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U Can Do I.T. Newsletters:
 June 2001 Newsletter
Tutorials and Assessments:
Our WAACIS tutors carried out 84 tutorials and 14 assessments in June making a total of 98 against a monthly target of 80. This means that we are still ahead of our Annual Target but with the summer holiday months approaching we are going to have to put in extra effort to publicise the WAACIS service and you will see more about this under Public Relation work below. You can see the overall statistics for the WAACIS service here
Meetings:
On June the 5th Anthony Wigram attended a daylong fund-raising seminar organised by Westminster City Council. June the 5th was also our Quarterly Tutorial Seminar held at Porchester Terrace. You can read the full minutes of that meeting here.
On June the 6th we had an important meeting with Glynnis Joffie of Westminster City Council discussing the SRB bid and in particular the criteria relating to the selection of candidates who will receive a computer finance by the scheme.
We have obtained funding for 17 students and at this stage 14 have been selected and are in the process of assessment by Nuala Davis of Ability Net. We hope very much to be able to get the computers on order very quickly so that they can be installed for us to start tuition as scheduled in September.
On June the 27th we had a monitoring training session which Avril Hanning attended. The training was arranged in order to assist the chosen charities in completing the monitoring form. The training day was available to all projects and is highly recommended as a guide to the SRB requirements. We discussed the stages of the Payment Process. This was put to us in a precise format, which showed us that payments are made quarterly. The anticipated amount is shown for every quarter.
We discussed Milestones and how important it was to show the actual date and evidence of each Milestone.
It was also stressed how important it would be to obtain milestones in order to be considered for more funding the following year.
The Output table was also discussed and this is the document, which establishes whether the charity is giving a service, which is value for money.
The Grant agreement was also discussed and this is a detailed document in which the terms and conditions of the partnership is discussed. This agreement is between the projects and the Paddington Development Trust.
We also discussed the SRB filing and how they would like the files to be kept.
The file should be in the following order:
The reason for this filing procedure is to create some sought of uniformity among all the charities and also to assist the Project Officers when auditing is required.
On June the 7th Anthony Wigram had a meeting with Emma Solomon and Caroline Lambie of Hairnet. They are a commercial company who also organise teams of freelance tutors to give tuition on computer technology, concentrating on middle-aged people. A number of hairnet tutors have also joined WAACIS. Emma Solomon is going to give a lecture to WAACIS tutors on individual marketing in their own boroughs.
On June the 8th David Hart organised an extremely useful meeting with Mark Parnell and Kim of the London Electricity Board. David sits on the Joint Committee for the Mobility of Disabled Persons and holds the position of Assistant Secretary.
The idea is that the LEB would enclose some WAACIS literature focussed on those of their customers who have special needs. This would be enormously helpful to the development of WAACIS and the publication of the WAACIS service. Mark Parnell was extremely positive about this possibility and various avenues for co-operation will be explored.
On June the 21st we had a very interesting meeting with Victor Willmot of the Lambeth Trust. Victor is in charge of co-ordinating donations from various trusts that provide funding for charitable work in Lambeth. Both Martin Ball and David Hart live in Lambeth and therefore we have very good connections. We are hoping that our application for funding channelled through Victor will be successful.
Individual Learning Provision:
We are very pleased that WAACIS has been accepted as a service provider by the government's scheme promoting Individual Learning Accounts. Under this scheme any student can apply for funding of up to £150 to participate in a learning programme provided by an accredited organisation. This would be a great help to the WAACIS finances. If every student was to be able to get a grant of £150 we would be very pleased indeed. The money could be channelled to additional tutorial training. As in all these things however it is not always as easy in practice as it is in theory. There is a lot of form filling but once we get going there is no reason why we should not achieve a fair share of the funds available.
Notes from the office:
June has been a busy month in the office. On June the 5th we had the tutors seminar and this was the first occasion that Avril Hanning and Martin Ball met all the tutors. It was a great opportunity to meet everyone and speak freely about issues which would help the progress of WAACIS.
We have also received a lovely e-mail from one of our students Janice Jones who celebrated her 51st Birthday; she sent us a picture of herself with her grandson on her special night. It really put a smile to our faces!
With regard to the new tutors Amjad Rehman, Keith Penrose, and Syed Hassan I must compliment them on their lesson reports and the promptness of sending their lesson reports. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the tutors for their hard work this month and also everyone in the office that have helped us to achieve our target.
We will succeed by working together with a good team spirit!!
Public Relations Work:
Following conversations with some of the tutors at the last Forum I have been taking forward the many suggestions made. A number of them have requested promotional materials to distribute locally, to libraries in
particular. In addition, some have co-ordinated with WAACIS initial contact with the Employment Service's Disability Employment Advisors.
I have been on a number of ambassadorial visits. These included a visit to the London headquarters of Leonard Cheshire to meet with Andrew Anderson, the Project Manager of their Workability scheme. Workability aims to get disabled people back into employment and WAACIS tuition will be offered to participants.
 Media opportunities have featured large in the month's activities. These include a photo opportunity with James Mullighan of Abbey National Community Trust. He came along to a tutorial given to Keith Clancy by Patricia Webb, and a press release was distributed to Kensington Mail.
Picture: James Mullighan of Abbey National, Keith Clancy a WAACIS student and his Tutor Patricia Webb.
An article about graduate Gerry Bolton appeared in the Paddington Mercury and news of the Somerfield donation to WAACIS featured in their Staff News. Several press releases announcing the increasing number of graduates from the WAACIS tuition course were distributed to local newspapers and radio stations. I hope to be able to report on more column inches next month.
Johanna Cheetham, the recipient of the 1000th tutorial delivered by WAACIS, has been asked to contribute an article for the an Aurora website for disabled women.
Contact with Brent and Southwark Carers groups yielded promises of publicity in their next newsletters. As it did with Merton Disabled Peoples Association and GEMMA, a group for disabled lesbian and bisexual women.
Liaison with various local authorities regarding details of the WAACIS service being mailed to disabled people has, so far, resulted in flyers being included in Blue Badge mailings sent out by Bexley and Kensington & Chelsea councils. Westminster have agreed to a mailing to those on its taxi-card scheme.
David Hart:
I have been active in trying to get WAACIS better known amongst disabled people and those who have need for the service and in this respect have attended several meetings in Croydon, Lambeth and Westminster and have been invited to Tower Hamlets. I am keen that as a very happy graduate where my tuition has changed many aspects of my life that graduates and students and all involved with WAACIS could help with very little difficulty. Disability has caused me regularly to see a variety of people in the medical field.
G.P.Consultant, Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, Mobile Librarian, Mobile Optician, Sheltered Housing Managers, Social Workers, Home Care Services, Meals on Wheels, all these people could be interested in passing on details of WAACIS to other clients and this is without friends, family and other outside interest groups. All it takes is just a short mention.
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