The national ICT Champions team are asking voluntary and community organisations to participate in a survey of VCS ICT support. To take part visit: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ictsurvey2010 

The project is concerned about where organisations will find help in the future and the main objective of this survey is to create a 'directory' of some form which is accessible to everyone and informs people where they can get the support they need locally.

The survey then is about who offers any sort or information and communication technology (ICT) support for voluntary and community groups. Not necessarily who are the dedicated technical support providers and website designers etc, we're more interested to learn about general support organisations who might for example also do basic Microsoft Office training, or have their own list of technical support providers to signpost their members and groups to, or perhaps they do basic computer use classes.

This survey is part of a NAVCA ICT Champions project funded by Capacitybuilders, investigating information and communication technology support for voluntary and community groups in England.

emda is launching the Rural Broadband Fund, funded through the Rural Development Programme for England. The funding can contribute towards developing innovative approaches that address existing gaps in rural broadband coverage. These approaches can include:

• Community broadband projects
• Projects that seek to upgrade existing infrastructure to exceed the proposed Universal Service Commitment speed of 2Mbit/s
• Projects that enable early deployment of next generation compatible solutions

Organisations eligible to apply are: businesses, charities, community groups, and local consortia. The closing date for Expressions of Interest is the 13th September 2010.

For further information: http://www.emda.org.uk/rdpe/broadband.asp?nav=08&snav=0802

There is a ‘Communication and social media' workshop on 13 October in Leicester. This workshop is part of a series being run for development workers in local support organisations and for staff in local volunteer centres. It is one of a number of regional workshops that are being delivered by the NAVCA ICT Champions and Red Foundation as part of the Capacitybuilders' Modernising Volunteering & Regional ICT Champions work. For further details see: Events

In September/October the regional ICT project is offering a series of ICT workshops for third sector local infrastructure organisations (LIOs). These are aimed at development workers and other staff involved in providing support to frontline organisations. The purpose of these workshops is to enable development workers to be more skilled and confident about supporting organisations with their ICT needs.

Wednesday 15th September - Leicester

Monday 20th September - Nottingham

Wednesday 29th September – Chesterfield and Northampton

Tuesday 5th October - Lincoln

For further information see:  ICT workshops 

NIACE are running two half day workshops in Leicester on Friday 9 July. These workshops are for people who help make informal adult learning happen. Find out how the adults who learn with you can make the Digital Age work for them! These two half-day workshops aim to provide you with an overview of how technology can be used to support informal adult learning and access to resources which they can use to build their skills. They will explore how digital technology can be used by learning groups to make their learning experiences really exciting. For further details:

Morning workshop, 9:45am to 12:45pm

http://www.niace.org.uk/campaigns-events/events/informal-adult-learning-in-the-digital-age

Afternoon workshop, 1:30pm to 4:30pm

http://www.niace.org.uk/campaigns-events/events/learning-with-technology-materials 

E-Access Bulletin's sixth annual conference and exhibition on access to technology by people with disabilities, e-Access '10, takes place on 13 July 2010 at Olympia 2 Conference Centre, London. This year, the event is co-hosted by OneVoice for Accessible ICT Coalition, the UK's leading umbrella body for organisations promoting access to technology by all. For further information:  www.abilitynet.org.uk/newsarticle95/

Freerunner is offering to install free WiFi wireless internet access in 50 public places for at least three years. The company will also install the Freerunner service for free in 500 charity buildings, provided that they have broadband access.

Let Freerunner know why your community needs WiFi and they will come and install a totally free service in a public place for 3 years (or possibly longer). They currently have enough in the fund to pay for 50 communities in the UK.

For an application form visit www.freerunr.com/community/.

Get Connected, a fund from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), will distribute £12 million in investment grants over one year to support the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in adult social care. The grants are designed for the benefit of people who use services and to support staff training. Investment funding of up to a value of £20,000 is available for eligible adult social care organisations in England.

Find out more about the project at www.scie.org.uk/workforce/getconnected/.

A series of social media workshops will be taking place around the country in June and July. The workshops are designed particularly for development workers in local support and development organisations, and those providing support and advice in volunteer centres.

These workshops are being delivered by the NAVCA ICT Champions and Red Foundation as part of the work of Capacitybuilders' Modernising Volunteering & Regional ICT Champions.

The workshop dates currently being offered are:

2nd June – CAN Mezzanine, Old Street, London

23rd June – The Circle, Voluntary Action Sheffield, Rockingham Street, Sheffield

7th July – (Venue TBC), North East

8th July – The Bolton Hub, Bolton CVS, Bold Street, Bolton

15th July – BVSC, 138 Digbeth, Birmingham

N.B. Those based within the East Midlands would be welcome to attend any of the above workshops. A workshop from this national programme will be offered in the East Midlands later in the year (probably in Leicester)

For booking details and further information, see: www.item3.org.uk/events

'An introduction to social media' - workshops for third sector infrastructure organisations

16th March 2010 - Nottinghamshire

25th March 2010 - Derby

Would you like to know more about social media and how it might benefit your organisation? Organised by the East Midlands Regional ICT Champion, these workshops provide an introduction to social media and its potential uses by third sector organisations. For further information:

http://www.item3.org.uk/Events