Lessons from UK's iT4Communities

16 June 2008

Leading UK Volunteering Expert to meet Ballarat Cares Corporate Members

Mr John Davies, Program Director of iT4Communities, will meet with Ballarat Cares’ Corporate Members on Wednesday, 18 June from 10.00 to 11.30 at the Ballarat Learning Exchange.

iT4Communities is the leading IT sector volunteer program in the United Kingdom. Its main areas of activity are:

introducing skilled, professional volunteers to Voluntary and Community Sectors (VCS) organizations looking for assistance with IT projects;
promoting volunteering among IT professionals and companies; and
building IT capacity within VCS.

Since iT4Communities was founded in 2002, over £2.9 million - $A6.04 million - worth of IT support has been delivered to the voluntary and community sector, building up a database of over 4,500 volunteers and more than 2,000 charities. Over 2,000 volunteer opportunities have been defined and over 520 projects completed successfully to date.

Ballarat Cares is currently developing the first corporate volunteering model specifically for regional Australia. Mr Davies’ visit will provide valuable insight into the establishment of volunteering programs that make use of employees’ professional skills.

Mr Davies’ visit to Ballarat has been sponsored by CeCC, the Centre for eCommerce and Communication, at the University of Ballarat. Other events scheduled during Mr Davies’ visit include a presentation at the University of Ballarat Technology Park and Ballarat IT Specialists Network (Tuesday evening) and a Ballarat ICT Community Forum on the Log On project (Wednesday afternoon).

For more information, please contact Bronwen Clark (Ballarat Cares) on 5331 6777 or Helen Thomson (CeCC) on 5327 9418.