Could your IT skills help charities?

Thursday 15 March 2007 10:48

IT4Communities, the organisation set up by the Information Technologists Company to provide the infrastructure for effective IT volunteering, is looking for more IT professionals to help charities and community projects.

Since its launch in November 2002, IT4Communities, which is supported by Computer Weekly, has registered more than 4,000 IT volunteers and more than 1,600 charities needing IT help. Volunteers have donated more than £2m of their time to charity projects.

Acting as a clearing house and a source of advice both to volunteers and to the charities, IT4Communities has brought a much needed structure to the volunteering process, and several hundred projects have been successfully completed.

"IT4Communities oils the wheels and the volunteers do the work," said John Davies, IT4Communities' programme director.

In 2005, IT4Communities joined up with four other charities to form the ICT Hub - with £400,000 funding from the Home Office to support the effective use of IT across the voluntary sector.

ICT Hub members are: IT4Communities the National Council for Voluntary Organisations the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action, AbilityNet and the London Advice Services Alliance. IT4Communities is especially active with smaller local and community charities.

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