Fundraising in the Digital Age

A FREE FUNDING FAIR for voluntary and community groups seeking funding for projects, will be held at Haltemprice Leisure Centre, Anlaby, on Friday, 1 July (9.30am – 2.30pm).

The event has been organised by East Riding Voluntary Action Services (ERVAS), East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Humber All Nations Alliance (HANA). It is sponsored by Humber FAWN (Funding Advice Workers Network) and will host various grant-giving organisations and support agencies.

The main theme of this event will be Using Information and Communications Technology to raise funds, save money and work more effectively. A programme of speakers and workshops will run throughout the day, supported by Virtual Riders, a computer support network for the voluntary and community sector.

There will also be general funding advice available from representatives of East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s external funding team and ERVAS.

Throughout the day, visitors will be able to gather information about funding and discuss their project ideas on a one-to-one basis with the various funders and advisers.

The following organisations will be attending; Big Lottery Fund; Heritage Lottery Fund; Lloyds TSB Foundation; Charity Bank; ERYC’s Adult Education, RefIT Bridlington, Make a Difference Resource, ERYC’s Third Sector Team, Wharfedale Foundation, The Two Ridings Community Foundation plus others still to be confirmed.

Judith McKelvey, support services manager for funding at ERVAS, said:

“This is an excellent opportunity for local community and voluntary sector groups to meet with funders face-to-face. It will offer them the chance to discuss details of their proposals, including how the various funding schemes might contribute towards the realisation of those projects.”

For more information about the event, contact Judith McKelvey on (01482) 871077, email judith@ervas.org.uk (leaflet below):
Funding Fair Leaflet 1st July 2011

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Royal Wedding and Social Media

YOU CAN WATCH THE ROYAL WEDDING 2011 in many ways thanks to the advent of new social media.

The Official Royal Wedding 2011 website is the portal through which to access everything about the wedding.

There is the official Facebook Page to share your Royal Wedding Stories (it seems it's now compulsory to have a FB page for any event!) and The British Monarchy has its own Facebook Page with a special 'wedding' tab.

You can follow on Twitter at @ClarenceHouse. There is the official Royal Channel on YouTube which will be showing events live as they happen.

The British Monarchy's Photostream on Flickr will gather and collect the photographic record from the big day.

So I think this can quite rightly claim to be the top social media event of the year as well!

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Humberside Police are all a Twitter!

PC Darren Kirkwood Tweets about having to police his favourite football team!

HUMBERSIDE POLICE are conducting an experiment using Twitter. Each Division of the Force has its own account - East Riding C-Division is on @Humberbeat_ERY - and different types of officers are Twittering on their affairs.

Officers are using their accounts to tell us about patrolling the busy streets of Hull on a Friday and Saturday night. They are commenting on neighbourhood policing, burglary and vehicle crime investigations, and responses to incidents as they occur.

Find out more about the experiment including a list of the officers you can follow on Twitter, over at the Humberside Police Website - Social Network.

In response to low attendances at Police Community Forums then the Hedon Blog has suggested that 'virtual online meetings' may be a good idea to bring communities and officers together.

Services like MyPolice described on HU12 might be piloted in this area to encourage greater online collaboration between people and the police that serve them.

When some of these ideas were suggested in 2010 they perhaps seemed quite radical and far-fethched, but the appearance of Twittering police officers are probably a sign that these ideas are being looked at with new internet eyes!

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IT Explained - Useful free handbook

"making the most of IT – particularly by smaller firms – could boost the UK economy by an additional £50 billion over the next five to seven years"

E-SKILLS UK - the Sector Skills Council for Business and Information Technology – has produced a Business IT explained handbook for businesses that are getting started with IT.

Whilst the Handbook is light on the benefits of new modern social media it does offer an expert guide on getting started with IT including choosing your computers, securing your data, getting online, and marketing and selling online.

The handbook has been reproduced here on Scribd - but it is well worth small businesses (and voluntary organisations) having a look at the other free resources available on the www.businessitguide.com website.

Thanks to the Federation of Small Businesses for the 'heads up' about this publication.
Business IT Guide - IT Explained Handbook

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Fix My Street works - but replies not always received

Typical FixMyStreet Map

THE FIX MY STREET website is becoming an increasingly popular way to report neighbourhood problems in the HU12 area. It was relatively unused in the area two years ago, but an article on the Hedon Blog in February 2009, and residents using it since then, have helped bring the website to wider attention.

However, following using Fix My Street, some users have said that they do not hear anything back from the Council. But an East Riding Council spokesperson insisted earlier this year that: "FixMyStreet certainly does remain a website that the Council continues to take seriously and we act on all requests as soon as we can."

Fix My Street is an easy-to-use website to report a neighbourhood problem - you simply enter your post code, then scroll along the map using the arrow keys until you find the location of your problem or issue (be precise as you can), then 'click' and a flag will appear and you can fill in a box with the problem details. You are asked for your e-mail and asked to verify it by clicking on a link sent to you - this proves you are a real person and not a 'spam' robot.

On this website

Minutes later your problem is sent to the East Riding Council and you should get an acknowledgement from them about receiving your notification of a problem. However, occasionally a reply direct to the customer is not always sent.

E-mails from FixMyStreet automatically go through to the Council's myeastriding website. Only then are they sent through to Customer Services to be actioned. But occasionally (due to an incompatibility issue with computer software) they are received by Customer Services with an automated message from the myeastriding website that says 'PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL' which staff comply with.

The council spokesperson said:

I can assure you that any contact we receive from FixMyStreet via 'myeastriding' is recorded and actioned as soon as possible and if a response/acknowledgement is not received, that can only be due to the (automated) message at the end, which really means to NOT reply to the 'myeastriding' web address! There should always be at least an instant automated response/acknowledgement back to the customer, pending a full reply from either Customer Services or the individual Service Department concerned.

A map of the South West Holderness area is used on the HU12 website to record the last 20+ issues reported on Fix My Street. It can be found by looking on the right-hand, side-bar.

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How to use New Media - Useful Guide

HOW TO USE NEW MEDIA was published the ICT HUB and The Media Trust in 2008 and highlights how Voluntary and Community Organisations can make the most of new media technology.

The HU12.net is an example of the new media mentioned in the publication - and so is the method of reproducing it here via Box.Net:

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Council recognised in 'Best Service Team' awards

EAST RIDING council’s streetscene team has been given a customer service excellence award which recognises the team’s innovative ways of working (see the Association of Public Service Excellence website). The team were finalists in the Best Service Team: Building/Facilities Cleaning category.

Assessors were particularly impressed with the way staff work closely with communities to provide the services they want. Two schemes in particular were singled out as showing best practice. The first was a pilot in the Holderness area to improve service delivery by training staff to take on several roles in rural parishes. The second is a consultation with residents in an area of Bridlington about what they would like to see planted.

The pilot scheme in Holderness has seen staff who have traditionally taken on grounds maintenance roles trained to carry out a wider range of tasks including grass cutting, strimming and sweeping, minor pothole repairs, sign washing, litter-bin painting, and pruning hedges including those over-hanging signs and footways.

Small teams of around three were given specific villages in the pilot area to work in, which they visited every three weeks during the summer months. Communities representatives have been consulted on the work they would like to see done, and for their feedback on what has been achieved.

At the same Awards Event in September, Hull City Council were not only recognised as finalists in the Overall Council of the Year category, but the council-owned contractor Kingstown Works Ltd actually beat the competition to win the Best Information and Communication Technology Initiative.

Links: 

East Riding Council

Hull City Council

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