Inclusive AI: AI workshops and toolkit sessions for communities
Inclusive AI: AI workshops and toolkit sessions for communities
ELBA and Hackney CVS hosted an innovative and engaging community workshop on how AI can support charities with organisational development and funding applications. This workshop was under the Evolve Project, a collaborative partnership between Linklaters, UBS, Societe Generale and the Societe Generale UK Foundation to support community partners working across east London.
Over the past five years, Evolve has dynamically responded to the changing needs of local community organisations by drawing on the time, skills and expertise of employee volunteers to address the most pressing community challenges. Funding application support and data innovation have been two primary focuses of Evolve; this workshop combined the two areas of need into one engaging and informative session.
Workshop engagement
Over 15 community partners attended the session, with one partner saying,
‘The session was very informative and insightful. I learned information that I didn’t know before.”
The workshop focused on how to use AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, DeepSeek) as a funding application-writing assistant. This means exploring prompting strategies tailored to funding requirements and practising using AI to review and improve applications in line with ELBA funding support resources. The in-person session was hosted at Hackney CVS and included a presentation and live demo followed by a group activity and discussion.
Not a replacement for humanness
Community work is rooted in people and delivering services to provide greater support and care for communities. In all our sessions, we emphasise the importance of safety and ethics around using AI and how to protect organisational data and information while maintaining the focus on people in the work that we do.
By optimising AI in our work while recognising the risks and ethics involved, these tools are rapidly changing the third sector and will hopefully lead to greater capacity for community organisations in the future.
Thank you Hackney CVS for hosting the engaging workshop and to the Evolve volunteers for making these sessions possible. If you are a community partner with a particular interest in how to use AI for your work, please contact our Community Team at [email protected].
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