Tech4Good Voices

CyNam began in 2015 as an informal Cheltenham meetup for people working in and around GCHQ. Its network now reaches about 7,000 people.

Annie Legge talks to Hollie Wakefield, CyNam's general manager, about how a core team of five convenes a county's tech sector, from councils and universities to start-ups and large employers. Hollie explains why the pandemic, of all things, grew the community, and how Patch in Gloucester finally got people making the ten-minute trip from Cheltenham.

Gloucestershire Tech Week went from about 25 events in its first year to more than 60 sessions and 125 speakers this October, ending with EmPower, which brings 1,000 young people together to try out technology. Hollie is candid about what is still hard: chasing funding can dilute a mission, and the multinationals on the county's doorstep remain difficult to bring into local collaboration.

CyNam: cynam.org

Gloucestershire Tech Week: glostechweek.co.uk

Full episode and past conversations at tech4goodsouthwest.org/podcast

Access Social Care opened in lockdown in April 2020, a legal rights charity for people missing out on social care they are entitled to.

Its founder and CEO, Kari Gerstheimer, is a solicitor with a master's in human rights law who leads the charity's technology without being a technical expert. She tells Annie Legge how the charity built AccessAva, a free AI-powered chatbot that talks people through their social care rights and drafts letters to send to public bodies.

The charity now employs 50 people, and its advice data picked up a spike in safeguarding calls in Gloucestershire that it took to the county council. Kari is candid about what hasn't worked. Pilot money is often easy to find and scale-up money is not, and licensing AccessAva to a care system this short of funds will not pay for it on its own.

Access Social Care: accesscharity.org.uk

AccessAva, free legal information about social care: accessava.org.uk

Full episode and past conversations at tech4goodsouthwest.org/podcast

Bath looks affluent from the outside, but parts of the city rank among the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods in England.

Fiona Dawson is Chief Technology Officer at Mayden, the Bath health tech company behind the iaptus patient record system. She co-founded the Bath Digital Divide Collective with Bath Bridge and Tech4Good South West, and sits on the BCS Digital Divide Specialist Group and the techUK Health and Social Care Council.

She tells Annie Legge why exclusion stays hidden when people can pay to replace or repair a device, and why it reaches young families as well as older people. In her day job she asks whether a health service is being greedy with a family's mobile data when it has to last the month. She admits inclusion is rarely the first thing she raises about a new technology, but says it should be the second, third or fourth.

Mayden — mayden.com

Bath Digital Festival: addressing the digital divide, on Mayden's blog — mayden.com/blog/people-culture/bath-digital-festival-addressing-the-digital-divide

Digital technology for improved outcomes, Mayden's product brochure — flipsnack.com/maydenresources/digital-technology-for-improved-outcomes

Equal access to health and care, Mayden's resource on technology, access and health inequalities — flipsnack.com/maydenresources/equal-access-to-health-and-care

Bath Digital Divide Collective — tech4goodsouthwest.org/initiatives/digital-divide-collective

Full episode and past conversations at tech4goodsouthwest.org/podcast

Every Clarasys contract carries ten days of volunteering time, and nobody has to be senior to use them.

Sophie Brazell-Ng is a Head of People and Change at Clarasys, an employee-owned consultancy working

across financial services, healthcare, media and the public sector, and a Tech4Good South West

member. She spent some of her ten days taking three colleagues to Dorothy House Hospice Care near

Bath for a day's workshop, built around a problem the charity brought.

She tells Annie Legge she picked those three by what each of them needed: one rebuilding

confidence after six months away, one short of workshop experience, one two weeks into the job.

She is just as clear about the limit. A single day cannot leave a charity something it has no

capacity to run, so the brief is the thinnest useful slice, finished and usable without her team

the next morning.

Clarasys — clarasys.com

Dorothy House Hospice Care — dorothyhouse.org.uk

Full episode and past conversations at tech4goodsouthwest.org/podcast

What if AI could give smaller organisations access to capabilities that previously needed much bigger teams, budgets and technical expertise?

Paul Wiseall is co-founder and managing director of Iternal, a Bristol AI consultancy and product studio, and a Tech4Good South West member. His team has built technology including Good News London for the Greater London Authority and helped Tech4Good South West rethink and rebuild our own website.

Paul talks to Annie Legge about starting with people and problems rather than technology; giving charities and smaller organisations greater confidence and control; and why sharing technical skills can sometimes unlock far more than simply delivering a solution for someone.

And despite everything AI can now do, there is an important limit: technology still needs people who understand the work, the context and the outcome they are trying to achieve.

A conversation about AI, but ultimately about access, agency and what becomes possible when powerful technology is put into more people's hands.

Iternal — iternal.co.uk

Good News London — goodnews.london.gov.uk

All episodes and past conversations at tech4goodsouthwest.org/podcast

Lucy Collins, owner of Web Usability, discusses her journey, the evolution of Web Usability, and the importance of digital accessibility and inclusion. She emphasises the need for organisations to embed accessibility into their digital experiences and highlights the challenges and opportunities in the tech industry. The conversation delves into the motivation for accessibility, challenges of embedding inclusive research into organisational practices.

Lucy Collins is a UX researcher and accessibility specialist who leads Web Usability, and has recently co-founded CollectivAlly to help scale inclusive user testing with AI. She's also the host of The Web Usability Podcast.

Takeaways

• Digital accessibility is about making the online world easier to use for everyone, not just people with disabilities.
• The tech industry needs to lead by example and embed accessibility as the baseline for all digital products and services. Understanding individual motivation is key to promoting accessibility.

Useful links:

• Web Usability: https://www.webusability.co.uk/
• Web Usability blog: https:// www.webusability.co.uk/blog/ 
• The Web Usability podcast: https://open.spotify.com/ episode/5ZbXx0C2sJANuCCNbulseB?si=7b094900551341a7

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Lucy Collins and Web Usability
• 01:04 Transition to Web Usability and Collective Ally
• 01:37 Lucy's Journey and Inclusive Research
• 03:00 Taking Over the Family Business
• 03:36 Evolution of Web Usability Under Lucy's Leadership
• 05:15 Understanding Digital Accessibility and Inclusion
• 07:00 Practical Examples of Digital Accessibility
• 08:07 Digital Accessibility Maturity and Organizational Consideration
• 11:30 Improvements and Ongoing Challenges in Digital Accessibility
• 15:01 Starting Points for Digital Accessibility
• 19:13 The Vision for Tech Industry and Accessibility
• 21:01 Accessibility as Good for Business
• 21:47 Understanding Motivation for Accessibility
• 22:17 The Care Framework and Collective Startup
• 22:32 Challenges of Inclusive Research
• 24:24 Synthetic Users and AI in Accessibility
• 25:56 Humanising Accessibility with CollectivAlly
• 28:13 Accessibility and Affordability
• 29:17 Balancing Work and Startup
• 32:15 Startup Funding and Future Plans
• 35:08 Tech4Good Southwest Community
• 37:17 Hope for a More Inclusive Society

In this episode, Dama Sathianathan, senior partner at Bethnal Green Ventures, shares insights into how their impact-focused VC supports early-stage tech for good startups. Discover their unique approach to responsible investing, program details, and how founders from diverse backgrounds can get involved.

Show Notes

• Impact-driven venture capital
• Tech for Good definition and scope
• BGV's founder support program
• Diversity and inclusion in startup funding
• Responsible innovation and ethical tech development

Useful links

• BGV is open for applications for its Autumn 2026 programme until 21st June - https://www.bethnalgreenventures.com/apply 
• Unltd - https://unltd.org.uk/spaces/other-funding-and-support-available-for-social-entrepreneurs/ 
• British Business Bank Startup Loans https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/business-guidance/guidance-articles/finance/start-up-loan
• Considered Capital Live funding database https://www.consideredcapital.io/live-funding-database-demo-2/
• Natwest Challenge Prize https://www.natwest.com/business/business-services/entrepreneur-accelerator/pitch.html 
• Cerebella- https://www.cerebella.health/ part of the BGV's Spring2026 programme cohort https://www.bethnalgreenventures.com/blog/announcing-our-spring-2026-cohort 
• Reframe Venture https://www.reframeventure.com/

What if your local high street could become a hub for work, community, and social change? That's exactly what Freddie Fforde is building with Patch — and as a workspace partner of Tech4Good South West, they're already making it happen right here in the South West.

In this episode, Freddie shares how Patch is revitalising neighbourhoods by creating physical homes for purpose-driven communities — and why the humble high street might just be the most powerful tool we have for inclusive, regional growth.

You'll hear about:

• How Patch taps into local history and culture to create spaces that feel genuinely rooted in place
• The way great design and unexpected programming — from salsa classes to tech summits — build the cross-sector connections that drive real change
• Why impact is measured in relationships and stories, not just numbers
• Freddie's vision for scaling Patch into rural areas and reimagining pubs as community anchors across the UK

Whether you're a founder, a social entrepreneur, or someone who cares about the future of your community — this one's for you.

Visit Patch at https://www.patch.work/

Follow Freddie Fforde at https://www.linkedin.com/in/freddiefforde/

Unlock the transformative potential of AI for social good through a powerful story of innovation, collaboration, and practical impact.

In this episode, Annie Legge is joined by tech volunteers Bronwyn Kunhardt from Polecat and Dave Preedy from Microsoft to explore how a community-driven AI Living Lab is helping charities move from curiosity to confident action.

Through small, real-world experiments, they’re showing how AI can boost efficiency, strengthen community engagement, and support - not replace - human connection.

You’ll hear how a “learning by doing” approach, grounded in human-centred design, is turning AI from an overwhelming buzzword into a practical tool that saves time, reduces pressure, and amplifies mission-driven work.

If you work in the charity, community, or tech sectors and want to explore AI without big budgets or complex systems this conversation offers a grounded, accessible starting point. All you need is curiosity, collaboration, and a willingness to experiment.

Did you know 83,840 children are currently in care and 9,000 additional foster carers are needed in the UK. These are shocking statistics, and highlight the urgent need for innovation and support within the foster care system.

In this episode host Annie Legge speaks with Rasheda Fry, founder of Fosterli, a platform aimed at improving the fostering process through technology. They discuss the alarming statistics surrounding foster care in the UK, the challenges faced by foster carers, and how Fosterli seeks to streamline the assessment process to make it more efficient and human-centered.

Rasheda shares her personal journey as a social worker and a parent, the startup challenges she faced, and the importance of community support and innovation in the fostering sector.

The conversation also touches on the role of AI in social care and the vision for a more effective fostering system.

For more resources from this episode, visit our ⁠podcast page⁠.