Family Discovery Learning - Creative People

Willoughby Road Primary School parents, grandparents, aunts + uncles and children have had the opportunity to be 'creative' with digital technology over the last four weeks.
The Study Parks digital inclusion and digital literacy course is continuing to be a big hit with adults and children alike. The learning programme subtly 'drops people in at the deep end' of creative possibilites using online and digital technology. The programme uses a mixture of video, audio, graphic and computer gaming software to produce a fully interative 3D computer game using a wide range of skills in a collaborative, friendly and fun environment.  

Adults and children using the 'Live' TV studio

Family teams preparing scripts for video and audio recording

Most adults who arrive on Week 1 look mesmerised when we explain what the programme entails but by Week 5 they are creating scripts, video sequences and jointly creating a computer game!

The programme for 2013 is virtually full for Spring and Summer terms.

Beechway Residents Association

Was out visiting another funded residents association this morning in Scunthorpe. Beechway Resident Association have been through the mill a bit since receiving their funding but they have been resolute and this morning was the first time they were able to switch on the new laptops in the shared location (Bespoke community project).

Resident Association committee members with laptops to hand.

However, our intended 'training session' was dead in the water as the broadband service was not working!

So we used the time wisely and organised the joint 'Launch Event' for the project, which should be happening on January 19th - fingers crossed!!

A fantastic group of people wanting to do a great service for their community

Meeting with South Killingholme Residents Association

Was busy visiting a far flung residents association this morning @ South Killingholme.
This group have been successful in securing an Awards for All grant to fund a digital inclusion project for their local community.

Meeting with Ron, the association chairman, and Christine from the Parish Council (who run the community centre). We managed to organise the important Internet Cafe room, room rate and an agreement for a new broadband service to the centre to be put on the agenda for the next council meeting - so fingers crossed it gets accepted and Ron and his association can get started in 2013.



One of the rooms in the well equipped Community Centre

One year on and the BT Connected Communities programme is going from strength to strength

Friday saw the successful launch of the extended Connected Communities project into rural communities across Northern Ireland. The event, held at the Clogher Valley Community Centre in Augher, celebrated the success of the programme so far and presented a further opportunity for the public to find out about the project and for project partners to exhibit and network. The event was well attended by members of the community, volunteers, BT, local governmentt and the press.

Day 5 - final day of my blog week!

This photo of the view from my office tells the story and sets the scene for the day. I woke up to freezing fog and black ice - this didn't change until mid afternoon and affected my plans for the day.
Those plans included setting off late morning to Batley to a restaurant called Zucchinis, where I had intended to meet a few of my steadfast volunteers and treat them to lunch as a reward for all their hard work and time they had given to the project. Unfortunately, the black ice prevented our lunch date taking place and it has been rescheduled until the new year.

On the positive side it gave me time to make a start on my December monthly report, which will be a short one this month, being only half-way through the month!

The rest of the day was taken up with setting up another new course in January, being invited to attend a meeting in Chickenley in the new year and confirming a follow-up meeting with Alison Peaden with regard to a joint working opportunity involving Kirklees libraries, JCP and my project.
I finish today for Xmas and I feel I'm ending the year on a high - my stats are looking healthy; I've regained contact with Kirklees community team and I've got courses booked for January and February 2013 and lots of potential opportunities to follow up.

That's over and out for me and I'm passing the blog over to Michael in North Lincs to continue next week. I hope that anyone that has read my blog has enjoyed reading it as I have really enjoyed writing it! Merry Xmas to all my colleagues and partner organisations and wishing you all a very happy new year!! Xxx

Day 4 - I had to clear the snow off the car!!

My morning meeting today was at Jobcentreplus with the Outreach Manager. Annette was very helpful in providing me with lots of useful contacts and information relating to the introduction of the Universal Job Match programme. Its a completely new online job posting and automated matching service. It will be managed by Monster Worldwide Limited and replace all existing DWP job search services. We also touched on the introduction of universal credit, which will be claimed via the Internet. Both schemes will create a digital inclusion demand which will have a positive impact on my project. When I left there it was snowing in Huddersfield and I had to clear the snow off the car! It certainly made it feel very festive, albeit extremely cold!

Once back at home in my office, I settled down to tackle the Nominet Trust report I had to complete before close of business today. Once I had completed the report I felt much better for doing it and it helped focus my plans for the next 6 months of the project.

Still lots of admin to complete but I'm calling it a day for now.

Day 3 of a day in the life of coordinating the Get IT Together project in Kirklees

This morning my day starts with the many admin duties that go hand in hand with a PC role. I'm sorting through emails, responding to comments on my FB page and organising start dates for January 2013 courses. Can't believe how fast 2012 has gone!!




I'm now on my way to Boothroyd Junior school to take a photo of 3 of the mums that have completed a 6 weeks course and give them their certificates. There is a waiting list for parents to do the course which is great for the project.









After that, I'm off the Deighton centre in Huddersfield to a Kirklees community team meeting. It was great touching base with the team again - it's been awhile! The meeting focussed on the challenges and opportunities that community engagement workers face and how the asset based community development model is the way forward in turning challenges into opportunities. At the next team meeting in January, I've been asked to do a presentation to show the community team what the project has achieved in the last year.
I finish the day off collating my entry and exit forms to post to the central team in Swindon - these forms evidence how many learners engage with the project, which are subsequently reflected in my stats. End of blog for today and will blog again for tomorrow.