ruralnet|uk news

DirectSupport|online wins praise from early adopters

Brilliant!... Friendly… Accessible... Fab!... A lifesaver

These are just some of the many positive comments received about the online system in the recent DirectSupport|online user survey.

DirectSupport is a free guidance and mentoring service helping UK online centres work towards sustainability. The support service is funded by Ufi and is run by a consortium of voluntary sector partners who share experience of regeneration and community development by delivering specific projects. As lead partner in the consortium, ruralnet|uk has used its expertise and brought in significant added value and infrastructure to deliver the innovative DirectSupport|online services. The DirectSupport|online survey was developed to test the response to these services from UK online centres, and to seek feedback on how services might be improved.

Key sustainability toolkit to be launched for UK online centres

DirectSupport has joined forces with the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) and Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to develop and distribute a guide to future planning for UK online centres. Established with DfES and NOF funds over the last two years, UK online centres must now begin developing their own strategy for a sustainable future; this new suite of documents provides a range of templates, tools and resources to support centres in this work.

More DirectSupport for UK online centres

Community and voluntary UK online centres can look forward to another year of help and guidance from the DirectSupport initiative, thanks to extended funding from the Department of Education and Skills.

DirectSupport is an excellent example of help brought to the voluntary sector by the voluntary sector. Since November 2000, the service has helped over 300 voluntary sector organisations running UK online centres with the grants, information, skills and planning they need to launch and run their centre successfully. Community-based centres, and those run by voluntary groups already helping the marginalised in society, are well-placed to introduce people to computers and the Internet, whether for emailing friends and family, pursuing hobbies, or training for jobs. With government services due to come online by 2005, these facilities will be an increasingly important resource for the local community.

DirectSupport: UK online capacity building extended to meet demand

The DirectSupport capacity building programme to help UK online centres has been given extra funding in the run up to March to cope with unprecedented demand. The mentoring and support service, managed by ruralnet|uk for the Department for Education and Skills, has already helped over 300 centres. The extra funding means that up to 60 additional days will be spent on mentoring and on creating materials for UK online centres to use to develop their staff and their centre. UK online centres have been set up to ensure that everyone, especially in disadvanataged areas, has access to ICT. Those centres in the voluntary sector are particularly effective in helping marginalised groups, but the centres themselves need support in bidding for new funding and achieving sustainability in the long run. DirectSupport has offered an acclaimed mentoring programme for centres since November 2000.

Contract awarded to monitor UK online centres in the North West

The Government Office of the North West has contracted with RNUK Ltd (ruralnet|uk's wholly owned trading subsidiary) for the monitoring and support of UK online centres in the region. RNUK Ltd now holds contracts undertaking similar work in the East and West Midlands . This is closely related to the work of DirectSupport, a capacity building consortium in which ruralnet|uk is lead partner.