Meet the projects supported by Time After Time Fund
Executive summary and key stats
Insights from the Time After Time Fund
Increasing e-waste awareness and knowledge
Behaviour change for circular action
Boosting green skills and learning
Repair events for the community
Building resilient digitally inclusive communities
Impact summary
Thank you and acknowledgements
E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams on the planet, with many devices disposed of with life still left in them. At the same time, over 1.65m people in the UK lack access to a digital device. The Time After Time fund awarded grants to local and national programmes that were creating more circular communities locally.
Virgin Media O2, in partnership with Hubbub, are proud to support innovative programmes, initiatives and campaigns that promote digital inclusion, cut e-waste and strengthen the circular economy.
Since 2022, the Time After Time Fund has awarded £1 million to 18 projects across the UK. These have reached a wide range of people, from school children to older generations, and covered everything from repair skills to creating thought-provoking art. Together, we are helping to shape a society and economy that values reusing technology and reducing electrical waste. We’d like to offer huge thanks to the organisations featured in this report who continue to drive positive change in their communities, and who were a pleasure to work with.
We hope this report will serve as inspiration and practical guidance for other community groups, charities and local authorities looking to bring people together through circular economy principles.
About the fund
Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub established the Time After Time fund in 2022 in response to the nation’s growing e-waste problem, with the UK producing 2kg of e-waste per person, the second highest amount in the world after Norway.
Our fund supports local and national initiatives to unlock imaginative solutions to the challenges of e-waste, digital exclusion and green skills development.
The fund is one of the ways Virgin Media O2 has exceeded its goal to encourage consumers to carry out 10 million circular actions (recycling, reusing, refurbishing and repairing devices), ahead of its end of 2025 target, as part of its sustainability strategy the Better Connections Plan.
Impact of the fund
Across the UK, charities, community groups and public sector organisations used the funding to deliver events, training and policy recommendations to prevent e-waste, and champion reuse, repair or recycling of tech devices. This helps digitally excluded people get online, and marginalised groups build tech repair skills.
Additionally, Virgin Media O2 have drawn on expertise from Material Focus, Relove Technology, The Good Things Foundation, Hubbub, local authorities and our wider teams at Virgin Media O2 as we’ve supported organisations that are taking a more circular approach to device use.
Reviewing our Community Calling, Future Fixers and Tech Lending Community work has shaped our decision to work in partnership with Coventry City Council to establish Coventry as the UK’s first self-sustaining device reuse city for social good. This programme will understand the opportunities, and overcome the barriers to scale device reuse on a local level. Taking devices from Coventry, for Coventry. We aim to create a sustainable model that can be replicated by other cities.
Following on from this report, we will:
Continue to engage with UK government as they shape England’s first Circular Economy Strategy for electronics and support the DSIT IT Reuse Charter.
Improve awareness of the importance of digital inclusion and how a circular approach to devices can deliver positive outcomes.
Support key initiatives and organisations in the digital inclusion movement including the Community Calling Device Donation Programme and Good Things Foundation’s National Data Bank.
Our work across digital inclusion and e-waste reduction continues, and we’d like to thank everyone who has supported this work so far.
Dana Haidan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Virgin Media O2
Meet the projects
supported by the fund
Our projects demonstrate impact and legacy. We’re sharing the learnings and results from the funded projects here to amplify the impact, reduce e-waste and bridge the digital divide.
Possible (London) 8. Treverbyn Community Trust (Cornwall) 9. The Warren Youth Project (Hull)
10. Groundwork East (East of England)
Time After Time Grant Fund 2022 - 2023
11. Coventry City Council (Coventry)
12. Giroscope (Hull)
13. Green Alliance (UK wide)
14. The Making Rooms (Blackburn) 15. Power to Connect (Battersea, London)
Screen Share (London)
Single Homeless Project (London) 18. SOFEA (Oxfordshire)
Time After Time Grant Fund 2024 - 2025
19. Future Fixers (Bradford, Manchester, London)
20. Tech Lending Community (Leeds, Manchester, Bradford)
21. The Time After Time Campaign (UK wide)
Other Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub collaboration projects
Executive summary Impact
These projects show what’s possible when we work together. By sharing their results and learnings, we aim to build on their legacy, reduce e-waste and help close the digital divide.
Making waves: people across the UK were reached by projects in the Time After Time Fund. Over 268,000
Lighting the spark on e-waste:
Taking the first steps:
Taking tech further:
Insights
from the Time After Time fund
We’ve grouped the projects into the following sub-categories make it easier for you to find advice and inspiration from similar organisations or projects:
6,649
electrical items were reused and distributed to connect communities.
Changing lives:
Increasing e-waste awareness and knowledge
Behaviour change for circular actions
Boosting green skills and learning
came to an event, watched, liked or commented on our online content engaging them with the issue in a new light.
33,474 9,861 In the news!
members of the public joined in the Fund by donating a device, repairing an item, attending a workshop or recycling broken items.
Improving the system:
The fund has produced 1 policy recommendation paper and 2 webinars, and supported organisations that promote alternative systems over ownership such as rental and sharing.
438
people took part in repair skills workshops, developing in-depth skills leading to work and volunteering roles. The Fund’s repair training focused on underserved groups like neurodivergent youth and asylum seekers, building confidence and community.
And last in the waste hierarchy...
We made a splash with 58 pieces of coverage and 11 broadcast pieces, creating 92 million opportunities to discover the Fund’s projects. irreparable electrical items were sent to recycling.
1584
Repair events for the community
Building resilient digitally included communities
We know that many of our projects could easily sit under more than one heading. Where does awareness tip into behaviour change? When does a repair skills course become a repair service for the community? We’ve placed each project where it felt like the ‘best fit’, but we recommend reading across the categories if you can, as there may be useful ideas and insights scattered throughout that apply to you.
Across the sub-categories, we’ve drawn out practical tips for working with different audiences. For example, what’s the best way to run repair events in a rural area? Or for boosting green skills and learning, how do you spark interest in young people?
We hope you enjoy this read and come away with plenty of inspiration and knowledge. If you have any questions or would like advice, you can contact Hubbub at hello@hubbub.org.uk *figures not final, two projects were not complete at the time of writing
Insights
Increasing e-waste awareness and knowledge
The first year of the fund supported projects that aimed to increase awareness of e-waste, particularly among young people.
Awareness of what e-waste is and why it matters is generally low in this age group, which influences their behaviours and attitudes towards circularity. In our 2023 Time After Time report: insights from Gen-Z, young people in our focus groups were surprised to learn that old devices and electrical items could be considered ‘waste’. One noted that when they ‘think of waste’ they ‘think of plastic’, but they ‘don’t think of tech waste’.
I’ve learned that e-waste poses significant environmental and health challenges. Proper recycling and disposal are essential to prevent harm, and raising awareness about the issue is critical to reducing its impact.
Time After Time Rhyme and Recycle winner Zsazsa OseiGyamfi
We’re hugely proud of what the funded projects have achieved, reaching more than over a quarter of a million people across the UK. These projects engaged a wide range of audiences, with many engaging young people facing challenging circumstances. They brought the issue of e-waste to the attention of people who would never consider themselves as environmentalists and showed them how to keep using their tech, time after time.
Fund 1: Groundwork East - Single Use Sucks
Groundwork East ’s Single Use Sucks campaign tackled the growing issue of disposable vapes and their role in e-waste, with a focus on university students across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Essex. The charity worked with a creative agency to produce a striking campaign identity and toolkit, equipping universities with resources to raise awareness of vape recycling and promote local e-waste repair and reuse services.
The campaign reached students through fresher’s fairs, environmental events, on-campus stands, and targeted social media. In total, 2,563 people were engaged in person and over 14,000 reached through online content and
media coverage, including features on BBC News and Heart Radio. While safety and licensing issues meant collecting vapes on campus was not possible, the team adapted by promoting existing recycling options and encouraging universities to strengthen their own e-waste schemes. Leaflets and digital guides were distributed widely, signposting students to local facilities
Despite challenges, the campaign generated national interest, with other universities approaching Groundwork East to explore using the Single Use Sucks materials. The engagement toolkit is now available for use and adaptation, ensuring the message continues beyond the project.
Sustainable Hive CIC’s Re-Fuse repair workshops provided young people in Bristol with a hands-on experience to learn about e-waste and its solutions. The sessions highlighted the importance of passing-on and repairing unused electrical items, sparking city-wide repair activities with young people. Their workshop space, built from reclaimed materials, invited school groups to dismantle broken electricals and salvage recyclable parts.
More than 1,800 students accessed the workshop and handled 486 items, over 177 were repaired and donated and 309
were stripped for parts. Teachers praised the workshops as “the most engaged that we have ever seen our children.”
These workshops showed, rather than told, students about the valuable materials found within electricals –demystifying the hidden components within electrical items and equipped participants with practical repair skills and new perspectives on items they use daily. They included tasks such as phone dismantling, PAT testing, wire stripping, and laptop repairs, making the experience highly practical.
We showed young people the hidden value within electronics, which they could repair instead of discard. The hands-on nature of our workshops was a game-changer. Teachers praised the workshops as ‘the most engaged that we have ever seen our children’
Project facilitator at Sustainable Hive CIC
Time After Time
Funded projects reached more than 266,040 people across the UK
Fund 1: Sustainable Hive CIC - Re-Fuse repair workshops
Increasing e-waste awareness and knowledge Insights
Time after Time funding was provided to Green Alliance, an independent thinktank and charity focused on ambitious leadership for the environment. The expert team created a policy report on the dual and intertwined issues of e-waste and digital inclusion: “Making the Connection: ending digital exclusion with reused devices”
Green Alliance interviewed expert stakeholders and analysed existing policy to gain a deep understanding of best practices and challenges in the e-waste and digital isolation sectors. Based on the interviews and research, Green Alliance summarised their key findings and crafted policy recommendations for government that were put into a final report, featuring graphics to highlight key stats and visuals to tell impactful stories.
This report was successfully picked up by policy makers, including Helen Hayes MP, who asked parliamentary questions in February 2025 based on its recommendations. Green Alliance successfully appealed to the Government on this issue and have seen the report echoed in the language of the Government’s Digital Inclusion Action Plan, launched in February 2025. The Plan emphasises the essential
role of device redistribution to tackle digital exclusion and references recommendations from our work, and makes explicit the link between boosting inclusion and supporting circular economy goals. Following the report and Digital Inclusion Action Plan, the government invited Green Alliance to be part of a small group of organisations involved in creating their IT Reuse for Good Charter, aimed at increasing device redistribution from organisations: “The IT Reuse for Good charter - GOV. UK”
To launch the report, Green Alliance held a parliamentary event in January attended by Time After Time Fund recipient organisations, which demonstrated the range, impact, and necessity of acting on this dual issue. The Circular Economy Minister, Mary Creagh, delivered a keynote speech highlighting the importance of reuse and circularity for WEEE and expressed support for the work of the organisations present. The event enabled direct discussions between policymakers and those involved in redistribution work.
Hubbub and Virgin Media O2’s Time After Time campaign raised e-waste awareness among Gen Z. We found ‘hackathons’, ‘ideathons’ and creative challenges particularly effective at helping young people explore e-waste and for changing behaviour.
For in-person hackathons, we offered a 30-minute talk on e-waste, giving everyone taking part the same baseline knowledge of the different and intersecting issues surrounding e-waste. Participants were then able to co-create their own solution, either in a group or individually.
We ran challenges in partnership with universities and student networks, basing our challenge briefs on game design, creative writing, graphic design, photography, behavioural economics. Students valued the chance to put their degree skills into practice for an environmental issue and to work in cross-disciplinary teams at interuniversity hackathons. The competitive element and presenting experience were real highlights and many students
reshared the day and what they learned on LinkedIn.
Furthermore, we tried to create real world outputs from hackathons, like the giant flip-phone installation designed by students from Manchester Met’s School of Digital Arts. We also worked with 186 young people and 13 universities to curate the first e-zine dedicated to Gen Z responses to the issue of e-waste: User/Used.
In Year 1 of our campaign, 76% of our audience became more aware of how to reduce e-waste and 81% more determined to do so. In Year 2 of our campaign, 97% of those we engaged learned something new about e-waste and 89% intend to take circular actions like recycling, donating, passing on, selling and repairing their old tech. And more than half of those we surveyed had told a friend or family member what they had learned about e-waste, becoming advocates for change in their own networks.
As it was my first hackathon, I found the experience incredibly rewarding. It was both thought-provoking and challenging to brainstorm and design solutions aimed at educating both younger and older generations about the importance of addressing e-waste. The event has left a lasting impression for me; for instance, I was astonished to learn that 1 in 3 Gen Z individuals are unaware that their phones contain precious metals.
Student participant at the E-waste Hackathon in Kings’ College London
Fund 2: Green Alliance - Policy report
The Time After Time Gen-Z campaign
Increasing e-waste awareness and knowledge
Tips
Commit to reclaimed materials: using reclaimed and repurposed materials helps bring the e-waste message to life, putting electricals in the context of other sustainable cues that are already understood, raising the profile of e-waste to other types of recognised waste, such as single-use plastic.
Increase public awareness and education: Use knowledge gained from item donations and repairers to further engage the local community. For example, student cohorts immediately connected with the issue of disposable vapes.
Encourage circular thinking: Beyond recycling, consider how to encourage thinking further up the waste hierarchy. For example, workshops dismantling the Fairphone showed the power of modular product design.
Go simple on social media: e-waste is a complex topic so don’t overload it. We’ve found that more complex explanations flow better when you talk in person or are giving a workshop. For social media focus on a timely issue, a good news story or one thought-provoking fact.
Working with young people
Focus on practical, hands-on learning: Workshops that engage young people in practical activities were favourites, such as dismantling and repairing electronic devices to showcase what’s inside electrical items.
Offer skill development in other areas: Consider the different skills that young people can gain beyond repair, there are practical skills like managing stock levels and checking in items. Furthermore, teamwork, presenting, problem-solving and networking are all transferable skills gained through community repair.
University and school engagement: Engaging with schools or universities to deliver workshops directly in their premises can overcome logistical barriers and transport costs. Lecturers and teachers are trusted voices, so getting them involved and on-side for events is extremely impactful.
Working with policy makers and MPs
Highlight good work at a constituency level: MPs are busy but love to hear from organisations having an impact in their constituencies. Reach out with good news stories and they may be interested to share and support, don’t be deterred if they don’t get back to you the first time.
Behaviour change for circular actions Insights
We wanted to drive behaviour change toward ‘circular action’. By circularity, we mean projects that promoted and enabled rental, repair, resale, donation or recycling on a meaningful scale.
Each project took its own approach to behaviour change and successfully shifted perceptions of what we should happen to tech at the end of its life. They used techniques such as gamification, social norming and removing points of friction. Rather than focusing solely on the environmental angle, they highlighted co-benefits such as education, skills, employment and money saving to draw people in.
Across the fund, projects managed more than 10,000 unique electrical items, ensuring these went to repair, resale and recycling. More than two thirds of these items were redistributed out to the community.
One of the most common reasons people held onto their old devices was because they just hadn’t ‘gotten around to it.’ Our map of local drop-off points helped remove that barrier.
Share Portsmouth coordinator
Share (Portsmouth)’s Time After Time project reflected the charity’s mission to create a growing culture of repairing and sharing with a focus on e-waste. The project began by mapping out locations across Portsmouth where residents could repair, sell, donate or recycle unwanted electrical items. This map was then shared and promoted at seven community events and locations across the city alongside Share (Portsmouth) surveying residents’ thoughts on what prevented them from doing something with their unwanted electrical items.
As a result of the map and survey results, Share (Portsmouth) developed the city’s first e-waste amnesty week, so that residents could donate with purpose and close to their homes. Local charity shops collaborated to accept
working unwanted electrical items, while a local business managed the recycling of end-of-life items. The event engaged approximately 5,320 people and gathered valuable insights into local recycling behaviour, such as the most common reason for holding onto items: “Never getting around to doing something with it.”
The project resulted in 440kg of electricals being repaired or reused. The e-waste map will continue to be used in Portsmouth. Share (Portsmouth) has also developed a toolkit for organising e-waste amnesty events.
Read the toolkit
Library of Things, a London-based social enterprise, aims to make products accessible and more convenient than buying new. Their project saw them join forces with ReLondon and OWL Electrical to launch a platform combining a digital forum, membership, and inperson events to create hyperlocal movements encouraging reuse and repair.
To develop the platform, Library of Things took on a user-research and design-led approach, incorporating focus groups and user-testing throughout the process. Within six
weeks of the pilot launch, 2,300 members had already engaged with a circular guide to learn about an additional action they can take to reduce e-waste. Library of Things are continuing to develop the platform and hope to scale their operations throughout London and beyond to create a lasting impact on e-waste. Through this project they have formed partnerships with organisations such as Gumtree, Olio, BackMarket and The Restart Project which will allow them to reach millions of new users and continue their impact.
Over 60% of donated electrical items were redistributed out to the community.
Fund 1: Share Portsmouth
Fund 1: Library of Things
Behaviour change for circular actions
The Tech Lending Community (TLC) Year 2 was a tablet lending grant scheme, funded by Virgin Media O2 and delivered by Hubbub in partnership with Reconome. Refuge, Centrepoint and Thames Reach were awarded grant funding and received project management support to establish lending schemes in their temporary accommodation settings.
Across the year, the three charities loaned a second-hand tablet to at least 658 people. Devices were loaned often for over 6 months at a time. Mobile Device Management software, managed by Reconome, ensured a safe, secure and reliable experience for those lending, particularly important given the vulnerable nature of beneficiaries, some of whom had never used a tablet before.
Many clients at Thames Reach start their journey with no access to a smartphone or internet connection. For individuals facing housing instability, this creates another layer of exclusion—
blocking access to Universal Credit, job applications, medical appointments, and contact with essential services.
The TLC project changed that. By providing smartphones and tablets, the project gave clients tools to manage their lives more independently. For clients without day-to-day on-site assistance, digital access is even more critical. Staff supported clients step-bystep in learning how to use devices— from logging into job sites to setting up email accounts and video calls. The devices act not just as tools, but as a pathway into services that help build long-term stability.
Access to a device has also helped clients stay in touch with friends and family, reducing isolation and creating a sense of routine. Support workers say the lending process is simple, which frees up their time for core support work, rather than tech troubleshooting.
Tips
Change happens most when it’s Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely (EAST). Make sure any communications are (1) simple and easy to understand, (2) eyecatching and appealing to engage with, (3) involves other people (where possible, e.g. gamification or competition) and (4) is done with enough notice to give preparation time but not too distant to be irrelevant. For example, timely comms would pre-empt Black Friday sales by gaining attention before the event rather than competing with adverts and messages on the day.
Collaboration and networks: Consider the value other partners can bring to a project by leaning on their expertise and seeing crossovers as a benefit. Library of Things partnered with Olio, Backmarket, Gumtree, etc.
Just because someone’s young doesn’t mean they know how to use a smartphone. Giving them a device is the first step—showing them how to use it is where the real work begins.
Floating Support Worker
Build localised information: Some directories may be out of date or missing key information about local repair, recycling and reuse options. Few things are more frustrating than discovering a service you need is no longer available. Communicate great work happening locally with human success stories and upto-date information.
Organise e-waste amnesties: Hold e-waste amnesty events for residents to donate or recycle their unwanted electrical items, particularly after key times like holidays when people may be clearing out old items. Check out Share Portsmouth’s local tech amnesty guide for advice.
TLC with Hubbub and Virgin Media O2
Boosting green skills and learning Insights
The Government’s Circular Economy Taskforce is currently developing a a circular economy strategy for England to create green jobs and promote efficient and productive use of resources.
To achieve a fully circular economy, we need the skills that underpin it. This includes expertise in areas such as chemistry,materials science, design and repair skills, so that when things inevitably break, we can fix them before replacing them.
From Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub’s experience, tech skills including repair are essential to tackling both e-waste and digital isolation. They also bring wider benefits, including job creation and boosting people’s confidence. We’re delighted to support repair skills in many underserved communities, such as neurodivergent individuals and people facing or experiencing homelessness.
Our participants didn’t just learn to fix things, they also found a new sense of purpose and opportunity through these skills.
Dermot Jones, Possible project lead
Through the fund, 438 people have learned repair skills, with some going on to take up long-term roles or volunteer positions. Alongside their partners in the Community Repair Network, The Restart Project ran the Student Repair Revolution to engage students across the UK to repair electrical and electronic items in their universities. The project supported the growth and establishment of various repair initiatives at universities, working closely with each institution to design a format tailored to their specific needs. Every university has different needs and capacity to set-up this kind of initiative.
Through the Student Repair Revolution, there were monthly or termly repair initiatives held at the University of Strathclyde, University of St Andrews, University of the West of England, Cardiff University, UEL, University of Portsmouth, University of Bangor, University of Bath and University of Bath Spa, University of the Arts London and
University of Leeds. Alongside bespoke support, the project offered educational resources and developed a channel on their platform, Restarters, which featured webinars and peer-to-peer support.
The project raised awareness about e-waste through tech amnesties and redistributed working electronic devices to students in need. Feedback from students showed that they had an increased awareness of the importance of passing on working electricals and repair, and had more confidence in their ability to repair items. The Restart Project and Community Repair Network plan to continue engagement with more universities and through other partners to keep the Student Repair Revolution growing.
Cymru launched The Bright Sparks initiative to reduce e-waste in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire. The project focused on educating and training four cohorts of young people through popup events and e-waste workshops, teaching them how to repair and recycle small electrical items.
The project went beyond youth engagement and raised awareness in the local community to more than 100 local residents. As a result, a total of 493kg of e-waste was saved from going to landfill and 70kg of electronics were
redistributed locally to address digital exclusion and continue upskilling young people.
26 young people volunteered for the role of ‘e-waste ambassador’ and attended 15 workshops to improve their skills and knowledge around repair and reuse of electronic items. All involved felt the project had increased their employability skills and gave them confidence to talk about the importance of the issue with their wider community.
438 people have learned in-depth repair skills
Fund 1: The Restart Project - Student Repair Revolution
Foothold
Fund 1: Foothold Cymru - The Bright Sparks
Boosting green skills and learning Insights
Fund 1: Possible - Fixing Factory
Climate action charity, Possible, built on their Fixing Factory model by engaging a new generation of fixers through handson learning and a delivery of training programmes, targeting items often neglected in the space of repair – from hair dryers to air fryers.
They delivered a series of different courses which looked at laptop repair and maintenance, electronics and electricals training sessions, and standalone workshops such as a ‘beginners
guide to soldering’. Participants from the training reported improved mental health and employability prospects.
Through Camden Fixing Factory, 307 items were rescued from recycling - they were logged, tested and rehomed to charities. The benefit of the training could be seen by the eight individuals placed into employment, apprenticeships, or further training, demonstrating the social benefits that come from projects like this.
Fund 2: Giroscope - Girotech
Giroscope is a housing charity in West Hull. Giroscope’s IT project, GiroTech, has helped people in the local community get online and provide repair services for broken or dis-used IT. GiroTech can supply both computers and smartphones to Giroscope tenants and volunteers where needed and in a timely manner.
Giroscope has built relationships with major businesses within Hull to source devices and wider tech Charitable Foundations, with a 200% increase in device donations during the funding period.
GiroTech is an established repair shop in West Hull for IT and Smartphones. From the start of the Funding period, they have more than quadrupled the number of weekly repairs and reduced recycling from 20% to 15% across donations received.
Giroscope has built a wealth of experience and skills over this period, working with neurodivergent volunteers to develop repair skills and currently employing two neurodivergent volunteers part-time.
Fund 2: The Making Rooms (CIC)
The Making Rooms (CIC) brings creativity, technology and advanced manufacturing together in one community facility.
The Time After Time Fund supported The Making Rooms’ ‘Repair Space’ to load new life into laptops by training the community to restore them, giving locals the superpower of repair skills. The repair sessions have shown the diversity of people interested in repair, across genders, ethnicity and an age range of
under 13 to over 70.
The Making Rooms then donate repaired devices to digitally excluded people in Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, alongside teaching digital skills of how to use the laptops to supercharge their futures! From the success of the repair space, The Making Rooms is including a dedicated room for device repair in their £1.5 million building renovation.
Partnering on repair skills workshops
Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub worked with CentrePoint and the Restart Project to deliver repair skills workshops called ‘Future Fixers’ to 39 young people. We ran four courses in 2024, two in Bradford, one in Manchester, and one in London.
• 77% of participants agreed that the course was useful.
• Confidence in the ability to repair phones increased by 37%
• Confidence in the electrical safety increased by 35%.
Boosting green skills and learning Insights
Tips
Gamification increases engagement: A big motivator for the project was the leaderboards that were included to motivate the participants; who can test the most items? Who can check-in the most items?
Peer support and networking: Bringing groups together in person can help them problem-solve collectively and crowd-source solutions that different groups might be facing.
Working with young people
Be considerate for the age groups you want to reach: Participants who are too young may not be committed to come week after week. Whilst engaging young people is important, it may be more beneficial to focus on slightly older participants (18+) with in-depth repair skills.
Employability as a hook: highlighting the employability aspect of volunteering and learning a new skill. Some attendees may only join for the incentive i.e. for free phones, so a stronger emphasis on qualifications may help.
Tailor programmes to participant needs: Get feedback from participants in workshops to see what aspects of the planned activities they are most interested in to ensure they are engaged and getting the most out of training programmes.
Work hyper-locally for recruitment: Research and connect with surrounding youth centres, community centres, and local groups to recruit participants who are likely to attend. Known networks and people (e.g. lecturers and facilitators) have a lot of sway and social media may not be effective at reaching the the people you’re targetting without significant ad spend.
Working with neurodivergent people
Enhanced materials: More visuals (and potentially video format), fewer slides, and more accessible for neurodiversity. Explore read-aloud tools, laptops, and adaptable course formats.
Continuity: Keep consistent facilitators for multi-day sessions to build rapport and security.
Repair events for the community Insights
Repairing and looking after what we already own is a key part of the circular economy. Electrical Repair charity, the Restart Project, found that 36% of electrical items taken to a local recycling site had the potential to be immediately reused and another 9% of items required only minor repairs to work again. Another 35% were unable to be tested as they were missing parts.
This shows the huge potential and environmental benefits of repair: the more we reuse items through minor fixes and recovering parts, the more we can avoid the costly footprint of making items in the first place. Making sure that repair is accessible to communities on the ground was a key part of the Time After Time Fund in 2022-2023.
Fund 1: Youth & Community Connexions
Youth-led charity Youth & Community Connexions works with young people in North London to co-design and develop activities and workshops. The Fund helped Youth Community Connexion’s local community to pass-on and recycle old electronic devices, repair and redistribute them, and show people the value in prolonging the life of electricals. The project focused on young people, empowering them to tackle e-waste through hands-on activities.
A key success of this project came from engaging local businesses, who setup drop-off points to make donating electricals more convenient. The
This initiative showed how small, simple repairs can help families save money. We’ll continue working with schools and businesses to bring this knowledge to more young people.
Youth & Community Connexions
project leader
Watch Youth & Community Connexions joint end-of-project video with charity Possible
donated items were used in workshops, showing the public how to dismantle items safely, salvage valuable parts, and repair electronic devices.
This project helped families across the UK with the cost- of-living crisis through repair, as many items only required quick fixes such as a new fuse.These repairs made crucial savings for families who may already be struggling to get by. As a result of the project, Youth and Community Connexions are continuing their work with local businesses, schools and colleges on e-waste repair sessions to upskill more young people in essential repair skills.
Treverbyn Community Trust made repairs accessible to community members in rural Cornwall by converting an existing community asset, The Really Lovely Van, into a Mobile Repair Café. Partnering with local Repair Cafés, the project brought repair services directly to local communities who might otherwise have struggled to access them.
The Mobile Repair Café offered expert repair services and training to volunteers, focusing on redistributing and repairing electronic items that might have been wasted.
Through hands-on repair sessions, community members learnt valuable skills, from phone teardowns to battery maintenance, while also understanding how simple fixes could extend the life of devices.
The Mobile Repair Café reached more than 1,300 people across Cornwall, repairing everything from games consoles to battery-powered garden tools. The project also inspired the setup of several new repair cafés across the region, helping to build a more repairconscious community for the future.
Fund 1: Treverbyn Community Trust
Repair events for the community Insights
Repair Fairs with universities
Hubbub and Virgin Media O2’s Time After Time campaign raised e-waste awareness among Gen Z. To make repair attractive, accessible and social, Hubbub ran three Repair Fairs in collaboration with university bodies: the Manchester Museum and University College London in collaboration with UCL’s Students’ Union.
Repair fairs gathered different activities to create a social buzz give the feeling of lots of people coming together. The key element of the repair fairs was the chance to have a phone, tablet or laptop checked over and repaired for free by an expert. Fairs also offered:
• Electrical repair skills.
• Phone lanyard and phone accessory making.
• E-waste recycling drop-off points with a £5 voucher (Material Focus).
• Campaign freebies like stickers and artwork.
• Info leaflets and student designed displays.
• Donation kits to gift a phone to Community Calling.
At the repair fairs, we engaged with 254 people, repaired 23 items, collected 114 items for recycling, taught 25 people repair skills and created widely viewed content for Instagram and TikTok.
Repair fairs on campus and at the end of the academic year were the most successful: they were easiest for students to get to and students had more stuff they wanted to recycle.
Tips
Offer additional support to enthusiastic groups: Scale impact by providing essential support to groups who want to do more in their local community by setting up repair cafes or doing one off events. These groups are the lowhanging fruit that can build a foundation of wider change.
If you’re looking for specific support on setting up community repair: go to therestartproject.org
Working with young people
Empower young people with skills: in-depth engagement with young people is possible through courses and skills transfer.
Go beyond social media: Garnering support and recruiting young people for projects requires going beyond social media recruitment. The Time After Time projects were most successful where existing links to young people meant we could reach them easily for events and training. If you’re starting from scratch to reach young people, consider collaborating with groups that have links and networks already built up.
Working with rural or spread-out communities
Be creative to reach communities: If a community can’t reach us, we should go to them! This can involve turning up at unexpected events such as Comic-Con, local museums, and family days out. This allows you to reach completely different communities, break down barriers and think about how e-waste might connect to different audiences.
Building resilient digitally included communties Insights
Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub have been working in this space since 2020, when we saw first-hand how a smartphone and connectivity during lockdown could change the life of someone digitally disconnected. We know that digital inclusion is more than just receiving a device, which is why Community Calling has always included free data from O2 and partnered with community organisations that offer wrap around support.
Digital inclusion charity, Good Things Foundation, has published the “Minimum Digital Living Standard” that highlights what’s needed to be counted as ‘digitally included’ in the modern day:
1. Devices and internet: home broadband, data, small and large screen devices.
2. Functional Knowledge & skills: setting up devices & skills, doing tasks and activities online, maintenance of devices and connection.
3. Critical Knowledge & Skills: managing security, evaluating information and evaluating what to share.
We align with this digital living standard in the projects below, which show the power of collaboration between digital inclusion organisations, local authorities and frontline teams on the ground. There are multiple networks now working at a local level and sharing their knowledge to empower the communities they support.
The Warren Youth Project based in Hull, ran Tekatak, a two-year programme giving young people the skills to repair, upgrade and reuse laptops, tackling e-waste while bridging the digital divide.
Donated devices formed the backbone of practical workshops where participants learned to upgrade hardware, install operating systems, and customise devices to their needs. Thirty-two young people completed the programme and achieved the BCS Essential Digital Skills for Work qualification at Entry Level 3 or Level 1.
In total, 143 young people attended upgrade workshops, refurbishing 48 laptops which were donated to participants. Others were repaired using
salvaged parts, helping divert over 870kg of e-waste from landfill. Local businesses, including PPE supplier, Arco and Reckitt Benckiser, became key donors, with Arco pledging to continue contributions. Beyond technical skills, participants gained a deeper understanding of planned obsolescence, the environmental impact of tech, and how to extend the life of devices.
The Warren Youth Project also hosted creative e-waste events, from jewellerymaking to sculpture-building, and involved young people in drafting an e-waste manifesto. These activities sparked advocacy across the youth community, embedding sustainability into the organisation’s culture.
Screen Share UK is a nationwide digital inclusion charity that specifically supports refugees and asylum seekers. It provides laptops, phones, internet connectivity, digital skills training, and IT Repair and IT Repair Training.
During the funding period, Screen Share harnessed the power of volunteering to train 47 young refugees in laptop repair. As a result of the training course, the learners were able to repair and redistribute nearly 800 repaired devices to other refugees in need.
As part of the Fund, Screen Share designed a trauma-informed and simpleEnglish laptop repair course. The course covered electrical safety, diagnostics, hardware replacement, software and firmware updates, database management, and customer service. Over four cohorts, more than 150 hours of training were delivered to young people from 12 different nations.
The course increased learners’ technical skills, confidence in using and repairing technology, understanding of fast tech and the circular economy, grasp of English, and feelings of belonging in the UK. The community created by the
course also increased Screen Share’s capacity to repair and redistribute devices and integrate refugees into the centre of its programmes. Many of Screen Share’s young trainees are recent arrivals to the UK and used the course to connect with others and show prospective employers they can learn new skills quickly.
The project’s legacy is 47 upskilled young refugees who can repair devices, communicate confidently, and be part of a thriving community.
The nearly 800 devices provided to refugees and asylum seekers helped with applications for work and study, access services and information, develop independence, and build relationships. Clients reported significant increases in well-being, access to and participation in education, employment, and community participation, and reduced social isolation.
Almost 75% of Screen Share’s volunteer body are from refugee backgrounds, helping to develop lived experience leadership and improving the governance and direction of the organisation.
The most energising thing was seeing people grow and develop as individuals and leaders within a community. It has been so genuinely inspiring to see young people from across the world come together through a shared love of technology. Who knew laptop repair could be so moving.
Moses Seitler, CEO of Screen Share
Fund 1: The Warren Youth Project
Fund 2: Screen Share UK
Building resilient digitally included communties Insights
Fund 2: Power to Connect (P2C)
Power to Connect (P2C) is an awardwinning Digital Inclusion charity based in Wandsworth, London. Power to Connect facilitates the donation, recycling, refurbishment and redistribution of much needed technology from local businesses and residents to families and children in line with Wandsworth Council’s deprivation data.
The Time After Time Fund supported a big step forward in Power to Connect’s core service providing refurbished devices to the community. By working closely with Wandsworth Council, local residents and corporate partners, Power to Connect secured 1,364 donationsincluding desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. This more than doubled the donations received the previous year.
Power to Connect has a dedicated volunteer team covering refurbishing devices and transporting them directly
to schools and community organisations. Power to Connect’s network covers schools and Early Help Practitioners to foodbanks and social prescribers. Thanks to this collective effort, Power to Connect redistributed 1,042 devices – transforming access to education, services and opportunities for hundreds of local families in Wandsworth.
Alongside distributing devices, Power to Connect expanded their Digital Skills support with daily drop-in sessions at local libraries and 14 courses at Family Hubs. These sessions cover online safety, essential digital skills, and confidence-building, while also offering data assistance and referrals to meet other resident needs.
Receiving the laptop has been a game-changer for our family. It’s not only made learning at home more engaging for my child, but it’s also positively impacted their overall well-being. I’m so grateful for the difference it’s made.
Power to Connect beneficiary
SOFEA is an Oxfordshire-based CIO helping people to transform their lives and their communities by supporting with study, wellbeing and work. Since SOFEA started in 2021, they have delivered nearly 5,000 devices across the county.
devices and distributed 1,432 devices after checks and repairs. More than half of the devices received came from community donations (56%), with other major donations coming from businesses and public sector bodies including: Oxfordshire county council, Instron, Pharmagenesis and FareShare.
Working closely with Wandsworth Council and over 150 partner organisations has highlighted the power of community, public services and volunteers coming together. This project shows that digital inclusion is about more than technology; it’s about breaking down barriers and empowering people to thrive in a connected world.
Power to Connect beneficiary
SOFEA’s Getting Oxfordshire Online project saves devices through their three Oxfordshire-based refurb hubs. SOFEA provide their refurbished devices, connectivity and support via a network of more than 200 organisations that help beneficiaries facing multiple forms of marginalisation.
During the Funding period, despite being hit by flooding in December 2024, SOFEA and their partners Aspire and Bicester Green received over 2,200
SOFEA settled back into their main space in early 2025, and with the help of the Fund, SOFEA has also launched a digital inclusion network, Getting Oxfordshire Online (GOO), to coordinate digital support across Oxfordshire communities. This is helping to reach more vulnerable residents and provide them with the support and devices they need to thrive online.
Fund 2: SOFEA
Watch Power 2 Connect’s video
Building resilient digitally included communties Insights
Fund 2: Coventry City Council - #CovConnects
Coventry City Council’s #CovConnects project used the Time After Time Fund to help expand its pioneering digital reuse scheme, the #CovConnects Device Bank.
The #CovConnects Device Bank launched in 2023. The project, which is part of the Council’s Digital Inclusion programme, aims to give community organisations, along with local council and NHS services digital devices, which can be distributed to communities and residents, as part of wider digital inclusion initiatives. Most of the devices are refurbished ex-council stock with a small proportion of devices donated by local partners.
This project is a partnership with the local NHS ICB Coventry and Warwickshire, University of Warwick,
Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and other partners across the city. A key aim of the project is to measure the economic, social and environmental benefits of greater digital inclusion.
Thanks to the Fund, the programme #CovConnects has scaled up and accepts an increased number of donations from partners across the city, alongside advancing how it measures the impact of digital reuse and inclusion. Over the past year, #CovConnects distributed around 1,555 devices to organisations across the city. The programme has been enabled to provide more organisations with devices thereby ensuring more vulnerable residents receive access to digital devices.
Fund 2: Single Homeless Project
Single Homeless Project (SHP) helps single Londoners avoid homelessness by providing support and accommodation, promoting wellbeing, enhancing opportunity and being a voice for change across all 32 London boroughs. More than 60% of SHP’s clients face multiple inequalities including substance use, mental ill health, homelessness, criminal justice system involvement and lost access to children.
Single Homeless Project’s Time After Time funded work addressed e-waste and digital exclusion by providing second-hand smartphones, tablets and laptops sourced internally from IT teams and donated through corporate partners. Single Homeless Project secured 118 laptops, 27 phones and
Tips
10 tablets for redistribution during the funded project.
Alongside devices, SHP offered inhouse digital skills training, which included an eight-week digital literacy course with AQA qualifications and a device to keep. Over the funding period, Single Homeless Project supported 279 service residents with skills and are continuing to offer the programme at additional locations and up to 5 sessions a week. Staff teams are encouraged to see digital skills as ‘life skills’.
Previously digitally excluded clients have gained enough digital confidence to plan to write their life story, start a YouTube channel, work on a podcast, and write a local newsletter.
Focus on high-demand tech items: Prioritise the collection and repair of high demand items such as laptops and tablets which are particularly useful for individuals facing digital exclusion.
Set clear donation criteria: clear criteria for smartphones and tablets can prevent receiving devices that are unusable. Investing early in systems for intake, triage and distribution - both in terms of admin and in data platformscan save time in the long run for measuring impact and troubleshooting.
Forge strong local partnerships: partnerships help responsiveness to community needs. It’s vital to listen, build trust, and adapt to evolving needs of both groups and users. Supporting both partners and service users is key to creating a project with impact which lasts.
Building resilient digitally included communties
Distributing devices: If using the postal system to send out devices, ensure safe and secure packaging to prevent breakages along the way.
Ensure staff are digitally confident before helping clients: start with a focus on upskilling staff prior to delivering any sessions in services. If staff lack confidence in their own skills, they won’t be able to support and advise clients.
In-person digital skills session are best: online sessions require a basic level of existing skills, which can then exclude the very people you are trying to reach. In-person sessions allow clients to point to the bits they get stuck at without having to know any specific or technical words.
Tips
Things to consider when working with marginalised and displaced communities, e.g. those facing or experiencing homelessness, refugees, survivors of domestic abuse, prison and care leavers.
Create a community with food: investing in food and refreshments helps build community. The act of ‘breaking bread’ as a group can make a difference to communal sessions, and the friendships and group support helps people feel welcome and come back to sessions. This worked well with Screen Share’s cohort of trainees.
Make travel accessible: travel itself can be a barrier if it is prohibitively expensive. Covering travel costs can make skills learning accessible, but there is a significant admin hurdle to this if oysters or ticket refunds are used. Note that asylum seekers, refugees and other groups may be moved (to other parts of the country!) with little notice. This makes continuity with a course difficult, so keeping contingency budget for unexpected travel costs is advised.
Is digital the only way? There may be cases where trying to get someone digitally connected misses out on the bigger picture of wellbeing. Getting Oxfordshire Online have reflections submitted to the governments’ Digital Inclusion Action Plan on the balance of digital vs in person, and how to prioritise needs.
Impact summary
People engaged/ lit the spark (e.g. video views, attend event, tweet, comment, etc.)
People activated: one off behaviour change (e.g. donated a phone, recycled an item, repaired a device, participated in a workshop, etc.)
People engaged in longterm behaviour change (e.g took part in multiple sessions)
Authors
Holly Smith, Jack Hodgkiss, Beau Zilesnick, Beth Blomfield and Louise Whitaker. Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the individuals and organisations partnered with for the Time After Time Fund that do amazing work and who fed into this report with their valuable insights, including: Dana Haidan, Louise Whitaker, Simon Feldman and Rob McCann at Virgin Media O2; Christopher McCoy at Youth & Community Connexions; Clare Marshall and Jo Taylor at Sustainable Hive CIC; Clare Seek at Share (Portsmouth); Janice Morgan, Kelly-Leanne Tomlinson, and James Dovey at Foothold Cymru; Charlotte Thorpe and Kyle Gladwin at Library of Things Limited; Fiona Dear, Pascale Hall and James Pickstone at The Restart Project; Dermot Jones at Possible; Nick Waitz at Treverbyn Community Trust; JJ Tatten, Dave Lancaster, and Mark Swale at The Warren Youth Project; Jane Herbert at Groundwork East; Laura Waller and Tamara Duignan at Coventry City Council; Jim Rintoul at Giroscope; Emily Carr, Stuart Dossett and Charlotte McMenamin-Walshe at Green Alliance; Tom Macpherson-Pope at The Making Rooms; Megan Barrett at Power to Connect; Moses Seitler at Screen Share UK; Marianne Kelly and Jordan Gardner at Single Homeless Project; John Dennis at Aspire Oxford; and Ben Tuppen at SOFEA.
Finally, a huge thank you to all the Time After Time Fund’s projects’ staff, attendees, participants, and beneficiaries whose participation and feedback has enabled the insights and resources gathered in this report.
The views in this report may not reflect those of the individuals, partner organisations or funded projects that we collected insights from.
We are grateful to Virgin Media O2’s continued support and leaderhship for reducing e-waste, boosting a circular economy for tech and building digitallyincluded communities.
