breaking audio experience built on extensive development carried out by Microsoft Research and released under an open-source licence. The service will provide a replacement for the current service, which will not be available beyond the end of August 2023.

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

This year’s Tech for Good Summit was good for many reasons, most of which you might expect, perhaps. Great networking opportunities, fascinating discussions and expert contributions from across the tech and third sectors. An unexpected outcome was an opportunity to partner with PwC on its One Firm One Day volunteering initiative, using their skills to conduct a feasibility assessment on using code released by Microsoft to create an enduring service to support the visually-impaired community.

The Scottish Tech Army has been awarded funding support of up to £350,000 over a two-year period by The National Lottery Community Fund., made possible by National Lottery players. The award provides for match funding of subscriptions from companies that sign up as participating members of the Tech for Good Alliance.