iT4Communities - Volunteer Opportunities Newsletter
Number 8 - 14th October 2003

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1. Latest News
2. Project of the Month
3. WebsiteHighlights
4. Latest Feedback
5. The Opportunities
6. A word about your initial meeting with the charity
7. Final thoughts

1. LATEST NEWS

• Oktoberfest: New projects are coming in thick and fast, over 50 charity registrations and many more enquiries from charities in the last ten days! Check out the new opportunities out at www.iT4Communities.org.uk
• You talkin' to me?: If you're currently volunteering, please let us know what's going on, we like to keep up to date and we miss you when you're not talking to us. If you're having problems with a project or charity, please contact us at the same email (info@iT4Communities.org.uk) - Alex will follow up any serious problems.
• It's nice to be popular: Over 350 charities and 1100 volunteers now registered with iT4C. Over 470 projects registered since launch.
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month:  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Our project of the month is focused on helping a Breast Cancer Charity to develop their IT infrastructure, to volunteer click on [broken link removed] and find out more information. (See also Project of the Month).
• If you like a challenge: Our "little bit different project" this month is one of the most interesting and challenging we have seen at iT4Communities, if you think you can handle it click on the link below.
• Make a Difference: Saturday October 25^th is Make a Difference Day and we're working with CSV to get more than 75,000 people volunteering on or around that day. Why don't you make your difference on or around October 25^th.

2. PROJECT OF THE MONTH

• Project of the Month: P459 - Breast cancer charity requires assistance in developing an intranet website using Front-Page.
• Northern Project of the Month: P104 - South Manchester students seek IT professional to demystify the IT profession and explain real life in IT (gently).
• The Little Bit Different Project of the Month: P399 - Charity needs one or more programmers to produce bespoke software for individual handicapped children. They need to be adaptable designers with some real time background and an ability to build interfaces and/or device drivers. Typically they will have substantial experience in C and/or C++ - and Python would also be useful.  The environment is PC based but Linux is coming in. They will need to be able to design and innovate, working from a basic specification and using existing modules such as the Edinburgh University speech synthesis modules. Development can take place offsite.
• More details and projects at www.iT4Communities.org.uk/

3. WEBSITE HIGHLIGHTS

• Online Volunteer Opportunities. Say no more, just visit www.iT4Communities.org.uk
• Making the Best of Free ICT Support - http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/open/charity/resources/mbufis.html . All feedback welcome.
• What's the difference between a charity and a community group - [broken link removed]
• Who's responsible for a volunteering project? - [broken link removed]
• Insurance and Liability Issues - http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/open/volunteer/resources/risk.jsp
• For general advice on how volunteers can ensure that charities can continue to benefit from their contribution even after a project has ended, check out: [broken link removed]
• Delivering Great Projects - [broken link removed]

4. LATEST FEEDBACK

View from the CAB - Virtual Volunteering Works

"As a new Citizens Advice Bureau it was important that we got a presence on the web as quickly as possible and one that matched the requirements of our national body. With the help of IT4 Communities we have got an excellent site up and running and we have been given the information needed to maintain it. Without their help we would not have been able to achieve any of this. We are now looking to upgrade the site with the help of a local volunteer so that we include items that will get it the Quality Mark from the Community Legal Service for Information and Advice Web sites. Communications were quick and easy and although we never actually spoke I felt that there was a real rapport built up between ourselves and Graham Ball who put the site together for us. Thanks a lot for all your help."

Anne Stratton, Manager North West Leicestershire CAB

View from the Volunteer - Socialising in Enfield

"I spent 3 months one evening per week on a project for Mind in Enfield, providing IT support. Mostly, my work has been to help people in the community to better understand IT technology and to give them appropriate hands-on experience. In consultation with IT officers I provided additional hardware upgrades including memory for their workstations which were running very slow.

Taking into account that this was my first assignment I enjoyed my work, socialising with people and doing something useful for the community. There are still many similar charity organisations who need help and the kind of interface that iT4Communities provides can further develop a better understanding of the society we live in.

Keep up the good work."

Haris Kazazic, IT Volunteer

5. THE OPPORTUNITIES

We have had telephone conversations with these charities (or the brokers providing the opportunities), and have filtered out any requests that were clearly inappropriate for volunteers. In the Volunteer Opportunities section we have included information about the type of charity, the location and a summary of the request for IT advice / assistance. If you are interested in volunteering for a particular opportunity, please click on the Volunteer button adjacent to the details of each opportunity.

Opportunities are categorised by location (London, North West, North East, West Midlands, East Midlands, SouthEast, SouthWest, Scotland, Wales). We're working on better ways of representing the projects/locations but all feedback welcome. Apologies in advance if we've offended anyone's geography.

Please bear in mind that I'm not a geography guru and what you think is East Midlands might have been added to West Midlands. It's worth looking at other areas near you.

We've also classified projects by skill type e.g. website, database, strategy. This does mean that some projects don't fit easily into categories so if you're a multi-tasking kind of volunteer or have special talents, check out the ALL category and find those hidden gems.

We will respond to offers to volunteer on a first come, first served basis and we will try to respond to all of you as soon as possible. In some cases, we may provide multiple volunteer details for a particular project. We will also let you know if your opportunity has already been taken (assuming we've been told). We will deal with offers to volunteer as quickly as we can but we cannot guarantee to respond to all applications immediately.

Projects will remain listed until someone CONFIRMS acceptance. In some cases, volunteers have expressed interest but a project has not, for whatever reason, been confirmed. If you contact a charity about a project and they tell you it's no longer available, please let us know (sometimes they don't).

If there isn't an opportunity near to you, please bear with us. More charities and projects are registered each week. If you have any specific questions, please email Alex at info@iT4Communities.org.uk

6. A WORD ABOUT YOUR INITIAL MEETING WITH THE CHARITY

At your first meeting with the charity you will need to check out a number of issues. You will want to make sure:

• that you and the charity are going to be comfortable working with each other - you will want to check out the charity and equally they will want to make sure that you have the skills and experience that they need - [broken link removed]
• that the project in question is deliverable within your time constraints as a volunteer - [broken link removed]
• that any issues of liability and insurance are covered, both by you and the charity. What happens if you fall down a dodgy stair in the charity's office or your work ends up losing all the charity's data? (We're not being pessimistic about this - most volunteering works without any problems but it is sensible to make sure that you and the charity have discussed these eventualities.) see http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/open/volunteer/resources/risk.jsp  (NB. IT 4Communities has no responsibility for any loss or damage howsoever arising from any act or omission of the volunteer or the charity who are the beneficiary of the voluntary activity.)

Getting this stuff right at the outset is worth the time spent and makes sure that you can then concentrate on delivering a great project

7. FINAL THOUGHTS

iT4Communities is a project to help the IT industry and IT professionals help communities. It depends largely on you as individuals and employees to deliver the expertise. We're here to provide the web-based resource and answer questions. We will try to provide you with introductions to charities and work with you as a group to develop best practice. You are the ones with the skills to change the lives of individuals, groups, to make a difference in your local community. If you have any suggestions about iT4Communities and / or this newsletter - do get in touch, we want to hear from you.

Let's go to work...

Simon.

Simon Davey
National Director, iT4Communities
e: simon@iT4Communities.org.uk
w: www.iT4Communities.org.uk

IT 4 Communities is an initiative to encourage companies and individuals with professional IT skills to volunteer these skills for the benefit of the community, and is supported by a partnership of key IT sector organisations.

We aim to achieve a significant and sustainable increase in the number of companies and IT professionals volunteering their skills in their local communities, and to maximise the effectiveness of this volunteering input in building the capacity of local charities and community groups.