London Region ICT Champion

Capacity Builders has announced details of successful bidders into its Improving Reach Programme.  A total of £17,444,123 was awarded across the 9 English regions.

So far, the only details we have are those published by Capacity Builders, which shows a total of  10 grants totalling £2,374,550 (13.6% of the total) awarded to London.  Until we get further information from Capacity Builders, its not clear of any if the winning projects will feature elements of ICT.

Improving Reach awards 2008: London

• Evelyn Oldfield Unit £375,000 (supports refugee organisations)

• London Community Recycling Network £139,683

• Olmec £370,998 (community investment foundation working with disadvantaged communities)

• London wide organisation for disability £121,200 (new second tier organisation for the disability sector)

• Ealing Community and Voluntary Service £55,770 (support for local organisations)

• Islington Voluntary Action Council £297,268 (support for local organisations)

• Harrow Refugee Forum £200,000 (umbrella body for refugee organisations)

• Southwark Community Care Forum £249,000 (supports voluntary sector groups working in health and social care)

• Croydon BME Forum £415,953 (forum for black, minority, ethnic organisations)

• Refugees in Effective and Active Partnership £149,678 (directory of refugee organisations in West London)

A quick line on UK recipients of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Program…..

Application criteria and process here.

Black Country Consortium
The Black Country Consortium (BCC) project is a long-term commitment supported by Microsoft to develop a stronger knowledge economy by improving the skills of the current labor force and providing basic skills to the unemployed. Through a network of 120 community technology centers, disadvantaged communities are receiving technology skills training in the Black Country region. The project ultimately aims to enable job growth and sustained economic opportunity in this economically depressed region. BCC works closely with Black Country Knowledge Society, to provide technology training at all levels, and with the Black Country Learning Net, to broaden digital inclusion in the community.

Age Concern
In Western Europe, there are limited work force opportunities for unemployed people over 50.  As a part of the Black Country project, Age Concern’s mission is to address unemployment in the Black Country region by supporting all people over 50 through a digital inclusion network as well as promoting micro-entrepreneurship through the PRIME initiative. The PRIME initiative is a charity linked to Age Concern, which strives to help people older than 50 consider options for self-employment and micro-entrepreneurship. In supporting this goal, Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will be used to run community workshops on self-employment and to ensure appropriate IT skills training is delivered. It will help recruit mentors for potential micro-entrepreneurs and help track progress of people who are starting small businesses.

Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)
Seventy-five percent of people who are blind or have low vision are unemployed in the United Kingdom. The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) is part of the Black Country project. Its mission is to empower people with visual disabilities to improve employment opportunities through IT skills training. The RNIB partnership will drive increased accessible IT skills training and access to employment for blind and partially sighted people of working age. Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will support the cost of training trainers, making training centers accessible, and providing employer awareness training on disabilities in the workplace.

LLoyds TSB Foundation is one of the UK’s leading grant-makers, and has a focus on supporting smaller underfunded charities that help people who are disadvantaged and live in England or Wales to play a fuller role in the community.

The Foundation supports both well established and new work across the voluntary sector and is one of the few grant makers who fund core costs, including salaries, to ensure charities can deliver their core services. To find out more about the Foundation’s grants you can download the 2008 guidelines in Word or PDF format. For groups based in London, the funding priorities for 2008 are:

Herts & North West London (Barnet, Brent, Buckinghamshire, Camden, City of London, Ealing & Hammersmith, Harrow, Hertfordshire, Hillingdon, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Slough, Westminster)

• Excluded young people
• Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants
• Mental health
• Prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families
• Slough or Buckinghamshire the funding priorities are:
  • People returning to the community
  • Diverse minority communities
• Hertfordshire the funding priorities are:
  • Older people and carers
  • Mental Health
  • Rural disadvantage

Essex & North East London (Barking, Enfield, Essex, Hackney, Haringey, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Southend on Sea, Thurrock, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest)

• Excluded young people
• Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants
• Mental health
• Prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families
• Thurrock, Essex or Southend on Sea the funding priorities are:
  • Older people and carers
  • Mental Health
  • Rural disadvantage

Kent & SE London (Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, East Sussex, Greenwich, Kent, Lambeth, Lewisham, Medway, Southwark)

• Excluded young people
• Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants
• Mental health
• Prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families
• East Sussex, Kent or Medway the funding priorities are:
  • People returning to the community
  • Diverse minority communities

South Central & SW London (Berkshire, Bracknell Forest, Brighton, Hampshire & IOW, Hounslow, Kingston Upon Thames, Merton, Portsmouth, Reading, Richmond, Southampton, Surrey, Sutton, Wandsworth, West Sussex, Windsor, Wokingham)

• People returning to the community
• Diverse minority communities
• Merton, Sutton, Wandsworth, Kingston Upon Thames, Richmond or Hounslow the funding priorities are:
  • Excluded young people
  • Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants
  • Mental health
  • Prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families

The Big Lottery is consulting on the second round of its BASIS (Building and Sustaining Infrastructure Services) grant programme - and we all have the chance to get ICT on the Big Lottery’s regional agenda.

In consultation documents issued for BASIS Round 2, the Big Lottery Fund says it identifies LGBT, volunteering, carers, refugee and asylum seekers, income generation for back office services, and environment as proposed regional priorities, and expects to distribute upto £9.5m towards 20-25 projects.

However, we do have the chance to lobby for BASIS to support regional and sub-regional ICT infrastructure projects - such as Regional Champions and Sub-Regional ICT co-ordinators.

It’s as easy as taking part in the online survey form, which asks “if you think something is more important at a regional level that the objectives listed then enter it in the box”.

Given Capacity Builders board decision - not unexpected - to pull the plug on ICT as a national support service it’s important that we continue to maintain a high profile of the transformational difference regional and sub-regional ICT projects can make. So vote now for regional ICT support services.

The consultation runs until 12pm on 16 November and, you can read about Big’s draft proposals for London here and England-wide here.

News that web accessibility is beginning to permeate the consciousness of funders arrives from Third Sector Magazine (6 June 2007), which  reports that a small charity funded by the Learning and Skills Council has raised concerns about the LSC’s new online application process.

Roots and Shoots, which offers young people with learning disabilities in south London qualifications in horticulture, relies on the LSC as one of its main funders. It says it was told at short notice earlier this year to submit its funding bid electronically. Linda Phillips, manager of the charity, described the online application process as “inaccessible”.

Apparently Roots and Shoots submitted its online bid within the March deadline, but was last month told its bid was incomplete and would have to wait until September to reapply, leaving the organisation without funding until April 2008.

The LSC has confirmed it is inviting organisations that had similar problems  to reapply.

You can find out more about web accessibility on the ICT Hub Knowledgebase.

European Commission Issues First Call for Proposals under its ICT Support Programme (UK)

Grants Online tels us that:

The European Commission has issued a call for proposals under its ICT Support Programme. The ICT Support Programme is part of the Commission’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and aims to stimulate innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) by citizens, governments and businesses and in particular SMEs. Under this call a total of £53 million is available to support actions that use ICT to develop more efficient and accessible eGovernment services; use ICT to promote accessibility, for the elderly and social integration; and make the best use of ICT for sustainable and more accessible health services.

In the past, the ICT Champion has taken a dim view of e-government initiatives (such as the one mentioned above) and its token attempts to involve the voluntary sector, but we shall see. The blurb goes onto state:

The Commission is seeking to support a variety of different projects. These are Pilot projects that build on existing initiatives in participating countries; Pilot projects that stimulate the uptake of new ICT based services; and thematic networks that bring together relevant stakeholders, expertise and facilities with the objective of exploring new ways of implementing ICT-based solutions. The closing date for applications is the 23rd October 2007..

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict_psp/calls/call_proposals_07/index_en.htm

Source: Grants Online

The Google Grants UK beta programme supports organisations sharing Google’s philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.

Designed for UK registered charities, Google Grants provides free advertising on Google AdWords, to charities seeking to inform and engage their constituents online.

You can read about Google Grants’ programme details here and the FAQs here

Google Grants has previously given free AdWords advertising to charitable groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education.

Applications to the Google Grants (UK) programme can be made at any time. Google says that it will “select Google Grants recipients every quarter….[and will notify applicants] within six months or less whether or not [they] will receive a Google Grant award.”

In the interests of sharing information, I’d really like to hear how others have fared with Google Grants.

• Has your organisation or community group used Google Grant?
• Can you tell me if the application process was easy?
• Were you successful? If so, what were the benefits of free Google advertising for your organisation (such as an increase in the recruitment of volunteers and sponsorship)?