As ICT Champion I work with staff and volunteers in the third sector across a wide range of infrastructure organisations in the South East. I respond to their priorities and help provide access to affordable, specialist and trustworthy advice about what to buy and how to use it.
There are nine regionally-based ICT Champions in England, funded by Capacitybuilders for three years to work with ChangeUp consortia. As well as listening to and meeting needs and issues raised in our regions, we also lobby national bodies to ensure policy and funding meets the ICT needs of the sector.
We do not promote the use of technology for its own sake, but believe that it must be tailored to reflect people’s needs. We work in an ethical and transparent way to build trust and long lasting relationships. My current activities include:
- working with ChangeUp Consortia to plan and deliver appropriate ICT services, training and support for local frontline organisations;
- working with funders and funding advisers to ensure that organisations budget properly for ICT;
- working with volunteer centres and others to ensure that volunteers with ICT skills provide appropriate support to the sector;
- signposting third sector organisations to providers of ICT services;
- working with development workers and others who support frontline organisations to share best practice in using ICT;
- providing support to enable ChangeUp Consortium members and other infrastructure organisations to make the best use of their own ICT;
- helping to understand how new technologies can be applied to core activities such as campaigning, fundraising and financial management.
About Capacitybuilders
Capacitybuilders is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) which manages the ChangeUp programme and works with other funders to build the capacity of the third sector. It exists to create a more effective third sector by improving support for third sector organisations.
SCIP (Sussex Community Internet Project) is a social enterprise that provides ICT support and services to third sector organistaionsin South East England. Founded in Brighton in 1996 we provide IT support, training, web design and databases to staff and volunteers from third sector organisations. We also work with a range of partners to deliver grant-funded projects such as our work with Big Issue to provide internet and computer access to homeless people.
About NAVCA
NAVCA is the national voice of local third sector infrastructure in England. We aim to ensure communities are well served by the local third sector by supporting our members and their work with over 160,000 local groups and organisations. NAVCA believes that local voluntary and community action is vital for healthy and inclusive communities
Hi Mark
We met when you came to High Wycombe to talk about ICT. At the meeting you mentioned people working with wordpress as a suiitable tool for blogging or even a website. How can I get some training on using word press as I would like to understand how to use it better not only for some ideas we may be able to use in the volunteer centre but also to be able to tell local charities about it
Hi Bill
I’m not sure who will may be delivering wordpress training in your area but we have recently delivered a whole load of training in Brighton and have produced a website with lots of useful stuff on it to help you get started
Take a look at htt://www.scipdiy.wordpress.com for more details –
Check out the downloads section for some free Guides.
Hope this helps?
Mark