November Update

Our new Community Partnership Fund agreement has been signed and we’ve started classes at Wanganui East School. There are 13 families participating and they will be graduating on 17 December, making it a great Christmas for them :-)

We have nearly finished our first year with the new Stepping UP programme. The Whanganui Learning Centre has done a great job delivering Wanganui’s first pilot. Over 275 learners have completed over 810 modules. We expect around 165 will receive their completion certificates.

It is neat to be nearing the end of year and to have project funding in place until 2011. We have got off to a good start for Wanganui’s Phase 2 for another 150 families and I am really looking forward to making a big ‘dent’ in this next year!

This morning I am off to the 18th meeting of the National CIH Coordinating Group. We have been meeting since the beginning of 2006. I'm proud to have been to all of them and it is very pleasing to see the growth of the group. We have met all around NZ where CiH is run and have got to know each other very well. This time we will be in New Plymouth. We have a busy couple of days coming up with a Stepping UP workshop today, then operational briefings tomorrow.

October and onwards

There may not have been any posts here for a while, but we have had plenty going on in our Wanganui CIH project. Our new Community Partnership Fund agreement for Wanganui CIH Phase 2 was signed off this week. This means we can now get stuck into getting the show on the road.

Adult Learners Week/He Tangata Matāuranga, 7-13 September was a biggie for us with a wonderful celebration for Wanganui’s adult learners providers and learners in Whanganui UCOL’s Atrium. We heard inspiring stories from several learners and a presentation from our special guest, Gordon Dryden about his new book UNLIMTED – The new learning revolution.
Click here to see Mark Brimblecombe’s photos from the celebration
Click here to see scans of our newspaper coverage.

Wanganui’s eDay 2009 was held on 12 September. It was our 3rd year and we collected 27 tonnes of eWaste this time. This is nearly 100 tonnes over the last 3 years (27 + 41+25), a significant achievement for Wanganui to make the environment safer. We had more than 500 cars dropping off eWaste at the Wanganui Racecourse. Over 60 wonderful volunteers generously helped make it the best run event yet.
Click here to see photos
Click here to visit the eDay website

Our new Stepping UP programme is going really well. We have had more than 220 learners sign up so far and expect over 200 will receive their completion certificates by the end of this year. We were pleased to host Belinda Gorman, Community Affairs Manager for Microsoft NZ and Di Das, National CIH Coordinator; who visited us for our ALW/HTM celebration on 9 and 10 September.

Thanks again to Sasha and Sally-Jane at Whanganui UCOL for organising our Second Newsletter. Click here to view

Wanganui CIH Newsletter published for Families/Whanau

Next week, we are distributing our new monthly newsletter out to all our families to keep in touch and encourage them to make the most of their digital world and learning opportunities. Click here to download a copy (PDF file).

Our local programme partner Whanganui UCOL has generously enabled this and we thank them so much for their support. This is a great example of how collaboration in local initiatives can strengthen the outcomes. We will continue to engage with as many CiH families as possible and encourage them to be the best they can be and to continue their learning.

July Confidence Booster for Wanganui Digital Literacy from NZ Government

We are delighted to hear we have been successful with our latest NZ Government Community Partnership Fund application. This will enable us to assist another 150 Wanganui families/whanau to cross the digital divide. We estimate there are still over 1,000 families in Wanganui who don’t have a computer at home, so our latest funding will help us make a big positive difference.

Our next steps to roll out the programme are to thank and engage with our community partners and stakeholders, and recruit our families. We plan to have some classes started during term 3, so by the end of year we will be well along the way.

We intend to continue to keep a high public profile for our programme and will be looking to see we can recruit families with the most need and who can make the most of their opportunity. Anyone who would like to register their interest is invited to contact me, Alistair Fraser, Wanganui programme coordinator, tel 06 348 9504 or email me alistair@crystaladventures.co.nz

It was especially satisfying to see the funding announcement was made by Hon. Tariana Turia. It is inspiring to see how committed she is for our communities. Click the link to read the full announcement www.beehive.govt.nz/release/boost+open+access+ict

Our latest NZ Government funding is gratefully accepted by us. We are very pleased because we see this as acknowledgment that what we have achieved so far is producing significant positive outcomes. We think the Computers in Homes programme is a key tool for the government to use to achieve its priorities of “booting up” our productivity and digital literacy/numeracy. The Digital Age is now fully upon us and Computers in Homes is well placed to play a major transformational role.

It is great to see Hon. Steven Joyce making positive comments about Computers in Homes too. See this link for a Dominion Post story by Tom Pullar-Strecker about the ICT sector and Hon. Steven Joyce’s commitment to see the Digital Divide is addressed, plus hints CIH will be in next year’s budget. www.stuff.co.nz/technology/2547190/Joyce-sticks-to-the-script-on-Telecom

In Wanganui, our Computers in Homes programme will slot well into all the other wonderful digital initiatives happening in our community. Wanganui’s strength is the depth of its collaboration and networking amongst its community organisations. We are proud to be a partner with the Computer Clubhouse project which has also received a CPF grant to become established here. This is a very thrilling development. We hope lots of youth from our CIH families participate in the Computer Clubhouse too.

Exciting as it is to be funded to help 150 Wanganui families, this is still only a small amount of the ones on the wrong side of the digital divide. Our new national initiative, the CIH 100,000 Challenge emphasises we have a long way to go. We will be working hard to show the faith we have received to make a big difference is well founded This is a great chance to put more runs on the board and get prepared to scale up the delivery to achieve our dreams.

We have learned plenty from running CIH for our 158 families who have graduated to date. We will be continuing to engage with as many of them as possible to help them continue to learn and use ICT. Thanks to our partner Whanganui UCOL, we will be publishing a monthly newsletter from August which will be promoting learning opportunities including Stepping UP.

Our Wanganui CIH Steering Group’s governance capability has been strengthened recently with the appointment of three new members: Jenny Duncan, Chair, Wanganui Youth Services Trust, Julian (Judd) Bailey, Te Puna Matauranga o Whanganui and Sandy Nepia, Te Ropu Whakahau and Aotearoa Peoples Network Kaharoa. Welcome to CIH - Jenny, Judd and Sandy - it is great to have you aboard and you will be a big help for us to get the most leverage out of our CiH treasure for our families/whanau.

Help clean up Wanganui's eWaste

Recycling electronic waste (e-waste) enables the recovery and reuse of valuable materials and ensures toxic materials are not buried in our landfills - so it's better for our environment.

eDay is a cars-only drive-through recycling event which gives you the opportunity to recycle old computers or mobile phones in an environmentally sustainable way.

Over 16,550 cars dropped off 87,056 items during eDay 2008. A total of 946 tonnes of e-waste was diverted from our landfills. This year we hope to divert over 1,000 tonnes of e-waste from New Zealand landfills.

Last year in Wanganui, our second eDay, we collected 39 tons and we look forward to another great one this year.

Please visit our webiste for more information about eDay and we especially invite you to be a volunteer and sign-up online or call local co-coordinator, Alistair Fraser on 06 348 9504

Wanganui eDay 2009 Saturday 12 September

Drop-off eWaste at Laird Park car park, Peat Street from 9am to 3pm

Learn more about eWaste - Visit our website and sign up to receive newsletters and volunteer to help us

www.eday.org.nz

May CIH Update

Even though there are so many worrying things happening around us like swine flu and financial woes we can only be positive and do everything we can to make a better life.

Wanganui Computers in Homes (CIH) is certainly trying hard and we are awaiting news from the Digital Strategy Community Partnership Fund (CPF) about our application to run places for another 150 families in the Wanganui District. We expect to know if we are successful in early June.

Gathering the information and support for our application has been an inspiring and motivating experience. It was a great chance to forge new community relationships and strengthen our engagement with our partners and stakeholders.

We are very grateful for all the messages of support we have received and are sure these will make a huge difference to improving our chances of success.

We give a huge thank-you to the following people and organisations: Chester Borrows, Member of Parliament for Whanganui; Bronwyn Paul, President, Wanganui Chamber of Commerce; Judith Timpany, Whanganui Community Foundation; Tiahuia Abraham QSM, Aotearoa Women’s Welfare League; Frank Sligo, Associate Professor, Head of Department of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, Massey University; Alison Bourn, Family and Community Services, Ministry of Social Development; Sharon Duff, Whanganui Primary Health Organisation, Bob Wilson, Whanganui ACE Network; Heather Cox, Wanganui District Council Youth Services Coordinator; Des Warahi, Community Development Manager, Castlecliff Community Charitable Trust; Gerry Gibbs, Executive Director, YMCA Wanganui; Tracy Lynn, Manager, Age Concern Wanganui; and Jo Rangooni, Chairperson, Bulls and District Community Trust.

The Wanganui District Council continues to be our lead partner and has stepped up their support by incorporating CIH into their Draft 10-year plan 2009-19, also they have included other provisions for digital capacity and capability. It is great to see them taking such strong leadership for ICT and I commend them for their actions.

Whanganui UCOL has reaffirmed their partnership with us and will continue to help us make the most of taking more education opportunities to our families.


Click here and visit YouTube to view a video taken at the Computers in Homes/Microsoft NZ Stepping UP Launch at the Grand Chamber, Parliament in February.

Hear Sue Westwood, our project chairman talk about CIH, council’s roles and her passion for community education.

The National Computers in Homes Coordinators Team at the launch

The Stepping UP launch was a fantastic celebration and a great chance for us to network and fly the flag for Wanganui. Click here to see our photos from the event and other CIH albums

There are plenty of other exiting things happening for us too.


www.eday.org.nz/

We are thrilled to see eDay, our partner project has just won the PriceWaterhouseCoopers NZ Hi-Tech Award for the Most Innovative Industry Initiative. Click here for details . We hope this accolade will be the catalyst for the ‘powers that be’ to give us their funding green light soon to operate in 2009. Wanganui participated in eDay in 2007 and 2008. Last year we collected 39 tons of eWaste here and we are very keen to do it again.

Wanganui has been included as one of seven regions in the NZ Schools SuperLoop Group submission to the New Zealand Government Broadband Investment Initiative. There were 101 submissions received by the Ministry of Economic Development. Click here to read them including ours submitted by the Wellington Loop Trust on behalf of the SuperLoop Group.

Our participation has been facilitated and championed by Vivianne Murphy, Principal, Wanganui Girls College. Thanks very much Vivianne, we are lucky to have your enthusiasm and really pleased you on our project steering group too!

It was great to attend the Older People Forum at the Wanganui District Council last week. Older people have a huge need to be assisted with digital engagement and have the lowest internet usage uptake of all the age groups by far. Is great to see the Wanganui District Council championing them so strongly, and giving local support organisations a forum to keep in touch. I enjoyed participating and putting my thoughts on paper for my CIH update. Click here to download a copy.

2009 off to a fantastic start with Stepping UP & the CIH 100,000 Challenge

Congratulations to the 2020 Communications Trust and the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Foundation for implementing the Stepping Up programme.  Wanganui has been chosen as one of the first 3 Regions in New Zealand to operate Stepping UP.  

The Whanganui Learning Centre will be delivering our first pilot for 200 families in 2009 and enrolments for classes have started already.

Here is the staff of the Whanganui Learning Centre, all ready to go!

The Stepping UP programme will provide a 'staircase' for  our Computers in Homes graduates and other community members through access to more advanced digital training including with Microsoft Office Programmes.

 Computers in Homes 100,000 Challenge launched today

The 2006 Census revealed that more than 100,000 families with school-aged children do not have access to the Internet from their homes. To address this, the 2020 Trust is launching the Computers in Homes 100,000 Challenge today.  This is a challenge to all New Zealanders, including central and local Government, business and the community to ensure that no family with school-aged children remains disconnected.