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: Database to provide usage analysis
Skill Type: Database
Region: South East
Locality: Bromley
Postcode: BR1
Virtual: NoDescription: This youth charity serves the needs of 11-18yr olds in Bromley by giving them somewhere to go, someone to talk to, and something to do. They have a number of in-house and outside projects, provide Internet access, and provide training. They have Office 2003 (including Access) installed. They need a database to capture such things as name, address, age, ethnicity, gender, number of visits, project information, and to provide reports on usage of facilities and projects to help them secure future funding. Initially those reports will be static, but over time they'll need to change, so they'll need some way of customising those reports. You'll need to: analyse their requirements, build the database functionality, train them in input of data and production of reports, and how to customise the reports.
Opportunity Name: Simple Website Improvements including CMS, and online donations
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: Shoreham-by-sea
Postcode: BN43
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity based in Shoreham-by-sea provides free, confidential, impartial information and advice on employment, housing, social security benefits, money advice/debt, and lots of other problems. They have a website which they think is pathetic, and needs a lot more pizzazz, especially to attract younger people. They particularly want more links, new information pages, a contact form with alternative recipients, online donations via PayPal or a link to their existing donation arrangement (on the Charity Giving website). They need to be able to keep the website up to date easily, so they would like you to install a CMS, and train them how to use it. Their office is not wheelchair-accessible.
Opportunity Name: General Technical Support for Small Charity [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: South East
Locality: Shanklin
Postcode: PO37
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity based in Shanklin, Isle of Wight, provides opportunities for adults and children with learning disabilities/difficulties. They run clubs for them, take them on trips and arrange social events for the adults. They have 4 PCs partially networked, 3 PCs running Windows XP, 1 PC running Windows 98. They would like them to be fully networked, or at least, set up so that they could all share files. They need some basic understanding of the computer system, probably easiest if they ask you questions. They need you to set up backup and provide recommendations on anti-spyware, backup schedule, and how to organise files, and how to secure their wireless connection to the internet.
Opportunity Name: Get telephone and speech recognition software working [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: South East
Locality: Shanklin
Postcode: PO37
Virtual: YesDescription: This charity based in Shanklin, Isle of Wight, provides opportunities for adults and children with learning disabilities/difficulties. They run clubs for them, take them on trips and arrange social events for the adults. Their chairman has severe dyslexia such that he cannot read or write. He has an O2 XDA Orbit telephone; and speech recognition software installed that should enable him to record into MS Outlook on the computer, to arrange meetings, record contacts and write minutes of meetings. The software, however, isn't working, but he does not know why, so he would like you to come in and resolve the problem.
Opportunity Name: Improvements to Website including CMS and E-commerce
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: Slough
Postcode: SL1
Virtual: YesDescription: This Slough charity is an interracial anti-racist organisation which promotes the positive experience of interracial life in Britain today and challenges racism, prejudice and ignorance in society. They have a website which was created by a volunteer, but they need changes to the design and functionality. They would like you to implement a CMS that will allow them to add new pages and train them so that they can keep the content up to date, implement an online donations page using PayPal, a contact form, and put their forms and trustee pack online as PDFs. They would also like to show more information on their publications list and have this as a online sales page rather than the current PDF.
Opportunity Name: Review website and implement a CMS
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: Oxford
Postcode: OX4
Virtual: YesDescription: This Oxford charity aims to improve the quality of life for those with life threatening or terminal illness. They do this by providing trained volunteers who offer practical and emotional support in the home, hospital or office. They also offer befriending, advocacy and counselling. They have a website but it's out of date. Their new manager would like you to review the website in terms of content, and accessibility, and also review the hosting arrangements, and identify areas for change. They may have a CMS already as some of the site is using Plone, so it might just be a case of re-implementing it. They would like you to implement/re-implement a CMS and train them how to use it, and make any other changes needed to the structure and design.
Opportunity Name: Simple training on using Vista laptop with camera
Skill Type: Training
Region: South East
Locality: WORTHING
Postcode: BN11
Virtual: NoDescription: This organisation based in Worthing is a small regional group of a national charity that organises fun and challenging activities for girls and young women of all cultures and backgrounds. They have recently purchased a new laptop and along with a digital camera, printer and projector they want to make it available to the girls for creative activities. They imagine activities such as making posters for events, making greetings cards, creating short presentations, etc. They are looking for a volunteer to provide some training for the group leaders so that they are confident in using the new laptop. There are about 20 leaders with a range of IT skills. They would like training in: * what's new in Vista; * downloading images from the camera and basic image processing; * basic PowerPoint skills; * setting up the printer; * some basic troubleshooting. Eventually they would like to produce a user-friendly handbook explaining how to use the laptop for various activities. Training will have to take place in the evenings. They don't think they will need many sessions but it may need to be spread over a few months to fit with other commitments and to allow them to practise between sessions. They're happy for the volunteer to advise on the best way to manage the training. Initial contact should be by e-mail - the contact person will respond promptly.
Opportunity Name: Review MYOB Accounting System
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: South East
Locality: Milton Keynes
Postcode: MK8
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity based in Milton Keynes helps families, health providers and schools cope successfully with head lice and nits. Their approach provides a sustainable, no-pesticide solution. They sell goods online using their website. They have a hosted Mind Your Own Business accounting system which they've customised. The system is currently updated in two places, London (for online sales) and Milton Keynes, though processing will move to Milton Keynes (there's another opportunity for this). They would like you to review their usage, check that Milton Keynes staff are using it to best advantage, and make any necessary recommendations. Although their office has wheelchair access, the toilet doesn't have wheelchair access.
Opportunity Name: Basic photo editing skills
Skill Type: Training
Region: South East
Locality: Wallingford
Postcode: OX10
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity works throughout south Oxfordshire to support people with learning difficulties. They provide supported living services to people living on their own or with friends and family. They also organise daytime opportunities - training, work opportunities, leisure and sporting activities - and provide support for individuals to help take part. Each of their clients has an individual person-centred plan describing their wishes, dreams, support requirements, etc. The plan is constructed in a format to suit the individual's personality - perhaps decorated with glitter, in a purely pictorial format or in large print for the visually impaired. Increasingly they are using photos in the plans and the support workers would like some training on manipulating digital images. They would like some basic advice - how to download images from the camera, resize and crop the images and import them into Word, etc. This opportunity may involve working with the charity's clients while photos are taken and, if so, a CRB check will be required.
Opportunity Name: An IT audit and outline plan for small Brighton Charity [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Audit/strategy
Region: South East
Locality:
Postcode: BN1
Virtual: NoDescription: This Brighton based Charity provides information and support to the lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and transexual community of Brighton and Hove via a range of services. Their IT trustee left recently, and they discovered there is no documentation ! They have an office of 5 computers and they need you to help them get IT organised ! They need to know about housekeeping, backup, and security, and an assessment of their current/future IT needs. An audit, simple documentation about the configuration and housekeeping tasks, and a recommendations document would be the first step.
Opportunity Name: Provide advice on user set up and defragmentation [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Network
Region: South East
Locality: Portsmouth
Postcode: PO1
Virtual: NoDescription: This Portsmouth charity provides services for older, frail and needy people to enable them to continue living independent and fulfilled lives in the community. Older people are encouraged to do as much as possible for themselves. They have an IT office suite of 10 networked PCs running XP. They have a number of niggling problems, but principally they need you to train them how to set up new user accounts, and defragment the PCs and the server.
Opportunity Name: Review and Revise IT Training Suite Set Up [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: South East
Locality: Portsmouth
Postcode: PO1
Virtual: NoDescription: This Portsmouth charity provides services for older, frail and needy people to enable them to continue living independent and fulfilled lives in the community. Older people are encouraged to do as much as possible for themselves. Their IT training suite of 6 networked PCs running XP encourages social interaction and reduces social isolation; it also provides the opportunity for new friendships to grow. The suite grew haphazardly, and start-up times vary a lot, the PCs have been set up in different ways. They would like you to come and review the set-up and make sure they are all set up the same way.
Opportunity Name: Regular Basic IT SkillsTraining
Skill Type: Training
Region: South East
Locality: Portsmouth
Postcode: PO1
Virtual: NoDescription: This Portsmouth charity provides services for older, frail and needy people to enable them to continue living independent and fulfilled lives in the community. Older people are encouraged to do as much as possible for themselves. Their IT training suite of 6 networked PCs running XP encourages social interaction and reduces social isolation; it also provides the opportunity for new friendships to grow. They're in the process of setting up a small cybercafe. They're seeking one or more volunteers who can provide a regular session of 2 hours (preferably weekly at a mutually convenient time) to train volunteers or older members of the public in basic IT skills including set up of hotmail accounts.
Opportunity Name: Simple CMS website - Brighton
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: West Malling
Postcode: ME19
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity that strives to raise awareness about birthmarks, would like a volunteer to help them merge two web sites they have running into one manageable site, possibly using a CMS. They envisage the web site setup with page templates to enable new pages to be developed and common page parts updated. They are volunteer run and would like to work with a Brighton-based volunteer who would be happy to have initial face to face meetings. The most important thing about the website is that it is not intimidating, but has a friendly, welcoming, community look and feel which provides information about the organisation.
Opportunity Name: Creation of Dreamweaver Template
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: Wokingham
Postcode: RG41
Virtual: YesDescription: This charity based in Wokingham develops, promotes and supports local voluntary and community activity in their area. They have a website and they are seeking to improve it and keep it up to date using Dreamweaver on a Mac. They would like you to create a template for them, instruct them how it works, and provide advice about menu structuring. They would appreciate some advice and help with the website design.
Opportunity Name: Create Apple Scripts for Entourage [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Programming
Region: South East
Locality: Wokingham
Postcode: RG41
Virtual: YesDescription: This charity based in Wokingham develops, promotes and supports local voluntary and community activity in their area. They have Apple Macs running OSX and they use Entourage for sending email to their 500 members. Their ISP will only allow 50 emails to be sent at one time. They would like you to create an Apple Script to move 50 messages from a Draft folder to the Outbox, check when they have all gone and then repeat the process until all messages in Drafts have gone.
Opportunity Name: Office 2003 training for small group
Skill Type: Training
Region: South East
Locality: Wallingford
Postcode: OX10
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity works throughout south Oxfordshire to support people with learning difficulties. They provide supported living services to people living on their own or with friends and family. They also organise daytime opportunities - training, work opportunities, leisure and sporting activities - and provide support for individuals to help take part. The charity uses MS Office 2003 in their admin. office and would appreciate some basic training. Although they use the applications they're aware that they could probably use them in a more efficient way. They are particularly looking for help with Outlook, Excel - they use this for developing rotas, etc - and Access - used for a donors' database. Ideally they would like a volunteer who can be available for a few visits over a couple of months. The initial visit would involve some basic training and subsequent visits would address questions that have arisen in the interim. Training would be for a group of about six people.
Opportunity Name: Redesign of frames-based website and simple SEO skills
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: SW1W
Virtual: NoDescription: This small charity provides scholarships to nurses and midwives to help them advance their studies. This is an interesting opportunity to redesign a website and flex your SEO skills too. Their existing frames-based website is only partly accessible. They need you to redesign it so that it doesn't use frames, incorporates CSS, and is more accessible. They want to be able to maintain their website so also need you to implement a CMS, and train them on using the CMS to update content, and add new Scholars' reports. They'll need advice on choosing useful titles for their webpages too. They also need help in getting and interpreting simple website statistics, or if these aren't provided by their host, in using external analytics, for example, Google.
Opportunity Name: Revamp Website
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London, Thamesmead
Postcode: SE28
Virtual: NoDescription: This small faith-based charitable organisation gets food from a big supermarket chain and distributes food, and serves tea/coffee or soup on a weekly basis to homeless vulnerable people in the community. They have quite a nice website but their website producer has moved away, and they need to be able to update it easily. They also want more of an emphasis on fundraising. They would like you to review the design, add a page to take donations by PayPal, help them add one or more pages to show their project work, implement a CMS, and train them on how to update the website.
Opportunity Name: Help with Creating Podcasts and Vodcasts
Skill Type: Creative Design
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: N1
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity based near Highbury & Islington tube station provides music concerts for old age pensioners, the disabled, and those with mental health problems, and also helps those that play music to improve their skills. They would like you to help them create podcasts and video podcasts (vodcasts), of the concerts and of the musicians amongst their audience. They have recording equipment but neither the knowledge nor the experience to create podcasts and vodcasts. There's another opportunity with this charity to build a website to host the podcasts and vodcasts created.
Opportunity Name: New Website including CMS and Podcasts
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: N1
Virtual: YesDescription: This charity based near Highbury & Islington tube station provides music concerts for old age pensioners, the disabled, and those with mental health problems, and also helps those that play music to improve their skills. They would like you to build them a website that provides information about them, offers podcasts and video podcasts (vodcasts) and allows people to comment on them. They also want a secure members area to offer resources in return for signing up for a newsletter, a contact form, and to be able to collect online donations via PayPal. They need a CMS so that they can update the site, and they would like you to train them to use it. They have 2 domain names and they want both pointed at the site. They would like your advice about hosting, especially in view of the podcasts and vodcasts they wish to offer. There's another opportunity with this charity to help them create podcasts and vodcasts
Opportunity Name: Improvements to Website including ecommerce
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: E6
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity based in Beckton, London provides comprehensive holistic support services to adults and children experiencing domestic violence. They work within a client centred approach to ensure that adults and children are provided with safe choices to enable them to plan safer futures. They have a website built some years ago, which they feel now looks tired and uninteresting. They want someone to update it to have a modern look, change the donations page to accept online donations by PayPal, provide PDF newsletters, and have an online contact form so that their email addresses can't be harvested for spam. The link to their forums is currently broken and they want some guidance on resuscitating this, particularly with regard to preventing undesirable posts. They want to be able to keep it up to date, and while they use Dreamweaver, they don't know how to do the more difficult bits. They need your guidance on whether a CMS would suit them better, so you may need to implement a CMS and train them how to use it, or train them to do the bits they don't know in Dreamweaver.
Opportunity Name: Simple brochure-type website with CMS
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Barnet
Postcode: EN5
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity based near High Barnet tube station provides a support, advice and information service to voluntary and community groups in Barnet, as well as a broker for volunteering opportunities and volunteer involving organisations. They're looking for someone to build them a mainly brochure-type website to show people what they do and what they are about, links, PDFs, contact form, and online application form. They want 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.
Opportunity Name: E-commerce improvements to website [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: E17
Virtual: YesDescription: This small charity based near Blackhorse Road tube station supports disadvantaged people in Ethiopia with their health, education and development needs. They have a website and need a page to display the goods they sell (a T-shirt and a DVD), and to accept payment via PayPal. They also want to take donations online via PayPal. You'll need to assist them in registering with PayPal, and build the new pages. There is another project for the same charity to describe the DVD in more detail and play a sample which is the focus of another opportunity.
Opportunity Name: Link website to Google Earth and Maps
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Hammersmith
Postcode: w6
Virtual: NoDescription: Here's a really interesting opportunity to get in on the ground floor, work with interesting technology, and perhaps learn kml, and add something unusual to your CV. This brand new charity based near Stamford Brook tube station is working to improve the legacy we leave our children - in the form of better health and a better environment. They do this by educating, providing and most importantly rewarding healthy choices. They plan to provide people with the opportunity to sponsor unique square kilometres of national parks, so they're going to take donations online to support the work of national parks worldwide. Creation of a brochure-type website with CMS and e-commerce is the focus of another opportunity. This opportunity is to work with someone from University of London who is creating a world map so that details of the sponsor can be stored on the world map using Google Earth and Maps. They want you to do the work of linking the world map into the website. It'll be an advantage if you're familiar with Google Earth and Maps and the kml language used, but there is the opportunity to learn kml, if you don't know it. They're happy for you to work remotely or on-site - they're on the ground floor.
Opportunity Name: New brochure-type website with CMS and e-commerce
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Hammersmith
Postcode: w6
Virtual: YesDescription: Here's a really interesting opportunity to get in on the ground floor and work with interesting technology. This brand new charity based near Stamford Brook tube station is working to improve the legacy we leave our children - in the form of better health and a better environment. They do this by educating, providing and most importantly rewarding healthy choices. They want a website to tell everyone what they do, and to take donations to support the work of national parks worldwide. They want to keep the website up to date so they need a CMS that will provide them with the capability to add new pages as well as updating text and images. They also want to link to Google Earth so the CMS will need to allow external pages written in appropriate code to link in. They plan to provide people with the opportunity to sponsor unique square kilometres of national parks, so they want to take donations online with payment via PayPal for credit cards and via Barclaycard for debit cards. They also need a secure members login area, with personalised info for the member including a photo of their plot(s) of land. There is also another opportunity to link the website in to provide a marker on the world map with the details of the donor, using Google Earth and Maps. They're happy for you to work remotely or on-site - they're on the ground floor.
Opportunity Name: International computer donation charity - website opportunity
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: N11
Virtual: YesDescription: This Charity takes donated computers and refurbishes them and places them in development projects in sub-Saharan Africa, to Latin America and the South Asian sub-continent. They have a tired website and would like a CMS website that can be updated by the projects on the ground as well as their London-based team. They would like to move from their current look and feel to something more appealing and less text heavy. Their ultimate aims are to reach a broader audience, increase funds and equipment donation and to have a website that is much more alive and reflects the real difference their organization makes to the lives of many thousands worldwide. They feel the key to this is to improve usability and design. The charity team is dedicated to making this happen, and although they are looking for expertise to guide them they are prepared with the content, decision making seems politics free and are a robust organization so this is all set to be an enjoyable project.
Opportunity Name: Advice throughout web design process
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: W11
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity provides counselling, advocacy and other services to women victims of domestic violence throughout the Greater London area. They have a very basic website which was developed using Frontpage. They want to completely redevelop the site to make it more attractive and, importantly, appeal to their different audiences. They want to work with a volunteer who can work with them throughout the whole process of developing a website. They realise that they need to put effort into thinking about their requirements before rushing into development. They've started this process by documenting their thoughts and by looking at sites belonging to agencies they work alongside for ideas. This is an opportunity for a volunteer who wants to influence the design and structure of a site and the technology used to ensure it can easily be updated by the charity. You need to be able to help them understand their audiences and the best way to communicate with them.
Opportunity Name: Technical Support for Community Charity [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: South West
Locality: Barnstaple
Postcode: Ex31
Virtual: NoDescription: This Barnstaple Industrial and Provident Society has a range of projects in areas such as homelessness, learning disability, substance abuse recovery, work preparation and experience, they also have a social enterprise arm to recycle and sell furniture. They have a peer-to-peer network of 7 PCs with broadband access, running Win XP and Win 98. They have unexplained email, internet, and PC crashes which they would like you to resolve. However, they would also like your advice on the most appropriate architecture, and how to make it robust, and recommendations for identifying and contracting for on-going support.
Opportunity Name: Video to showcase the charity's services
Skill Type: Other
Region: South West
Locality: Cheltenham
Postcode: GL50
Virtual: NoDescription: This small charity provides services (residential care/cafe etc) for adults with learning difficulties in Cheltenham. They are looking for a volunteer to advise them about making a video of their services. The video should involve the service users as much as possible (they are enthusiastic about this!). Within the organisation they have a new PC laptop and access to a video camera. The volunteer would need to advise on appropriate software and use of this equipment (or other). Alternatively the volunteer might like to use their own equipment, the organisation is open to the recommendations of a volunteer. This is an exciting project for a video enthusiast who wishes to work with this organisation and their service users to show case the work that they do. This is part of a bigger project responding to enthusiasm by service users to use computers more.
Opportunity Name: Training on website updates - anywhere in south of England [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Advice
Region: South West
Locality: Wincanton
Postcode: BA9
Virtual: YesDescription: This organisation is a volunteer-run support group for parents of children suffering a very rare condition affecting the blood vessels of the brain. They provide support and advice to parents and teachers throughout the world and work with specialist healthcare professionals to ensure that accurate medical advice is available. Their website plays a very important part in providing support. It was created by a volunteer and has been maintained by him until recently. He is now unable to help and has passed all of the details for the site to group's organisers. They would like to continue to maintain the site to the same standard but don't have the necessary skills. They have been told that it is not difficult to make changes and that a few hours training from a website professional is all they need to learn how to look after the site. The organisers are a married couple who are happy to travel to London or within the south of England to meet with a volunteer. They use computers in their daily lives so think they'll be able to pick up the basics quite quickly. Unfortunately they don't know what software the site uses so your first task would be to find out it it's a CMS or if they need to use an HTML-editor of some sort.
Opportunity Name: Basic IT Training for the Physically Disabled
Skill Type: Training
Region: South West
Locality: Liskeard
Postcode: Pl14
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity in Liskeard runs a day centre for people with physical disabilities. They provide mental and physical stimulation, a day out and a break for the carer. They have a networked IT suite of 6 computers. Some individuals need to use adaptive technology to access the computers. They are looking for people to support individuals using computers and the internet, either on a one to one basis or training a group in basic IT skills, and if you have previous experience of adaptive technology, that's even better. You'll need a lot of patience, as some are newly disabled, or are not confident. It is most important that you come regularly. The centre is open from Monday to Friday from 10am to 3.30, and whilst they would prefer someone who can come for 2 hours a week, even 1 hour a fortnight would be better than nothing. As there are some vulnerable adults you'll need to undergo a CRB check.
Opportunity Name: New Design for Website and CMS Implementation
Skill Type: Website
Region: South West
Locality: Barnstaple
Postcode: Ex31
Virtual: YesDescription: This Barnstaple Industrial and Provident Society has a range of projects in areas such as homelessness, learning disability, substance abuse recovery, work preparation and experience, they also have a social enterprise arm to recycle and sell furniture. They have a website that they can't keep up to date, and in particular, while they don't want to do internet sales they do want to update frequently the list of furniture items with descriptions and photos. They would like you to discuss their design ideas with them, and change it, implement a CMS and train them how to use it, and advise them on optimisation of images, why it's necessary, and how to do it.
Opportunity Name: Basic IT Training for staff members
Skill Type: Training
Region: South West
Locality: Cheltenham
Postcode: GL50
Virtual: NoDescription: This small charity provides services for adults with learning difficulties in Cheltenham. They have a small women-only residential care service and assist other clients with supported living in their own homes. They operate a day centre that is linked to a cafe enabling service users to interact with members of the public. Many of the service users are keen to make better use of computers but some of the charity's staff are not confident enough to help them with this. The charity would like a volunteer to help them bring all their staff to a similar standard of PC awareness. Whilst some are fairly confident others are "scared to switch on the PC". They mainly use MS Word with some managers using Excel. They would like all staff to have an understanding of how to access the Internet. The charity hopes that the volunteer can offer some basic training sessions and perhaps help them put together a training package which they can use as part of the induction process for new members of staff.
Opportunity Name: Basic IT training for older people
Skill Type: Training
Region: West Midlands
Locality: West Bromwich
Postcode: B70
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity is the local West Bromwich branch of a national charity providing support and advice for older people. They are running an information awareness project to educate and inform the over-50s about the possibilities of computers and the Internet. Access to technology and the Internet has huge potential to reduce isolation in older people. They would like to run informal group training sessions to introduce PCs to older people. They are looking for a volunteer to run these sessions. The training would need to cover the absolute basics - how to switch on the PC, etc. - and move on to word processing and using email and the Internet, etc. The groups would be no more than 10 people. The sessions would be held in local libraries using their facilities. They would need the volunteer to commit to a two-hour slot at a regular time for ten weeks. The charity ran similar training sessions last year and the training materials from those will be available as a basis for the new sessions.
Opportunity Name: Analysis of Requirements and Database Review
Skill Type: Needs Analysis
Region: West Midlands
Locality: Warwick
Postcode: CV34
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity based in Warwick is a leading education charity for health professionals working with patients with long-term conditions. It aims to provide a consistent, comprehensive and innovative approach to professional health training across the fields of cardiovascular disease, allergic conditions, diabetes and respiratory health, with the ultimate objective of transforming lives worldwide. Educational programmes are run nationally and internationally and are accredited by the Open University. They have a bespoke Access 2002 database supported by a part-time in house software developer. Although initially a students database, it's grown over the last 10 years in scope and in functionality and now holds details of students, courses, students' results, costs, trainers, markers, staff. They need you to determine the current and future requirements for their student administration, trainers, and other stakeholders, including providing management information, and making information available via the web. They also feel that they need some elements of Customer Relationship Management. They want you, too, to review the current database and advise whether it is "fit for purpose" and determine the investment they to need to make to get the database meeting their requirements, and whether to split some data and functionality off perhaps by using a packaged solution.
Opportunity Name: Help using Word 2007
Skill Type: Training
Region: North East
Locality: York
Postcode: YO23
Virtual: NoDescription: 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 have the latest version of MS Word (2007) and are struggling to get to grips with it. They're finding that it's very different to the version they were used to and they're not able to use it efficiently. They'd love some help from a volunteer who can show them how to make better use of it - how to use templates, how to draw tables to make forms, how to make their documents look more professional, etc. They're a small team of only three staff so it would be a small group session and they think they'd benefit hugely from only a couple of visits.
Opportunity Name: Add shopping pages to existing website
Skill Type: Website
Region: North West
Locality: Manchester
Postcode: M20
Virtual: NoDescription: This educational charity based in south Manchester, works with teachers, and others interested in teaching children about development, global and environmental issues such as fair trade, human rights, cultural diversity. They run a curriculum development project, a teachers' resource centre, and offer training and school events. Their teachers' resource centre contains over 2,000 titles of relevance to the National Curriculum. They have a working website, and they want to be able to promote and sell their resources online, and take payment via PayPal. They want to show scanned covers for about 50 - 100 of their titles initially, and they'll produce and resize the images themselves using Photoshop. They want you to recommend and install a suitable shopping cart, and show them how to update it and load images of other covers when available. Although most of the work can be done remotely, they would like to meet you.
Opportunity Name: Specify interactive website
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: North West
Locality: Liverpool
Postcode: L3
Virtual: NoDescription: This Liverpool-based charity supports and nurtures artistic and creative entrepreneurs within local communities experiencing deprivation. They provide business support and training aimed at professional development. Working within the community they have identified a need for ICT support and they would like to provide this through an interactive website. They would like to use Web 2.0 technologies to provide a mechanism for their artists to communicate and support each other. They would also like to create an interactive catalogue to allow artists to showcase and sell their work. The charity is very enthusiastic and have lots of ideas for the site and would like a volunteer to advise them on what is possible and what technologies they need to use. The only constraints are that the site should be accessible and that low-cost solutions are used. The output of this opportunity should be a clear specification to allow someone to build the site.
Opportunity Name: Suggest future plans for arts information site
Skill Type: Website
Region: North West
Locality: Penrith
Postcode: CA11
Virtual: YesDescription: This charity exists to support and promote arts activities within the Eden area of Cumbria. They advertise arts events - exhibitions, workshops, festivals - manage projects and promote public art of all kinds. They have a website designed about five years ago which they maintain using Dreamweaver. The site is updated frequently with new events being listed at least weekly. They do have some problems mainly with alignment of text and images. They would like a volunteer to help them consider the future of the website. Should they consider a redesign? Can they make better use of technology to provide a better service? Alternatively do they simply need some help to better understand how to use Dreamweaver? Much of this work could be done remotely by looking at the site and talking to the staff. However, a face-to-face meeting would be useful, especially if you can provide some Dreamweaver advice. Website
Opportunity Name: Support, suggestions for procedures, ideas for improvements
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: North West
Locality: Salford
Postcode: M5
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity is a library of literature and artefacts relating to the working class movement in Britain and Ireland from the late 1700s to the present day. Based in Salford their resources are available to anyone interested in history from the point of view of working people. This is an exciting time for the library as they have won funding for additional staff to support their archiving work and to increase their work in the community. The funding will also pay for new computer equipment and library management software. When their system is networked the charity realise that their current ad-hoc approach to IT won't be good enough. They would like a volunteer who can advise them on putting some procedures in place and, ideally, who is prepared to provide on-going support. The scope of this opportunity is wide - the charity want to provide something interesting for a volunteer to do. So, if you'd like to learn about their new library system, Adlib, you could attend the training course they've been offered. Or if you'd like to make suggestions about how they can make better use of IT they welcome any ideas you have. This charity works with a lot of volunteers and really appreciates the help volunteers can give.
Opportunity Name: New Brochure-type Website with CMS and Forum
Skill Type: Website
Region: North West
Locality: Carlisle
Postcode: CA1
Virtual: NoDescription: This charity based in Carlisle provides advocacy, an information service, and support to people with experience of mental distress, their carers and friends. They want your help to build a website in conjunction with 2 or 3 of their service users and staff, to offer additional ways to promote the work of the organisation and offer prospective users another option to seek guidance, support and information. They are keen to be fully involved in the process of design, launching and management and aim to involve service users, staff, volunteers and trustees in the process. They have a domain name (though owned by someone else), but need advice on hosting. They want to have a forum, news and information pages, links, and a contact form. Although they have a good idea of the design and content, they do need your guidance about it, and you'll need to implement the design within a suitable CMS, and train them so that they can add text, pictures, new pages. A CRB check may be needed.
Opportunity Name: Web 2.0 Advice
Skill Type: Website
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Sheffield
Postcode: S35
Virtual: NoDescription: This not-for-profit development trust in the Sheffield area, provides services to children with disabilities and their families as well as the local geographic community. They've recently started a project to transform the premises and grounds of a former school, which includes adjacent (underdeveloped) playing fields, a country park (mainly rough woodland with pond) and rough waste land. They would like your advice on how to use Web 2.0 to get ideas and collaboration from their community.
Opportunity Name: CMS-based site to replace existing site
Skill Type: Website
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Leeds
Postcode: LS9
Virtual: NoDescription: This Leeds-based charity, affiliated to a national organisation, works to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities. They operate family support services, run youth clubs and play schemes and have a residential home for a small number of adults. The charity has a website but they can only make changes through a third-party and this is too expensive. They would like to make regular updates so would like a site that they can control themselves. They would like a volunteer to build them a CMS-based site similar to the existing site. Ideally they would like to keep the same domain name but are concerned that it may not be registered in their name. The volunteer will need to investigate that and advise on a move to another hosting company if appropriate. The site will need to include text and images, a link to Paypal for donations and they'd also like to include video clips.
Opportunity Name: Improvements to Access 2003 database
Skill Type: Database
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Scarborough
Postcode: YO11
Virtual: NoDescription: This mental health charity based in Scarborough provides housing support, training, a befriending scheme, and raises mental health awareness in the local area. They have an Access 2003 database used for reporting and information relating to volunteers and friends of their Befriending Scheme. They would like you to iron out the glitches, and amend or provide new reports they need for their funders.
Opportunity Name: Website Improvements including e-commerce
Skill Type: Website
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Huddersfield
Postcode: HD1
Virtual: NoDescription: This small Huddersfield charity supports artists with mental health problems. They work in both community and hospital settings. This is an opportunity with a difference. They have a brochure-type website maintained by one person. They would like to be able to offer their artists' works (about 200 items) for sale with payment by PayPal. They also want to allow each artist to set up their own webpage, together with pictures, and to enable artists and volunteers to maintain the whole of the website. They have Adobe Creative Suite installed and several artists are experienced at creating images for the web. You'll need to: define the website structure in more detail, implement a suitable CMS which incorporates a gallery/shopping catalogue, assist them in signing up for PayPal, and build and test the link to PayPal, train them in using the CMS to update the website. Their offices are not accessible.
Opportunity Name: PC Healthcheck/mini strategy [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Audit/strategy
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Huddersfield
Postcode: HD1
Virtual: NoDescription: This small Huddersfield charity supports artists with mental health problems. They work in both community and hospital settings. They have a variety of PCs and software and want a healthcheck, and to know what equipment needs to be replaced, and what might help them now.
Opportunity Name: Advice please. Internet-only PC on a budget
Skill Type: Advice
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Halifax
Postcode: HX1
Virtual: NoDescription: This organisation works with over 13,500 vulnerable and socially excluded people in England each year helping them with housing and support. From their Halifax office they operate a supported lodgings scheme for young people with placements available with families throughout Calderdale. Within their office they would like to provide a PC which clients can use, with staff help, to access housing-related websites and apply for housing online. They have a room set aside for the PC and the office has broadband access but they've no budget for a PC! They would appreciate advice from a volunteer - what sort of PC do they need, where can they get one cheaply (or free) and how should it be set up? The PC wouldn't be used for anything else so perhaps a low spec. or second hand machine would be good enough.
Opportunity Name: PC Network and Technical Support Problems
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Bradford
Postcode: BD8
Virtual: NoDescription: This established Bradford charity provides housing and support for single homeless men. They have a peer-to-peer network of 8 PCs running a mix of Windows XP and Vista. Some of the PCs are quite old. There's a mixture of Norton and AVG anti-virus software. They feel their network is slow. They upgraded from wired to wireless broadband internet access, and intermittently they are denied access. The main printer also intermittently refuses to print.The 'admin' PC has problems starting up. They need guidance on housekeeping tasks, and more importantly, a backup strategy and set-up advice. Their office is not wheelchair-accessible.
Opportunity Name: Training on how to use CMS [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Website
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Rotherham
Postcode: S60
Virtual: NoDescription: This independent Rotherham charity provides support to local residents in ensuring they access their rights. They also provide advice on debt, housing and immigration and areas of social (civil) law. They have a website created by a (non-iT4C) volunteer who is now employed and doesn't have time to update it. There is a CMS but they don't know how to use it, so they want you to review the CMS and train them how to use it.
Opportunity Name: Creation of Short Film or Animation for website
Skill Type: Creative Design
Region: Wales
Locality:
Postcode: NP22
Virtual: NoDescription: This aspiring social enterprise in Blaenau, 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 short film or animation to go on the new website (which is another opportunity) - whilst they have a firm story, the graphics haven't been created yet.
iT4Communities
Volunteer Newsletter
Issue 46
July 2008
