Community Creative Digital Toolkit
A guide to getting creative about digital inclusion in your community
The Community Creative Digital Toolkit is a practical resource designed to empower organisations, community groups, and individuals to create and nurture creative digital hubs and projects. The toolkit provides insight into why embedding digital technology and creativity into community spaces can be beneficial, what it involves, and how to do it collaboratively with your community.
By sharing our experiences and strategies for working, we aim to address how communities can uniquely tackle local challenges they face by building capacity and resilience for change by fostering digital creativity and community engagement.
This toolkit is your launchpad for digital creativity in rural communities. We know that vibrant rural areas are built on strong connections, and digital technology offers incredible potential to strengthen those bonds. While technology has already enriched many lives, we also recognise that digital exclusion persists, particularly among older adults and those with health conditions or physical disabilities. That’s where this toolkit comes in. It’s packed with practical inspiration and strategies to empower organisations, community groups, and individuals to create and nurture innovative digital projects.
From heritage and health to biodiversity, landscape, and wellbeing, you’ll find real-world examples of how digital tools can address local challenges in creative ways. This isn’t just a guide; it’s a journey. It starts with why digital creativity matters and how to make the case, then dives into inspiring case studies and examples, and finally, equips you with a step-by-step roadmap to get your project off the ground.
Drawing on the groundbreaking work of the Digital Together project, funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and led by Cornwall Rural Community Charity, this toolkit is rooted in co-design principles. It’s built on the expertise and insights of numerous community organisations across Cornwall. Cornwall Rural Community Charity is proud to support this initiative and empower you to bring digital creativity to your community. We hope that you will find the toolkit useful.
Katharine Nissen, Cornwall Rural Community Charity
Digital Together
Throughout the project, we have worked to grant-fund and support the creation and development of 16 digital hubs and micro-entrepreneurial creative digital projects across Cornwall. This has included working with a diverse range of groups, from rural village halls to social enterprises and cultural spaces.
The toolkit draws on the learning and strategies we developed throughout the project and showcases some of these real-world examples. Our work with community hubs has included co-design activity to support and empower the community to consider how technology can support them to tackle local place-based challenges and develop their own creative digital projects.
The communities we have worked with have developed ideas and projects that cover a range of topics related to digital technology, creativity and the unique characteristics of their place. Varying in focus from heritage, health, biodiversity, landscape and wellbeing. Using a range of digital tools, including 3D printing, virtual reality, filmmaking, citizen science, and many more.
Who is it for?
- Community Co-ordinators and Organisers
- Community Hubs and Venues
- Charities
- Publicly engaged Artists and Facilitators
- Councillors and Local Council Project Managers
- Digital Skills and Literacy Educators
Included in this toolkit:
- Rationale for building digital capacity within community
- Strategies for identifying and mobilising local strengths and resources
- Strategies for identifying local challenges and local aspirations for change
- Real-world examples of creative digital projects making tangible impact in communities
- A step-by-step guide to starting your own creative digital project
- Resources, equipment ideas and co-design templates to support your journey.
Creative digital communities
Creativity can play a pivotal role in community development, by fostering economic growth, enhancing social cohesion and promoting local cultural identities.
- Creativity can break down barriers and enhance engagement.
Research has shown that alternative and creative can beneficial when engaging with usually disaffected groups and can have a 'positive impact on skills acquisition by reducing fear'. In addition, creative approaches can alleviate barriers for individuals related lack of interest and perceived relevance of technology. Activities such as digital storytelling, creative making and adopting a “digital by stealth” approach can be a way to integrate technology and skills encouragement through other tasks such as photography programmes, or environmental citizen science surveying workshops.
- Community resilience is linked to creativity and the creative economy.
Creative activity can not only play a role in increasing local engagement but can also enhance the capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship for small and medium-sized industries and independent artists. The creative economy can contribute to resilience, especially in rural communities, by diversifying economic sectors and improving the social fabric through informal and formal community practices.
- Digital can uplift social capacity to tackle other issues
To date, tackling digital inclusion have often focused on dealing with basic need, both in skills and access – in isolation from other issues faced by individuals and communities. Whilst we uphold the importance of needing to provide basic provisions (broadband availability, access to digital devices despite personal budget, basic digital literacy). If we want to think about ways we can make communities more resilience, with agency and capacity to make change in their own lives, we see the need to go beyond the basics in our digital inclusion efforts through creative, asset-based and place-based ways – that use technology to tackle broader issues that are important to people’s lives – building on the values and strengths of people and communities, rather than just focusing on need. This focus goes beyond the basics and provides scope for using technology to build capacity and strengthen communities.
- Creativity and leadership opportunities
Research indicates that community-led broadband initiatives can improve rural social resilience by generating leadership opportunities and informal digital champions within the community. When volunteers take a more active and prescribed role in a digital hub, it can allow for different talents and skillsets to shine through. In addition, digital projects can enable leadership and experience opportunities to younger members of the community to actively participate in local activities or run creative-digital workshops.
Stories from communities
Newquay Orchard and Pollenize
Newquay Orchard is a community and green space on the outskirts of Newquay. Started in 2015, the aim was to transform a plot of land into a community asset that engages with nature, biodiversity, and environmental education. Since then, it has transformed into a site with a traditional orchard, forest garden, wood workshop, wildflower meadow and community growing space. In addition, they have a community café, classrooms and makerspace. For the local community they provide wellbeing support, mental health services, skills and environmental education provision.
Newquay Orchard are continually finding new ways to raise awareness of biodiversity and educate the community about the importance of pollinators species and their habitats. The key challenge was to seek ways in which digital technology can enhance the work they already do, by providing data collection methods and surveying techniques they could use for their space. The goal was to create engaging, hands-on opportunities for environmental learning that would also incorporate new digital skills.
In collaboration with the social enterprise Pollenize, who provide biodiversity and consultancy services to businesses and green spaces across the Southwest, Newquay Orchard have delivering Bioblitz survey activities within their green spaces. Using the free-to-use iNaturalist app on tablets made it possible to digitally record observations of local pollinating species of insects and plants within the Orchard. Providing them with a greater understanding of the plants and insect species they are missing in the area, enabling Pollenize to indicate sowing plans for new plants that can support biodiversity across the site. Alongside the surveying activity, Newquay Orchard integrated the use of other digital tools and skills into the project by running 3D printing workshops with groups of young people. This involved the group designing and 3D printing a solitary bee home in recycled plastic – connecting additional digital skills and learning activity to the ‘challenge’ of educating people about biodiversity and the habitats different insects need. Demonstrating how it is possible to create engaging, hands-on opportunities for community engagement that also incorporate new digital technologies and skills.
Newquay Orchard’s approach within the Digital Together project has demonstrated how local community spaces working with other SMEs can create collaborative and engaging digital projects to address local challenges. The project highlights how technology enhance citizen science activities and inform solutions to local challenges, while also equipping participants with skills that benefit the wider community. In addition, the project has enabled Newquay orchard to consider ways in which they can integrate digital tools and digital skills development into their educational and community engagement outreach programming.
Godolphin Cross
Godolphin Cross is a small rural community in West Cornwall with a population of 700. Over the years, the closure of churches, shops, a mobile library, and the local pub left the village with limited communal resources. In response, residents formed the Godolphin Cross Community Association (GCCA), purchasing and renovating The Old Chapel into a multi-use space. From here, GCCA runs youth engagement and adult reach-out programmes alongside arts and heritage initiatives celebrating local mining, archaeology, and historic walks to strengthen community connections.
GCCA sought to combine the community’s passion for local heritage with digital tools to create accessible experiences for residents who could no longer physically participate in heritage walks and events due to mobility or health challenges.
In 2025, with the support of Digital Together, GCCA has set up a Digital Hub in their community space. Alongside establishing a group of Digital Champions, running digital support workshops with their over 50s Reach Out group, many with additional access needs. As part of tackling their challenge to make the local landscape and history more accessible, the have been experimenting and exploring new technologies. This has resulted in the digital recording of the local landscape and history tours of the area. Using 360 cameras, LIDAR scanning and specialist equipment from the University’s
Digital Fabrication and Immersive Media Laboratories (DFIML)
to create videos that can be watched online or through virtual reality headsets. In learning through doing, they have created strategies for producing the films in a way that works for them and allowed them to think about how their project can progress. Developing tools that can be used for other arts, heritage and outreach programmes within the Godolphin Cross village area.
Through the project, they have been learning about new digital tools and technologies that can open the local landscape to those no longer able to access it. In learning through doing, they have created strategies for producing the films in a way that works for them and allowed them to think about how their project can progress. The tools can be used for other arts, heritage and outreach programmes within the Godolphin Cross village area. Through these efforts, the project supports the village’s heritage programme. It enhances digital literacy, inclusivity, and community engagement, making advanced technology accessible as a key tool for revitalising rural resilience and connection.
St Breward History Group
St Breward Memorial Hall is a multi-use community hub in the rural moorland parish of St Breward, on Bodmin Moor. For several years, they have been a digital venue and hub, providing access to digital skills support and training. The hall hosts many groups and activities, including St Breward History Group. The history group meets regularly to host guest speakers and has slowly built a vast physical archive of oral histories, artefacts, photographs and media that document the surrounding area's rich history.
The St Breward History Group wanted to expand the reach and accessibility of its archive, making it available to a wider audience and preserving local heritage for future generations. Maintaining a purely physical archive limits accessibility, particularly for those unable to visit in person. In addition, the archive is kept in locked storage cabinets, with only a reference list and a few photos available online. So, the challenge became, how can digital tools and technologies aid the group in bringing the archive they have to life? Considering ways of storytelling and engaging with the historical sites in the local landscape.
The St Breward History Group wanted to expand the reach and accessibility of its archive, making it available to a wider audience and preserving local heritage for future generations. Maintaining a purely physical archive limits accessibility, particularly for those unable to visit in person. In addition, the archive is kept in locked storage cabinets, with only a reference list and a few photos available online. So, the challenge became, how can digital tools and technologies aid the group in bringing the archive they have to life? Considering ways of storytelling and engaging with the historical sites in the local landscape.
With support from the Digital Together project, the group explored how to digitise and bring to life their archive. They began with workshops introducing 3D scanning techniques, collaborative mapping platforms, and case studies of how museums and other history and arts-based projects have utilised digital tools to document and present archival materials. In workshops and meetings, members also engaged in identifying priorities for the archive’s digital transformation and use of scanning and photographic media to engage with the landscape. This led to the creation of an interactive walking route and map of the area, with pinpoints taking a user to drop down with archival material and more information about a landmark or historical narrative of a site. To deliver the project, the group has experimented and used a variety of digital tools available, including a 360 camera, DSLR camera, app-based scanning software and a website builder. In addition, they used Padlet, a web-based platform where you can create a collaborative map for idea generation and project planning.
Through the project, the History Group has been able to consider new ways of thinking about archival material and the role of local history groups or societies. Transforming their physical archive into a dynamic digital resource. The process of digitising materials not only preserved their content but also improved accessibility for residents unable to visit the hall. In addition, is considering ways of making the groups work more engaging for people outside the group and for younger audiences. Whilst also developing new digital skills as a group, the interactive map they are creating can also be used in more basic digital skills training sessions as a playful activity that could engage participants in a subject they care about whilst also teaching basic web-based navigational skills.
Imagine If and farmers
Imagine If partnership has launched the first farming health hub in Cornwall, based in Troon Village Hall. Rural communities face numerous challenges when it comes to accessing health and wellbeing services, including the geographical distribution of services, physical distance, and more subtle barriers, such as the absence of health professionals who understand the rural way of life.
Imagine IF support includes digital signposting, running sessions on developing skills to complete online applications, increase digital skills to access appointments better using digital tools, hosting a digital pain café and other sessions such as training and support for accidental councillors (vets, accountants and other professionals) and providing digital outreach through local agricultural shows to reach and engage more of our rural community.
Imagine If aimed to establish a Farming Health Hub at Troon Village Hall to support farmers’ digital engagement with health and wellbeing services. Initial sessions focused on digital skills and tools for managing healthcare access. However, engagement from farmers remained low. To address this, Imagine If pivoted their approach, meeting farmers where they were—at markets and agricultural shows. Using tablet surveys, they gathered insights while building trust. This outreach created an entry point for farmers to engage with hub services in a more familiar and comfortable way.
Through creative use of digital tools and outreach strategies, Imagine If successfully engaged a traditionally hard-to-reach demographic. By meeting farmers on their own terms, they promoted digital literacy and connected them to health and wellbeing resources, including access to nurses and skill-building workshops. This approach exemplifies how thoughtful, adaptive use of technology can address local challenges and foster deeper community engagement.
Digital hubs: what do they do and who are they for?
Communities benefit from owning well-maintained, multi-purpose facilities that create opportunities for local social activity, community organising, sports, arts, and recreation. These facilities can range in scope and can include rural village halls, community centres, libraries, social enterprises and cultural hubs. In rural and suburban areas with poor ties to busier urban centres, these spaces can be a valuable tool for bringing together IT infrastructure, social networks of support, and a physical space, helping to create more inclusive and locally engaged communities. Community spaces such as these often have a deep understanding of local needs and problems in an area and become key venues for bridging gaps of service provision, isolation, exclusion, or deprivation. Often becoming places that provide on the ground support for certain demographics and challenges within an area.
A ‘Digital Hub’ is a community space that provides access to essential digital resources, such as WiFi, computers, and tablets. These hubs support individuals who may not have personal access to technology, helping to bridge the digital divide. Beyond providing equipment, digital hubs often offer one-to-one support and group training sessions led by volunteers or staff, helping community members build digital skills and confidence.
By fostering digital inclusion, these spaces empower individuals to navigate the online world, access services, and engage with new opportunities in an increasingly digital society.
Digital hubs as sites for innovation and community development
When considering strategies for digital inclusion, we see Digital Hubs in community facilities as having the social and physical infrastructure required to provide basic digital inclusion provisions and access, such as Wifi, loanable devices, and skills support. In addition to providing basic access needs and skills services to a community, they can be spaces that develop and implement technologies and projects for specific local challenges. Digital hubs are delivery mechanisms that are embedded within a community, as a result, they are uniquely positioned to consider ways in which technology and engaging projects can tackle place-based challenges within the community. Digital Hubs have the capacity to think more creatively and collaboratively about broader challenges faced within communities - drawing together local knowledge, experience and stakeholders in a community to build on their strengths and mobilise resources to create meaningful change. In the next sub-section, we will go into more detail about the role creativity can play within Digital Hubs. Addressing how, through creative digital projects, we can enhance the capacity of communities to generate new ideas for tackling local challenges and foster engagement for projects that utilise digital technology to innovate local solutions.
Toolkit authors
Resources and useful links
The following is a non-exhaustive list of contacts that may be of use when looking to transform your village hall or community centre:
A national charity that was set up to tackle the issues of digital inclusion
A charity which supports digitally and socially excluded people to improve their lives through digital
Action with Communities in Rural England
Supporting the UK voluntary sector
A social enterprise supporting organisations to develop internal digital inclusion skills and create digital champions
A think tank that explores how technology is changing society
Supporting community organisations to ‘use technology on their own terms’
Funding
Some routes relevant to this toolkit include:
- Digital skills training for local community
- Equipment/resources for local venue
- Benefits to specific socially excluded groups (e.g. unemployed, older people, NEETs)
- Art-based and heritgae-based community projects
A list of potential funders could include:
- National Lottery
- Landfill Communities Fund Local Councillor
- Community Chest Fund (from Local Councillor)
- Local Town Council
- Town/Parish Council section 137
- Job Centre Plus
Grant and equipment donations:
- Cornwall Council’s Digital Device Lending Library
- Good Things Foundation’s National Data Bank
This toolkit has been written as part of
Digital Community Hubs Project
, a partnership of public sector, university, and charity partners, delivered by the University of Plymouth. The partnership has five distinct innovative projects, which have been funded by the Shared Prosperity and CIOS Good Growth Fund between 2023 and 2024. Alongside the University of Plymouth, our other partners on Digital Together have included the Cornwall Rural Community Charity, Cornwall Council, University of Exeter, and Citizens Advice.