Regional ICT Champion

Regional ICT Champions Mission Statement

The two-fold mission statement of the Regional Champion is:

To support front-line voluntary and community organisations to understand and be signposted to the range of ICT resources available in their region or at a national level thus enabling them to better achieve their missions of delivering quality services more effectively using this technology.

To map out and then empower existing infrastructure organisations to become sustainable and to work alongside them to deliver sub-regional workshops and other ICT awareness raising initiatives to small grassroots organizations.

The key aim being that by the end of this project through better resourced and connected infrastructure all regions will be working to a common level platform of co-ordination and championing support in voluntary sector ICT.

A regularly updated Blog by the Regional Champions can now be found at www.swict.wordpress.com

Also see here a filmed presentation made to the Regional Harnessing Technology Conference in Taunton, November 2007 http://www.2dot0.co.uk/pages/swrda-a5.html

Project Background

The ICT Hub is a group of five core voluntary sector organisations who have come together to plan and deliver a co-ordinated framework of ICT guidance, good practice, advice and support for voluntary and community organisations, accessible at a local level. Phase one of our work (from August 2005 to March 2007) significantly increased the level of engagement of the voluntary sector with ICT resources at a national and local level, building on this in phase two we aim to achieve more reach to front line groups through a number of initiatives. Following on from consultations in summer 2006 a network of Regional ICT Champions was proposed in this business plan, accepted by the ICT Hub steering group with funding granted by Capacity Builders.

General Objectives

1. To increase senior staff, trustees and operational managers’ understanding and awareness of the strategic benefits of ICT and to plan its strategic use.
2. To ensure that voluntary and community organisations have access to a range of national and sub regional ICT advice, training and support services.
3. To provide access to different models of ICT at a sub regional level support including circuit riders and pro bono initiatives.
4. To increase the range of relevant and affordable private sector products and services through increased understanding of the market place.
5. To ensure funders recognise the critical role and cost benefits of ICT.
6. To increase understanding and awareness of ICT’s critical role in providing and services for particular groups including those with disabilities and elderly people.