Opportunities of the Month

 

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?

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Opportunity Name: Occasional support for CRM system
Skill Type: Database
Region: South East
Locality: Surrey
Postcode: KT8
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity aims to encourage and promote the art of embroidery. They provide workshops, educational resources and a library. They maintain a museum of historical needlecraft artefacts and publish two bi-monthly magazines. The charity use the ProgressCRM contact management database to manage details of their members and the magazine subscriptions. They have a standard installation of the system and they don't use all of the modules available. However, it is an old version of the software - version 3.65. The smooth operation of the database is vital to the organisation - it stores details of over 10,000 members. The charity would like a volunteer they can call on for ad hoc support for the database. They rarely have problems but they'd love to have someone they could talk to if something goes wrong. In addition, they will need to replace their server sometime in the next twelve months and when that happens they would like the volunteer to speak with their external IT support people to ensure the database is transferred smoothly. They're happy to work remotely with a volunteer who has previous experience of this software.

Opportunity Name: Strategy and planning for craft charity
Skill Type: Strategy
Region: South East
Locality: Surrey
Postcode: KT8
Virtual: No

Description: This charity aims to encourage and promote the art of embroidery. They provide workshops, educational resources and a library. They maintain a museum of historical needlecraft artefacts and publish two bi-monthly magazines. The charity needs to review their entire IT systems and they would like a volunteer to work with them to put together an IT strategy and a plan for the medium term future. They know that they will need to replace their server within the next twelve months and the supplier of their CRM software is encouraging them to upgrade to the latest version. But what else should they be considering? They have a network of about a dozen PCs running Windows XP. As well as the standard Office applications they have a number of database packages, Sage accounts, an EPOS system and software to manage the museum stock. They also support their website in-house. They would like a volunteer to look at current system, talk with them about their requirements and help them put together a realistic plan for their IT systems.

Opportunity Name: Training beginners in essential IT skills
Skill Type: Training
Region: South East
Locality: Curdridge, Southampton
Postcode: SO32
Virtual: No

Description: This Southampton area church is running a high profile pilot project to offer a rural discovery centre in a new purpose-built extension. The new purpose-built extension is accessible. Rural discovery centres are being part funded by Hampshire County Council in conjunction with the People's Network in disadvantaged rural areas to support disabled persons and carers; young people and children; elderly persons, migrant workers and lone parents. They're looking for volunteers to give basic tuition (basic computer skills, office software, email, and the Internet) at prebooked sessions either one-to-one, or in groups of up to five - times and durations to suit you.

Opportunity Name: Installation of CMS
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Lambeth
Postcode: SW2
Virtual: No

Description: This charity is an arts oriented community centre near Brixton tube station. They host and manage community projects, and work with children, disadvantaged young people, asylum seekers, people with disabilities and people from black and ethnic minorities. They have an attractive website set up a few years ago by a volunteer mentored by an iT4C volunteer, and maintained by him. That volunteer has gone home, and they can't maintain the site themselves, and it's now out of date, so they need you to implement a CMS, and train them, so that they can add new pages and images. They would like to tweak the design too, to reflect new colours in their branding.

Opportunity Name: Online booking system for community resource centre
Skill Type: Database
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: N7
Virtual: No

Description: This busy community centre has a room hire facility where local groups can hire affordable rooms. They have a bespoke database that links to their Sage Accounts that enables the bookings and invoicing to happen seamlessly. They have been asked to make the booking system available online so that groups can manage their own bookings. They are looking for a volunteer who is able to help them scope and plan this project. Preferably they would like to work with someone who has had previous experience of the introduction of online bookings and payments to advise them.

Opportunity Name: Facebook Application Development
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Southwark
Postcode: SE16
Virtual: No

Description: An unusual and challenging opportunity. This UK charity based in Bermondsey, London provides support to other voluntary organisations which provide services to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Their offices are accessible. They're looking for someone to create a new Facebook Application that will support their under 25 project working. You need to have a sound knowledge of the Facebook API, who can create an innovative and engaging application used for gaining the support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people who may already be using the site and promoting work and activities that are there to support them. It would be useful if you could pass on your knowledge so that they can support it after you've gone.

Opportunity Name: New community website with CMS
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Southwark
Postcode: SE16
Virtual: No

Description: This UK charity based in Bermondsey, London provides support to other voluntary organisations which provide services to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Their offices are accessible. They're looking for someone to build a community website aimed at young people, with members' profiles (updateable by members via registration), a messageboard, a chatroom, event listing and registration, as well as a contact form, and brochure-type pages. They have clear ideas about the style and design they want. They already have Linux hosting and a domain name. They would like it to be based on Joomla, PHPNuke so that they can keep the website up to date, but they would consider a different CMS. They would prefer somebody with Dreamweaver experience too.You'll need to train them to use the CMS.

Opportunity Name: Training in Basic IT Skills for Drop-In Sessions [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Training
Region: London
Locality: Tower Hamlets
Postcode: E1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based near Stepney Green tube station is a youth and community centre providing leisure and educational activities for local people. One particular aims to increase the participation and integration of young newly-married immigrant women. The project will equip them with the knowledge and skills, especially language skills, to tackle barriers to education and employment, increase their access to local services and improve their quality of life. They have a 2 hour drop-in session on Fridays, where these women may come in for some guidance on some aspect of basic IT skills (Word, Excel, email and the internet). This might involve guidance on a 1 to 1 basis or perhaps training a group of up to 3. Sessions are currently 10-3. Although these women have some English, if you can speak Bengali, this would be an advantage. The charity will do a CRB check.

Opportunity Name: Joomla training for existing website [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Training
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: nw6
Virtual: No

Description: This residents association, based near Brondesbury station, London, had a website built for them using Joomla CMS. Unfortunately the main person who was updating the website had a baby and has forgotten how to use it to update the website. She would like you to retrain her and 2 others to use Joomla to update content, add pictures, and add new pages so that they can get the website up to date and keep it current.

Opportunity Name: New CMS-based website required with positive, strong image
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: N7
Virtual: No

Description: This charity works throughout the Greater London area empowering older women and addressing issues affecting them. They raise awareness of issues such as age discrimination, racism, sexism and homophobia and produce best practice documents which they share with other agencies. They're a very positive thinking organisation and use formats such as drama to get their message across. It's becoming increasingly embarrassing that they have no website and they'd like a volunteer to develop a CMS-based site for them. They would like the site to describe their work and to allow them to publicise their events. They would like users to be able to download best practice documents and to contact them about their experiences. They have no firm ideas about the design of the site they would like to include positive images of older women. They have lots of photos from their events and performances so they should be able to provide suitable images. They would also like to include their logo on the site but the original image has been lost and the logo has been copied so many times it's lost its sharpness. The charity will require guidance throughout the entire process but feel that with a bit of training they could easily learn how to keep the site updated. They are happy to work with a volunteer of any age or gender!

Opportunity Name: Basic IT Skills Tutoring
Skill Type: Training
Region: London
Locality: LBTH
Postcode: E1
Virtual: No

Description: Here's a fun and useful way to fill up part of an evening. This community group near Stepney Green, Shadwell, and Aldgate East tube stations provides informal ICT training mainly to older people and children, as well as running a homework club. They're running Sun Open Office on Edubuntu, a variant of Unix. These groups are of mixed ages, currently on Tuesday from 5pm to 7.30pm, and Thursday from 5.30pm to 7.30pm, however, they're hoping to open on other days too. They're looking for volunteers to act as tutors to provide guidance in basic IT skills, accessing the Internet, sending emails, Open Office, or even building a simple website, generally on 1 to 1 basis, for each person needing help. They're hoping to get someone that can come regularly, however if you can't promise that, or you're available on a different evening, they're flexible, so please get in touch.

Opportunity Name: Scoping Online Membership Database Options
Skill Type: Database
Region: London
Locality: Southwark
Postcode: SE16
Virtual: No

Description: This UK charity based in Bermondsey, London provides support to other voluntary organisations which provide services to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Their offices are accessible. They currently have membership data held on Excel 2007 spreadsheets, a fledgling MySQL database, but are considering whether or not to implement an online CRM system, and wonder what packages are available. They would like to end up with an online database that member organisations can update by themselves over the web, interface with their mailing program, and support their organisational needs. They see this as scoping project, reviewing the options, and determining the associated costs, features, and resource impacts of each option.

Opportunity Name: Web Site - refresh - Wroxham, Norfolk
Skill Type: Website
Region: East of England
Locality: Wroxham
Postcode: NR12
Virtual: No

Description: This Sea Scouts Group would like a volunteer help them freshen and update their current web site and to advise on web hosting. The group envisages having a user section where the members can log into a downloads section. They also wish to promote the site more including getting good search engine results. A volunteer with a good working knowledge of web site design & promotion would be a great asset to this project

Opportunity Name: Resolve Problems with Network/Internet Connection [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Network
Region: North East
Locality: Middlesbrough
Postcode: TS5
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in Middlesbrough provide training and support services to over 100 childcare groups. They have a network of 6 PCs (3 desktops and 3 laptops) and wireless broadband. One laptop won't connect to the internet at all, and the others frequently drop connections unexpectedly. Can you resolve these problems, please ?

Opportunity Name: 2000 Database Problems [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Database
Region: North East
Locality: Middlesbrough
Postcode: TS5
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in Middlesbrough provide training and support services to over 100 childcare groups. They have a number of Access 2000 databases; the most major of which, the Toy Loan Scheme database, has a problem with table linkage - it doesn't always retrieve linked records. There may be a similar problem with another database - they're not very sure. Can you resolve these problems, please ?

Opportunity Name: New Brochure-type website with CMS
Skill Type: Website
Region: Wales
Locality:
Postcode: NP22
Virtual: Yes

Description: This aspiring social enterprise in Cardiff, Wales, is being spun out from a charity which designs complementary currency systems to promote bottom-up social and economic regeneration. The new organisation is an institute housed by several universities from around the world to design, develop and test new 'tools' and systems for economic and social development, in the UK and in the rest of the world. They have strong links and partners in several developing countries, and gave a presentation to the Commonwealth Forum in Kampala in November. They want your help to create a really effective web site to show what they're doing and as a showcase for their partners - a collective identity is of paramount importance. The domain name has already been bought. They'll need to update it after you've gone, so they'll need a CMS, to change text and images, and create new pages. They have a good idea of what they want, including a contact form, and a links page, and a short film or animation (which is another opportunity). You'll need to: define the website content and structure in detail, guide them in signing up for suitable hosting, build the website, implement domain-based email, and show them how to maintain mailboxes, implement a CMS, and instruct them in its use, provide user codes and passwords for access.

Opportunity Name: Young People's Website needs refresh
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Southwark
Postcode: SE15
Virtual: No

Description: Can you make a website more young person friendly and link to videos and photos? This London based Charity would like to work with a professional website developer volunteer who is able to help them create an online community for young sickle cell and stroke suffers. This condition is often very isolating and although the activities that the Charity provide bring support and comfort to the young people and their families, the website would enhance this by providing a confidential place to meet others, support each other and access information. A more child-friendly/young person design is needed and links to more interesting content, such as their videos and photos. Any help for this small but very valuable and enthusistic organisation would be much appreciated.