| 15/04/03 Key sustainability toolkit to be launched for UK online centres DirectSupport has joined forces with the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) and Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to develop and distribute a guide to future planning for UK online centres. Established with DfES and NOF funds over the last two years, UK online centres must now begin developing their own strategy for a sustainable future; this new suite of documents provides a range of templates, tools and resources to support centres in this work. The suite of documents brings together many of the ideas and techniques employed and developed by DirectSupport since its inception in November 2000. The DirectSupport consortium, itself strongly rooted in the third sector, is funded by DfES to assist voluntary and community UK online centres. Its work on the ground, through mentors, has given a unique insight into what works in the field. The service has helped over 300 voluntary sector organisations running UK online centres in the last year alone, drawing together principles from community capacity building, social enterprise, online working, project design and partnership development. This new publication will enable UK online centres in all sectors, including colleges, schools and the private sector, to benefit from lessons learnt. DirectSupport developed the guide as a three-part document, allowing centres with different starting points to draw on the level of detail that best suits their needs. Central to the toolkit is a Funding Plan Template available to all NOF funded UK online centres in printed copy. This helps to give practical answers to some of the most common questions: What does a Funding Plan look like?; Where do we start? Two supporting supplements, a Funding Guide for centres and a suite of suggested resources and activities are available online at the NOF web site in pdf format. The documents are also available in word format via the DirectSupport extranet, open to all voluntary sector UK online centres, and will be published on the Help is at Hand portal for UK online centres. The materials are intended to provide support to UK online centres looking to sustain ICT access and learning projects once initial funding from the New Opportunities Fund and DfES expires. While many centres will find the guide gives them enough information and guidance to complete their plan, others, in the community and voluntary sector, may draw on DirectSupport mentors to provide extra help or facilitate planning workshops. This is a part of the ongoing work of DirectSupport, which provides a range of support to centres in the third sector. Services include a freephone helpline, an online group-working forum, and a team of community development mentors. Help to centres covers the vast range of issues and challenges which arise in running such a project, from fund-raising to ideas for fun ICT activities, and from effective use of volunteers to legal issues, marketing, management and local partnership building. DirectSupport Contacts: Jane Berry: j.berry@ruralnet.org.uk Scott Jones: s.jones@can-online.org.uk _________________________________ Notes to editors: 1. The government has set up some 6000 UK online centres, including many in public libraries and colleges, as part of its wider UK online strategy. See www.ukonline.gov.uk and the centres support site: www.helpisathand.gov.uk 2. The New Opportunities Fund provided start-up revenue to centres under its CALL programme. See www.nof.org.uk/index.cfm?loc=edu&inc=call 3. DirectSupport assists those UK online centres hosted in or run by voluntary and community sector organisations. The DirectSupport consortium consists of ruralnet|uk (lead partner), Community Action Network, Community Development Foundation, Partnerships Online and ACRE 4. ruralnet|uk is a rural regeneration charity: see www.ruralnetuk.org It established one of the first community computing centres in the country in the early 1990's and one of the earliest online communities, ruralnet|online, five years ago: see www.ruralnet.org.uk. ruralnet|online is now at the heart of over 20 online collaboration networks, including the DirectSupport service for UK online centres. This is called the Virtual ICT Centre and can be accessed via a web log in, provided free to centres. The closed system model (an extranet) promotes trust, collaboration and person-to-person interaction - offering an alternative model to a typical web page or informational site. 5. The Community Action Network (CAN) supports social entrepreneurs: see www.can-online.org.uk 6. The Community Development Foundation is at www.cdf.org.uk 7. Partnerships Online is an independent consultancy: www.partnerships.org.uk 8. ACRE is at www.acre.org.uk |
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