Case Study

The ICT Hub was a partnership of voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) that provided a range of services to assist organisations in the voluntary and community sector to access the benefits of ICT. The Hub came out of the ChangeUp initiative from the Home Office designed to strengthen the capacity of the voluntary and community sector. The core members of the ICT Hub were:

• iT4Communities
• National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
• National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA)
• AbilityNet
• London Advice Services Alliance (LASA)

For further information see www.icthub.org.uk/about

The ICT Hub was one of the largest collaborations in the sector trying to affect change in the way the VCS uses and benefits from technology. The partners collaborated to provide a range of services to help voluntary and community organisations benefit from ICT. They also collaborated using ICT to provide these services and to enable others to collaborate and share learning. The partners brought together their different skills and expertise to collaborate on some projects as a whole partnership and some just with one or two other partners.

The ICT Hub collaborated to provide a range of services in the following areas:

• To raise awareness of the strategic understanding of the importance of ICT
• To improve the funding and procurement environment with which voluntary and community organisations operate
• To support and co-ordinate the provision of hands-on ICT Support.

Joint Purchasing: The ICT Hub collated information on who brokers discounts available at  www.suppliersdirectory.org.uk and www.icthub.org.uk/discounteddeals.

Participating in online help groups and joining an existing network: There are a number of online help groups for infrastructure, circuit riders, IT Volunteers and frontline groups to benefit from funding to procurement of ICT.

Signposting and adapting existing resources: Within the ICT Hub's website are two other websites: a knowledge base of good practice materials and a directory of local support including trainers and circuit riders searchable by postcode. The ICT Hub website publishes its own research and publications about the take up and use of ICT in the sector as well as signposting to others resources.

Passing on expertise for free or at low cost: The ICT Hub also worked to develop two models of ICT support – pro bono volunteers and circuit riders. IT volunteers are an effective way of supporting organisations and the Hub offered a wide range of volunteers all over the country as well as virtually!