A community effort is under way to link more Highbury homes with children to the internet.

Highbury is the most deprived area of Palmerston North in terms of internet access, with 32 per cent of households with children having no digital access.

A city-wide programme called DIGITS aims to provide devices, connections and digital literacy tuition for 1000 homes within the next two years.

Digital citizenship co-ordinator Bronwyn Meads is co-ordinating the project in partnership with Te Aroha Noa Community Services following a successful pilot in Roslyn.

Te Aroha Noa chief executive Bruce Maden said the initiative was an exciting one that would make a significant difference to educational outcomes in Highbury.

"Every child in Palmerston North should have the opportunity to be connected," he said.

Maden said the Computers in Homes programme had helped in the past to provide 45 families with computers.

"But this was always only scratching the surface of the issue," he said.

"This initiative allows a scaling-up of our aim to ensure every home in Highbury is digitally connected."

Roslyn School principal Joanne How said having more internet-enabled devices for students had helped close the learning gap between students who did and did not have access to the internet.

Teachers saw an increase in students' confidence in numeracy, literacy and problem-solving, and parents were able to get more involved with the children's homework as well.

"Being a low-decile school we struggle to get funding, and to have something like this is just amazing."

The Highbury project needs community support with fundraising.

A Givealittle page is being set up here.

And on Friday a quiz and auction night will be held at Hotel Coachman featuring special guests Aaron Ward and Will Hall from TV show Nothing's Trivial.

Teams of six are invited to register and book a table.