Opportunities of the Month

To fit with the theme of this month's newsletter we've specially selected some opportunities to help charities working with homeless people. These opportunities are featured at the top of the list.

More general opportunities are further down.

Remember that opportunities are listed on this page because we've recently talked with the charity and we know that they are ready to work with a volunteer. Are you that volunteer?

Click on the link on the opportunity name below to go directly to the opportunity you're interested in on our website. Alternatively search the full database of available opportunities by signing-in to your account and selecting "Search for Opportunities".

Homeless charities

Opportunity Name: Provide Training in Office and Internet
Skill Type: Training
Region: London
Locality: Enfield
Postcode: N9
Virtual: No

Description: This Edmonton, London, social enterprise provides advice, support and practical help to homeless people. They help them find accommodation, employment and training opportunities, and provide training in IT, basic literacy and numeracy. That's where you come in. From 1st April 2008, they need volunteers to train up to 7 homeless people, in MS Office XP applications and the use of email and the internet in half-day or whole day sessions while the centre is open. Their centre is open from 9.30 to 4.30 from Tuesday to Friday. They're open to volunteers who could only provide occasional training sessions, however, if you can provide a regular session, that's even better. If you have CRB clearance, that would be helpful, but it's not essential.

Opportunity Name: Website Redesign
Skill Type: Website
Region: North East
Locality: Darlington
Postcode: DL1
Virtual: No

Description: This successful north-east England charity provides temporary and longer term accommodation for the homeless. They have a brochure type website but are looking for it to be totally redesigned so that it's more informative and more interactive. They want to have some project pages, a contact form, and be able to accept donations online. They want to be able to maintain the site themselves, so they need an easy to use CMS, and they want you to train their staff to update the website. Their offices are not accessible.

Opportunity Name: Simple brochure-type website with CMS and PayPal
Skill Type: Website
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Hull
Postcode: HU9
Virtual: No

Description: This small Hull charity provides a direct access emergency night shelter for single homeless people with particular emphasis on accommodating rough sleepers. They also operate a day centre for homeless people and an outreach service to engage rough sleepers and link them up with services. They're looking for someone to build them a simple brochure-type website to provide information, with a contact form, and a page to solicit donations via PayPal. They want to raise their profile, provide information about their services, do some recruitment. They need to be able to update the website and add new pages after you've gone, so they'll need an appropriate CMS. They have a rough idea of what they want, however they'll need guidance on the layout and structure. You'll need to: define the website content and structure in detail, assist them in choosing and registering a domain name, guide them in signing up for suitable hosting, build the website, implement a CMS, and train them in its use.

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General charities...

Opportunity Name: Build on-line resource centre probably using open source tools
Skill Type: Website
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Rotherham
Postcode: S60
Virtual: No

Description: This organisation is a group of volunteer managers representing a number of museums, libraries and archives within Yorkshire and Humberside. The organisation forms a support group for the volunteer managers allowing them to share information, resources and best practice. The members are keen to start sharing information on-line and are looking for a volunteer to help. There are three main requirements - 1) a mechanism to inform each other about training opportunities throughout the region by updating a calendar; 2) a resources area where sample documents, etc. can be shared; 3) a forum or chat room. In all cases users must be able to do their own updates and uploads - there will be no central administrator. Access to the features should be restricted by password protection or similar mechanism. Hosting for the applications will be available through one of the member organisations. Full details will be available to the volunteer. It's likely that appropriate open-source applications could be installed and configured to meet the group's needs. Through this opportunity the volunteer may get the chance to visit some of the largest visitor attractions in the area.

Opportunity Name: New brochure-type website
Skill Type: Website
Region: Remote
Locality: Wiltshire
Postcode: SN9
Virtual: No

Description: This small rural charity supports, advises and gives information to unpaid family carers, i.e. people that look after family members who cannot manage on their own due to an illness or disability. They have specialist staff to assist carers with different problems. They're looking for someone to build them a mainly brochure-type website to provide staff details, articles, links, lots of pictures and logos, a contact form, and a registration form, and from which visitors can download newsletters. They want to have site statistics too. There's also a hosted online forum that they'll want to link into. The website needs to be accessible. They need to be able to update the website after you've gone, so they'll need an appropriate CMS. They have a good idea of what they want, however they'll need guidance on the layout and structure. It's possible that their existing computer maintenance company provides hosting, and they would like you to investigate and see whether it's suitable, or else guide them in signing up for suitable hosting. You'll need to: define the website content and structure in detail, assist them in choosing and registering a domain name, build the website, implement a CMS, and train them in its use, provide usercodes and passwords for access

Opportunity Name: Specify a web portal using Web 2.0 technologies
Skill Type: Website
Region: North West
Locality: Penrith
Postcode: CA11
Virtual: Yes

Description: This community interest company is an infrastructure organisation for BME communities in Cumbria. They provide support helping individuals and small groups to network with others in the county. They use information gathered to influence policy making by public and third sector bodies. They also promote training and capacity building within BME communities. Because Cumbria is a large rural county there are significant problems in getting small communities together on a regular basis. The organisation has noticed that some communities have started to embrace the internet and they hope to utilise this interest to bring the communities together. They would like to create a county-wide web presence providing information and resources for community groups but also providing an opportunity to interact with each other through forums, blogs, RSS feeds and other Web 2.0 technologies. They would like to have sub-sections where local groups can have their own presence. They would also like to have secure areas for use by the directors of the organisation. They are looking for a volunteer who can help them scope this work. You'll need to discuss their requirements with them; decide what is feasible and what tools are appropriate to create the portal. Their current website uses Joomla and expanding on this is an option. Alternatively they are happy to start again from scratch if you recommend it. Once the project is scoped you can either do the development work yourself or suggest looking for another volunteer.

Opportunity Name: Troubleshoot video driver problem [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: North East
Locality: York
Postcode: YO23
Virtual: No

Description: This community interest company aims to recycle all the unwanted bikes in York. They refurbish abandoned and donated bikes and sell them on to new owners. They involve an increasing number of young people in the refurbishment of the bikes and a volunteer who commits sufficient time to the project can qualify for a free bike which he or she can then refurbish. The organisation uses one fairly new PC. This machine has developed a problem. When it starts up it often "blue screens" with an error message "Video driver not initialised". This is causing huge problems and they are now scared to switch the PC off. Can you help by troubleshooting this problem?

Opportunity Name: New e-commerce website with forums
Skill Type: Website
Region: South West
Locality: FALMOUTH
Postcode: TR11
Virtual: Yes

Description: This not for profit support group provides advice, information and support to all those living with chronic (long-term) pain. They aim to empower the person with pain to take back control of their lives and enable them to reduce their pain and to cope in a more constructive way. Their frames-based website provides contact with others via a confidential contact area, a discussion forum (both using ASP) and regular newsletters, and offers books, CDs, with payment through PayPal, but they feel it is not visible in search engine results. They would like it to be replaced with a new website offering the same functionality but which is accessible, has a 'clean' look and to be simple for visitors to navigate and for them to maintain. They're currently paying a lot for hosting and would like to move, so your advice on a new host would be appreciated. You'll need to: build the website, implement a CMS, and train them in its use

Opportunity Name: E-commerce improvements to website
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: E17
Virtual: No

Description: This small Walthamstow charity supports disadvantaged people in Ethiopia with their health, education and development needs. They're looking for someone to add functionality to their website, to train them to use FTP and how to make future changes to the website. The charity needs a page to display the goods they sell (a T-shirt and a DVD), and to accept payment and donations via PayPal. They want a brochure-type page to describe the DVD and artistes in more detail, and perhaps to allow visitors to play a sample of music or look at a short video. They're also looking for a form to accept online standing orders. You'll need to: define the improvements in more detail, assist them in registering with PayPal, build the new pages, write notes about updating the website and train them.

Opportunity Name: Revamp Website and Implement CMS
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: SE1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity's focus is on educational and social improvement throughout Nepal. Their major project areas include teacher training, supporting the education of disadvantaged children, building adequate sanitation and water facilities, and developing the skills of Nepalese youth. They have a website which they can't update and parts of it are now out of date. They would like the website redesigned, and they have detailed ideas about this, and they also have some video footage which they would like incorporated. Of course, they want to be able to keep the website up to date, after you've gone, so you'll need to implement a CMS and train them how to use it. Their accessible office is near Southwark and Waterloo stations.

Opportunity Name: Redesign of website to include CMS and database creation
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: Tandridge
Postcode: RH8
Virtual: No

Description: This small charity is a branch of a national charity that works with and on behalf of people with a learning disability and their families. It liaises with and supports like minded groups. It is run by volunteers and has no paid staff. They have a small brochure-type website developed by someone who recently resigned. They would like it to be redesigned, and be more user-friendly, have more pages and pictures and a contact form, and secure web pages so that they can maintain a database for membership, leisure opportunities and events, and display the opportunities and events on the website. They would like to be able to keep the website up to date after you've gone. You'll need to discuss their new content, change the structure and style of the website, advise them about image sizes, add new pages, incorporate the CMS, create a suitable database, maintenance pages, and display pages, and train them how to use the CMS to update their website. They also need you advise them about metadata, page titles, and for you to include it in the web pages. Much later on, they think they'll want to be able to have a forum, so if your choice of CMS can cater for a forum, this might be better.

Opportunity Name: Advice on Setting Up a low cost Audio Studio [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: South East
Locality: Slough
Postcode: SL2
Virtual: Yes

Description: This Slough community group works towards empowering families to raise healthy happy children, through back to basics courses like baby massage, baby yoga, parenting skills training, and providing workshops and coaching. They would like to offer a new service to parents by creating a CD that contains reasonably good recordings of the baby's sounds and voice, stories, lullabies, and nursery rhymes read and sung by the parents, but also be able to mix in music. They're expecting this to be low volume so while using a PC or laptop would probably be suitable for creating the CDs, their current laptop doesn't have a CD writer. They would like your advice on what equipment and software to buy, and help in setting it up.