Northumberland Community Development Network

Who are Northumberland Community Development Network (NCDN)?
How do NCDN use ICT?
What difference has ICT made?
What was learnt?
Want to find out more?

Who are Northumberland Community Development Network (NCDN)? 

NCDN is made up of four task groups who feed into a working group on a variety of issues, working towards the aim of supporting people who support communities in Northumberland.

How do NCDN use ICT? 

NCDN received funding for 6 months to provide flexible and wide ranging ICT support to the voluntary and community sector in Northumberland.

It was felt that the voluntary and community sector needed a one stop shop where they could get hands on practical ICT support and also help with funding, training and ICT strategy needs. 

The core of the project is delivered via an ICT health check which is a comprehensive session with the organisation looking at all aspects of their ICT.  Each session lasts up to four hours, so often small problems such as back up issues and viruses are dealt with there and then. 

Each organisation can receive, on average, an extra 12 hours of ICT support during the life of the project.

The project is delivered by two staff – the project manager and an administration assistant (both are freelance) and a loose group of freelance IT specialists spread throughout the area and with a variety of technical expertise.

What difference has ICT made? 

The project has helped 55 organisations by providing an ICT health check

The team of approximately 12 ICT specialists have been able to work in an incredibly flexible way by utilising ICT. 

The team receives support via team meetings, an online emailing group and regular contact with the project manager and the administrator.  They can ask each other for help and pass on experiences, something a freelance ICT specialist does not normally have access to.

The organisations that have received an ICT health check have been asked to send back a questionnaire, which have been unanimously positive to date.

What was learnt? 

• By working with a loose team , it is very flexible and cost effective and is ideally suited for the varying ICT needs of the voluntary and community sector. 
• It has been possible to build up a picture of what organisations need in terms of funding, training and other help.
• The biggest lesson learnt has been ways of dealing with the range of needs and types of users. Regardless of these issues, what people really need is excellent communication between themselves and the ICT expert.

Want to find out more? 

Contact name: Ellie Noble

Northumberland Community Development Network (NCDN)
4 Long Row
Embleton Mill
Alnwick
Northumberland
NE66 3DS

Telephone: 01665 576812
Email: ellie@ncdn.org