Charities Newsletter
Issue2

Making a Difference

Women Acting In Today’s Society (WAITS)

Project Summary

WAITS is a women’s educational trust established in 1992. They support women to address issues such as welfare benefits, social education, domestic violence, isolation, health, crime and the fear of crime and many more. WAITS provides the first steps for women from a wide range of educational, social and cultural backgrounds to challenge and work with mainstream decision makers and institutions.

A network of women’s groups, WAITS membership reflects the diverse communities of Birmingham, Sandwell and other parts of the West Midlands.

The charity needed a database to enable staff of WAITS to monitor and evaluate their domestic violence project.. Martin Barklam volunteered to help through iT4Communities.

Project Delivery

Vicki Hook at WAITS briefed Martin about the requirements. Martin told us “The primary aim of the project was to enhance the reporting functionality, presentation and user-friendliness of their existing client database in MS Access and provide user training”. Vicki told us that this involved both meetings with her and regular updates to ensure that WAITS was kept up to date with progress.

Vicki added “Martin worked very much by himself in the design of the database – I am not sure how much time Martin contributed but as this was such a large project carried over a long period I am sure it took up a lot of evenings and weekends”

Martin summarised the work as “design MS Access forms, reports and macros and integrated them into the existing client database. Also produced user documentation”.

Outcomes for the Charity

Vicki told iT4Communities that the database allows them to identify the common needs of the women WAITS work with, collate information for funders, monitor / evaluate services and identify gaps in WAITS services. Martin added “WAITS have a much more user-friendly database from which they can now also produce meaningful reports”

Vicki also asked us to mention the excellent help on their website www.waitsaction.org from another iT4Communities volunteer, Lewis Smith.

Outcomes for the Volunteer

Martin told us that “I have gained a lot of practical knowledge and confidence in working with MS Access (previously not my forté!)”

Lessons Learnt by the Charity

Vicki told us there was no difficulty in carrying out this project and “We have decided to ask Martin to help us design another database to help us monitor and evaluate our community organising department”

Lessons Learnt by the Volunteer

Martin says “Close communication with Vicki enabled WAITS to be fully briefed on the capabilities of MS Access and make informed judgements on what to expect from the conclusion of the project. Similarly, by liasing closely with Vicki, I was able to produce a finished product that met their expectations..”

Lessons learned by iT4Communities

Successful IT projects are always a judicious balance between dialogue with the customer and creative technical work. Martin and Vicki struck that balance very successfully.

Vicki told us that if iT4Communities gave awards for the best volunteer projects that she would nominate both Martin for this database work and Lewis for his help with the website.