The start of the new year marks the launch of a campaign
byIT4Communities (IT4C) to get London's IT professionals to
share their time and talentto help their
local communities and charities.
IT4C, which facilitates links between IT professional volunteers
and charities, is also encouraging IT directors and their staff to
take part in community projects as a way of building team skills
and morale.
Since its launch in November 2002, IT4C, set up by the
Information Technologists Company and supported by Computer
Weekly, has registered more than 4,600 IT volunteers, who have
provided a total of more than £2m worth of services to
charities.
The recent
IT4C IT Volunteer Awards 2007 highlighted the best volunteering
activities of the year, most of which built in long-term
sustainability by ensuring that the charities could carry out
routine maintenance and support.
Gary Axford was named Best IT Volunteer for his work in
designing IT courses for people with learning difficulties and
physical disabilities. Paul Campbell, a computer science student at
Manchester University, won the Best Innovation award, working in
his spare time on web-based projects to help community activities
throughout Kent.