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.

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.

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.

As the criticality of the coronavirus pandemic has receded, we took the decision recently to retire the COVID dashboard that was created early in the pandemic by a very committed group of volunteers in the Scottish Tech Army. The project that created the dashboard was interesting for a number of reasons and we wanted to reflect on the project, what it delivered and what we learned from it.

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.

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.

The pandemic posed significant challenges for many businesses and organisations, including those essential to supporting people struggling with mental health issues. In a time with so many restrictions, emotional wellbeing became more important than ever before.

Ensuring people with additional support needs have prospects for the world of work, Babysteps 20+, a registered charity in Falkirk, enlisted the help of the Scottish Tech Army in order to help promote their social enterprise, a community shop selling pre-loved baby and toddler items.

Digital exclusion is one of the most invidious challenges we face in Scotland and although we all know that, it’s fair to say that we, as tech professionals, had little understanding of the implications digital exclusion has on individuals and the organisations trying to support them.

The Scottish Tech Army recently supported Bioregioning Tayside with a digital project to share the stories of their dedicated community and build connections with each other.

Bioregioning Tayside is a platform which brings people in Tayside together to build community resilience in the face of environmental issues such as global heating, animal and plant extinction, a broken economic model which fuels climate crisis and biodiversity collapse and can lead to increased social injustice and mental ill health.