Bridge Centre: Breaking down barriers to work with ICT

The Bridge Centre is a work training and skills centre run by the St Mungo's community housing association based in West London. The centre has been running for twelve years to help give homeless people the opportunity to the skills and support to get paid employment.

This page gives an introduction to their work and the positive role ICT has had for the project.

This content was contributed by Corin Pilling from Bridge.

Bridge attempts to engage with people who have a wide range of aspirations and goals. The focus is on providing a wide range of training opportunities, delivering qualifications and in providing the positive experience of learning a new skill. In many cases, this leads to accessing employment, volunteering and mainstream training.

Bridge uses a considered incremental approach that gives service users a positive experience of structured teaching and working in preparation for the work environment.

ICT is a key tool for Bridge that allows the progression of training to work. Over twelve years, Bridge has built up a number of ICT suites, which cater for service users in different ways. The use of projectors and desktop computers offer a formalized setting in which to practice the requirements of work. This environment has been positively welcomed by service users and gives them the chance to "feel like a different person in class".

Bridge staff teach the level one European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) course which gives service users a formal recognised ICT accreditation. This is currently run in a modular format. Level one offers core ICT skills training which includes key computer skills for the work place including internet use and electronic communication.

Bridge has a maximum class size of eight and so can accommodate a range of ability, age and need. Drop-in sessions are also held twice weekly where many service users choose to practice the skills they have learnt in the course lessons. Many service users use online tutorial resources such as www.alison.com in these periods.

Bridge has been keen not simply to use ICT for qualification building but as a wider tool for personal skills building and meaningful occupation. This has been successful in helping service users access new and creative technologies which are both stimulating and challenging. The creative writing group is very popular at the centre and the use of ICT with this group has resulted in the publication of service users' own magazine. 'Source' is produced quarterly and is a source of pride for the service users involved in its production. It is evidence of the hard work, time and positive engagement of all those involved.

Bridge has faced a series of challenges and barriers in the time it has been running and recently funding has been focused towards supporting the needs of substance users and so Bridge closely co-ordinates with local drugs teams for referrals. However, the centre has endeavoured to continue drop in sessions for other users and find alternative ways to ensure their ICT facilities can support as many service users as possible.

The centre has sought to overcome some of the financial constraints through relationships with the corporate sector. This has included working with volunteers from major financial companies to offer interview skills. Recently the centre has secured a donation of computers from the industrial manufacturer ICI, including flat screen monitors; this was achieved through appropriate marketing and networking.

Finding appropriate ICT staff is an important consideration for Bridge and there is a commitment to the positive impacts the training can have. Bridge look for a balance in their staff in terms of the specific ICT expertise they have and the ability to engage and enthuse service users. Bridge have utilised staff member's ICT interests and skills to offer a variety of workshops. These have included music production (using programs such as GarageBand on Apple Macs) and film making (incorporating the complete film making process from story-boarding to filming to editing). The enthusiasm of the staff for this technology has subsequently encouraged a positive response from service users.