The
assessment will cover the provision of Internet connectivity to Canada Prenatal
Nutrition Program (CPNP) projects in British Columbia (BC) in terms of their
equipment and learning needs. It will
also make recommendations for future Health Canada activities to build the
capacity of participant groups to use the Internet for administration and
programming. Activities will take place
during the spring of 2001.
Vancouver
Community Network
Vancouver
Community Network (VCN) is a community Internet based service formed in 1993 as
the Vancouver Regional Freenet Association.
VCN collaborates with over 500 not for profit community organizations in
the region to ensure universal access to the broadest possible range of
information, experience, ideas and wisdom, and to create a public space on the
Internet. VCN’s first three goals are:
·
To encourage the development of a wide range of electronic
community information and communications resources.
·
To encourage the broadest possible participation of
community and non-profit organizations in making their information available on
the CommunityNet.
·
To work with community and non-profit organizations to make
VCN a community building tool.
In
the next few years it is forseen that Health Canada will migrate much of it's
project and program administrative reporting requirements to the Internet. It is essential that organizations
delivering Health Canada and provincial programs are at ease using the medium
for administrative and programming purposes.
CPNP
and Community Action Program for Children (CAPC) projects in parts of Ontario,
Quebec, the Prairies, British Columbia
and the Atlantic have already been linked electronically. This linking has facilitated not only
communication exchange but the sense that CAPC and CPNP projects and families
belong to an evolving national network. It is essential that all organizations
delivering Health Canada programs are comfortable using the medium to ensure
that they have equal access to all these resources and information. These online resources would include
evaluation, web conferencing and other tools for participating projects.
This
project focuses on the connectivity needs of CPNP projects in BC. In two previous phases of the connectivity
initiative computer equipment, connectivity packages (appendix 1), and lab
based training sessions (appendix 2) were offered to CAPC and CPNP projects
that received their base funding from Health Canada. Since then many projects have used an electronic mailing list to
continue networking (appendix 3).
However, CPNP-enhanced Pregnancy Outreach Projects (POPs) were excluded
from the initial phases of activity because their primary funding was received
from the province of British Columbia. Consequently, these projects, which
represent a large and vital component of the CPNP network in BC, are unable to
participate in regional and national connectivity related activities.
This
project will assess the connectivity and learning needs of CPNP-enhanced
projects in BC to facilitate
communication, information exchange and networking among groups and will make
recommendations for future Health Canada
activities to build the capacity of participant groups to use the
Internet. The capacity to network electronically will also strengthen
collaboration between the POPs and other CPNP projects.
The
project connectivity assessment will utilize a fax, email, web and phone
contact with key informants within agencies delivering the CPNP-enhanced
POPs. A database of key organizations
and contact people will be created by importing "Co-ordinator List"
files to an online database designed for Internet related group capacity
assessments. A simple assessment
questionnaire and database with report generating abilities has been tried and
tested by Vancouver Community Network (VCN) with similar projects and can be
adapted for use (appendix 4).
The
co-ordinators and key informants will be contacted first to build the database
to include the contacts and co-ordinates of all agencies delivering the
programs and to solicit any further information that may assist in assessment
data gathering. Co-ordinators will be
encouraged to inform the agencies they work with of the assessment through
their regular communication channels.
The
projects to be assessed will be contacted first through the electronic mailing
list to inform them of the assessment and give them the option of completing an
online web based form. Responses
received via the web page and email will have the added advantages of
illustrating Internet use by the project at the same time as satisfying the
assessment needs and being cost-effective for those responding.
The
second contact with target agencies will be by sending a facsimile of the
assessment questionnaire and cover letter.
Project leaders will be informed of the options of filling out the
online form or of replying by fax.
After a reasonable time each project will be contacted by phone, either
to thank them for their participation and clarify any areas of uncertainty in
their response or to solicit the assessment information in person.
The
Voluntary Sector Network Support Program (VolNet) and Community Access Program
(CAP) and Community Learning Network (CLN) connectivity opportunities will be
communicated to projects where appropriate by phone. The information will include a plain language description of
these programs, how the projects can benefit, what they will need to do,
resources that are available to the agency and, in many cases, co-ordinates of
key contact people in their geographic area.
The
target agencies will be asked about whether and how they use the Internet. The assessment of what equipment is needed
by target groups will look at computers, monitors, keyboards, mice, modems,
printers, scanners, network cards, cabling and hubs. Agencies will be asked if they have a currently active Internet
account and appropriate access. Who
uses the Internet (co-ordinators, field workers, volunteers, participants) and
where they use it from will be ascertained.
It is understood that some agencies will have equipment and/or training
needs. A broad and open approach to
assessing training needs will be used to embrace specific application training
requirements (email, web browsing, newsgroups, chat,) and more general training
and support needs with ample room for the informants own characterization of
their needs.
Information
gathered through the assessment survey will be stored in an online connectivity
profile database. Relevant information
will be migrated to an online directory that will be useful for maintaining
post-assessment data and informing future work. Both components will be useful to other areas of the country since
they are web based and can accessed anywhere.
Web based database information will be secure and password
protected. Information gathered will be
provided to Health Canada and a report of key findings will be made widely
available.
Timeline (since
changed)
November Design
database, forms and reports
Import data,
massage to fit database
Update database
information to project level
Email
agencies with assessment
Input data
December
Fax agencies that have not responded
with assessment
Input data
January Follow
up by phone with respondents and non-respondents
Finalize data input
February Generate
reports
Analyze data
Compose narrative report and conclusions
Provide recommendations
Evaluation
·
Updated database of organizations, contact people and
co-ordinates
·
Raw data from assessment questionnaire
·
Graphic representation of key data elements
·
Narrative report and conclusions
·
Recommendations
An
evaluation report will detail the process, successes and problems encountered
with the assessment. Figures and graphic representation of assessments will be
reported. A measure of success will be
found in the number of groups providing information and the breadth and depth
of the information collected. Awareness
of, and receptivity to approaching, other Federal Government programs
addressing issues of connectivity will also be monitored.
Project
Proposal – Work Plan (attached)