Wales Co-operative Centre

Consortium awarded contract to deliver project to bridge the digital divide

2009-03-19T00:00:00+1:00

A consortium led by the Wales Co-operative Centre has been awarded the contract to deliver Communities 2.0 a new initiative to tackle digital exclusion in Wales, Deputy Minister for Regeneration Leighton Andrews announced today.

The Wales Co-operative Centre will work in partnership with the University of Glamorgan, Carmarthenshire County Council, Novas Scarman, and the Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services to deliver the six year project from April 1st 2009.

The programme, which will build on the Welsh Assembly Government’s highly successful Communities @One initiative, will provide community groups, social enterprises and individuals with support to use technologies and to help people in the most disadvantaged areas of Wales engage with new technology in ways that are directly relevant to their lives.

Mr Andrews said: “I look forward to working with the consortium to deliver Communities 2.0. I hope we will develop a more co-ordinated approach to digital inclusion and to work with community groups and voluntary organisations to help them engage with technologies. We will also help new and existing social enterprises to engage with ICT by providing training, mentoring and business support.”
Simon Harris, Chief Executive of the Wales Co-operative Centre said: “On behalf of the consortium, I wish to express our delight at being awarded the Communities 2.0 contract. We look forward to building on previous work to bridge the digital divide in Wales, while meeting fresh challenges of supporting community groups, voluntary organisations, social enterprises and individuals to maximise the economic and social potential of ICT.”

Notes to Editors

Details of the Communities 2.0 consortium:

Wales Co-operative Centre
The Wales Co-operative Centre has a wealth of experience in digital inclusion and social enterprise support work, having delivered the Communities @One project since 2005. The organisation has been offering co-operative support services for over 25 years and offers unparalleled expertise and experience in this field.

Carmarthenshire County Council
Carmarthenshire County Council has long standing expertise in both business support and community development, which it will utilise in delivering digital inclusion and business support services within the county. As a local authority, it will also take the lead on initiatives to digitally connect communities to government services.

Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services (PAVS)
PAVS brings key IT technical expertise to the project, which was clearly demonstrated during Communities @One. The organisation’s key role will be in developing and expanding the Circuit Rider movement to cover the whole region whilst also offering other technical services and training.

Novas Scarman (formerly known as The Scarman Trust)
Novas Scarman brings widespread experience and expertise in digital inclusion, wider community development and social enterprise support. Its work in Communities 2.0 will involve elements of all those strands as well as support for socially excluded individuals.

University of Glamorgan
The University’s involvement in the project will come through the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling (GEECS), which sits in the faculty of Creative Cultural Industries. GEECS’ key contribution will be the development of a Centre of Excellence in digital storytelling. The Centre will also investigate the potential of different forms of digital and participatory media as areas of enterprise within Wales’ creative digital economy.

RNIB win at E-Goverment National Awards 2008!

2009-01-29T00:00:00+1:00

We are delighted to announce that the Communities @One funded ATIC Project (RNIB) were Highly Commended at the E-Government Awards, in the category of Building and Fairer Society.

This is a wonderful achievement and we are delighted to see the hard work from the team at RNIB is nationally recognised. Well done and congratulations to you all!

For more information and to see the pictures from the evening visit www.e-governmentawards.co.uk.

Communities @One in line for Major European Award

2008-10-16T00:00:00+1:00

Communities @One has been short-listed as a finalist in the European e-Inclusion Awards, a European Commission initiative. The Welsh Assembly Government’s digital inclusion initiative, administered by the Wales Co-operative Centre, is a candidate in the awards’ Geographic Inclusion category which recognises the achievements of projects that have brought together communities of interest over a very large region or which have overcome disadvantages of living in remote areas. The European e-Inclusion Awards 2008 are designed for initiatives and projects that have used ICT and digital technology to impact positively on socially disadvantaged or digitally excluded groups.

Thirty-five initiatives from public, private, charitable and community organisations across Europe have been short listed as finalists for the 2008 European e-Inclusion Awards, a European Commission initiative. Selected for their innovative uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to help digitally and socially excluded Europeans, they are already improving the quality of life of many people and should help inspire others to do more.

Europe has made good progress in e-Inclusion in recent years but, with 30-40% of Europeans still at risk of being excluded from the information society, much more needs to be done. Nevertheless, the 469 entries to the awards, with participation from every European Union country, are a clear indication of the commitment to creating a more inclusive Europe through ICT.

The medallists of the European e-Inclusion Awards are:

Ageing Well Award
• Inforum (Hungary)
• Kommunförbundet (Sweden)
• London Borough of NEWHAM (United Kingdom)
• Seniormedia Marketing (Austria)
• Seniornett Norge (Norway)

Marginalised Young People
• A-Clinic Foundation (Finland)
• CSV TEN (United Kingdom)
• Cyberhus (Denmark)
• Fundación Tomillo (Spain)
• KPN (Netherlands)

Geographic Inclusion Award
• Kyyjärven kunta (Finland)
• Ministry of Communications and IT – PMU Knowledge Economy (Romania)
• Welsh Assembly Government (United Kingdom)
• Youth Association for Habitat (Turkey)
• South Witham Broadband (United Kingdom)

Cultural Diversity Award
• Erudis,o.p.s (Czech Republic)
• Focus-5 TV (Switzerland)
• ITpreneurs (Netherlands)
• Milton Keynes Council (United Kingdom)
• Municipality of the Hague Public Library (Netherlands)

Digital Literacy Award
• Association ‘Langas i ateiti’ (Lithunia)
• Les Ateliers du Bocage (AdB) on behalf of TechSoup Europe (France)
• Sonovista (Austria)
• Swedish Disability Federation (Sweden)
• Tampere City Library, Sampola Library, Netsquare (Finland)

e-Accessibility Award
• Apex (Czech Republic)
• Enable Ireland (Ireland)
• IAM-Ayuntamiento de Madrid (Spain)
• Medicton Group (Czech Republic)
• Synscenter Refsnæs (Denmark)

Inclusive Public Services Award
• Centre of Registers and Information Systems (Estonia)
• Sotiria Hospital (Greece)
• eHungary Project (Hungary)
• Mid-West Regional Authority (Ireland)
• Significan’t (United Kingdom)

The winners in each of the seven categories will be announced at the European e-Inclusion Awards Ceremony on 1st December in Vienna, as part of the 2008 e-Inclusion Ministerial Conference and Exhibition (30th November to 2nd December, 2008), the largest event on e-Inclusion ever organised in Europe.

Visit www.citizensonline.org.uk/e-inclusionawards_eu/medallists

The "e-Inclusion: be part of it!" campaign is organised by the European Commission. More information on this action is available at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/einclusion. The European Commission bears no responsibility for, nor is it involved in, the events, documents or other manifestations associated or claiming to be associated with the campaign, unless indicated otherwise.

Digital Inclusion Wales Conference 2008

2008-03-14T00:00:00+1:00

“Community Engagement is Key to Bridging the Digital Divide”, says Leighton Andrews

Engaging with deprived communities so that they can make best use of current and emerging digital opportunities is key to tackling social exclusion Deputy Minister for Regeneration Leighton Andrews will tell a conference in Cardiff today (Friday 14 March).

Mr Andrews will say that the approach taken by the Assembly Government’s Communities @One initiative is one that potentially could be used as a model for other community engagement programmes in other countries.

“Communities @One provides a package of support that sets it apart from being a grant scheme and makes it much closer to a supported community development experience,” he said.

“It has built on the experience of the Communities First programme by putting in place Community Brokers to work with Wales most deprived communities to determine local need and the best way to address those needs. This may range from establishing digital storytelling courses to the community running their own digital radio station.”

The programme, which is administered by the Wales Co-operative Centre on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government, has supported more than 200 community groups and voluntary organisations in Communities First areas since its launch in 2006, providing more than £6m in grant funding.

Mr Andrews said that he had agreed to provide an additional funding for the Wales Co-operative for a period of a further 3 months to the end of September 2008.

Mr Andrews said: “I have agreed a further £235,000 to fund the core staff in the Wales Co-operative Centre including the Community Brokers working in the field. This will hopefully give some further time for them to continue their good work and seek match funding for the successor project to Communities@ One which they are developing.”

The Deputy Minister added the programme had helped bridge the digital divide in helping people in the most disadvantaged areas of Wales engage with new technology in a way that is directly relevant to their lives.

Simon Harris, Chief Executive of the Wales Co-operative Centre said: “The impact that Communities @One has had on so many people throughout Wales has been astonishing. The initiative has helped to expand the potential for digital inclusion and what it can do for people in Wales who would otherwise remain isolated, excluded and outside of the ‘online generation’ that we live in.

“At the Wales Co-operative Centre we are now aiming to build on the success of the last few years by continuing to work with community groups and voluntary organisations and to help them set up social enterprises and to generate income, all through engaging with technologies.”

Further information on Communities @One and the ‘Digital Inclusion Wales’ Conference is available online at www.communitiesatone.org and by calling the Wales Co-operative Centre on 029 2055 6950.

Communities @One Reaches £6million Milestone

2007-12-19T00:00:00+1:00

Communities @One Reaches £6million Milestone
Over 200 voluntary and community groups across Wales have benefited from over £6 million of funding as part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s digital inclusion initiative, Communities @One, Deputy Minister for Regeneration Leighton Andrews announced today.

The Deputy Minister made the announcement at an event to officially launch the new Communities @One website (www.communitiesatone.org) which has been set up to offer advice and information to digital inclusion projects funded through the Communities @One scheme.

Communities @One was launched in January 2006 and is administered by the Wales Co-operative Centre on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government. The initiative helps people in the most disadvantaged communities in Wales get access to new technologies, ultimately contributing towards community regeneration through improving skills and knowledge.

The programme has helped to fund projects ranging from setting up of community websites, digital story-telling projects that build a variety of skills and increase community spirit to community IT suites running courses in genealogy, local history, numeracy and literacy for the whole community.

Launching the website at Merit, a project funded by Communities @One, based on the Gurnos estate in Merthyr Tydfil, Leighton Andrews said: “Modern technologies can help transform people’s lives. Communities @One is about breaking down the social and economic barriers that can prevent some people from accessing technology.

“We want to encourage communities across Wales to work out their own solutions for their area - whether it´s relating the history of their community through digital storytelling, organising groups online, learning about email, creating websites or other ideas which are inclusive and improve skills and knowledge.”

“Merit and its neighbouring project Megabytes have received over £98,000 between them. Both are excellent examples of what we want to achieve through the Communities @One initiative which is to encourage community groups and voluntary sector organisations in the most disadvantaged areas of Wales to engage with technologies in ways that are directly relevant to people’s lives.”

In the case of Merit, Communities @One has been able to fund an ICT Development Worker who manages and supports the running of classes including computer rebuilding and maintenance, digital photography as well as an internet drop in facility.

Leighton Andrews added: “Through Communities @One, many more people are now imparting their new-found skills, enthusiasm and confidence on others in their communities, sparking a chain reaction that could be felt in Wales for years to come.”

Simon Harris, Chief Executive of the Wales Co-operative Centre said: “The number of projects that have applied for funding is astounding, exceeding our expectations and reflects the huge appetite for learning about new technologies in the communities across Wales. Communities @One has enabled people in the areas of Wales that could benefit most to engage with technology, showing them the benefits of the online world which is now open to them.”