Vancouver Community Network has continued to grow during the past year: our budget has topped half a million; our staff is currently at a record level of seven and we have more actively involved volunteers than at any time in the past five years. 1443 people are currently members of VCN and 249 community groups have supported us in the past year. It is however worth noting that most of our income is from short-term special projects that help us meet our goals, but are not a sustainable source of income.
The Community Group Outreach office has been very busy this last year with managing the VolNet and CAP programs, doing outreach to community groups and providing additional help desk support to community groups. Services to groups include: domain names, email lists, private discussion groups, database development, web site development, regular weekly training, specialized day long workshops, customized workshops, and high speed connectivity packages.
We will be accepting agencies until Jan 31, 2001 or we reach our goal of 75 participants and would welcome any non-profit voluntary agency that is not connected to the Internet to contact the “604 Connect!” office at 604‑257‑3806.
With support from the Community Access Program (CAP) we have established seven sites that are now providing access to the Internet for their members, clients and the public.
· 127 Society for Housing
· 411 Seniors Centre
· Alliance for the Arts and Culture
· Co-op Radio
· Lions' Den - Britannia Community Centre - Seniors Program
· Spartacus Education Society
· Westcoast Child Care Resources Centre
VCN staff and volunteers have been working with our CAP partners since March 2001 doing installations, training and one-to-one user support.
The Vancouver Community Learning Network is exploring the use of Internet tools to support community development at the local level. We are currently developing partnerships with organizations including the Lion's Den, the Self Help Resources Association, the Alliance for Arts and Culture, 127 Housing Society, 411 Seniors Centre, Humanities Educational Resource Centre Society and the Carnegie Community Centre. Future partnerships may include the Open
Learning Agency's Employment Access Centre and Kiwassa Neighbourhood House.
The Community Learning Network project has coordinated training, workshops, guest speakers and community development processes at the various sites.
Future workshops include Community Mapping on December 7th with Common Ground Mapping of Victoria. In the New Year, we will be developing online, resident-driven content with our partners.
Under the Technical Volunteer Web (TVW) project, we are working to develop a sustainable network of technical volunteers supporting non-profits in their Internet use. New recruitment, orientation, training and deployment procedures have been implemented. Online resources and tools have been developed for non-profits and technical volunteers, and Internet skills training sessions are being offered to all volunteers working with non-profits throughout the lower mainland.
In our TVW project proposal, VCN submitted that we would recruit sixty volunteers and deploy forty to ten organizations. Over the past year, one hundred new volunteers have joined the VCN team to provide public access, develop community content and assist with operational support. In addition, fourteen volunteers have been active for more than a year. To date, thirty-seven volunteers have been assigned to provide technical and user support to our Community Access Partners or to work on community content projects to produce resources and tools that will benefit non-profits and other community networks. The Interim Report is available on the TVW project site.
Including Board and Committee Members, there are currently seventy-three active volunteers, with twenty-seven covering regular helpdesk shifts to support individuals and groups. We welcome applications from people interested in providing public access and community content, and we are grateful for all contributions to our work! Information and an application form are at: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/volunteer
We have maintained our partnerships with Vancouver Public Library, the City of Vancouver and Langara Students Union and hope to be expanding them in the future. Early in the year, we assessed the Internet connectivity of a number of groups offering children’s health services around the province. We are also working closely with the Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre to enhance their services though the use of Internet tools.
In the coming year we hope to be working with municipal governments in the Tri-Cities area to provide community based Internet services to groups and residents, providing more community access Internet sites around the Lower Mainland and with groups in Surrey to build an informal learning network extending the principles of self-advocacy through use of the Internet.
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Royce