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1st March 2007
Homeless kids beats of competition for BT award
London Road Young Persons Project in Grantham has been awarded an NEC internet ready personal computer and a contribution towards one year’s BT Total Broadband access as part of the BT Community Connections Scheme. In addition Microsoft ® Office 2007 software is included as part of the winning package.
The BT Scheme is now in its fourth year and has awarded more than 5,000 IT packages to thousands of community projects across the UK, helping more than five million people, which has opened up a world of marketing, training, recruitment, fundraising, communication and networking possibilities.
London Road Young Persons Project, run by Nottingham Community Housing Association was among thousands who entered the award scheme and impressed the judges with their ideas on how a PC would benefit the young people living at the project with immediate effect and the local community in the long term.
This is the first step in setting up an on-site training suite within the project to assist the young people in getting back into education and training. It is hoped that at some time in the near future as more facilities become available other training can be offered.
Sam Williams, the project manager said “We are absolutely delighted with the award. We house 11 previously homeless young people within the age range of 16 – 25 years.
Many of the young people who come to us have had problems at school resulting in them leaving school with few, if any, qualifications. The training suite will help them to re-start their education and give them the confidence to get back into education or training, which is one of the aims of the London Road project.”
Beth Courtier, head of BT’s charity programme said “This award scheme aims to give as many people as possible access to the internet and allows groups to develop their projects using easier and more effective methods. Following the overwhelming success of BT Community Connections in previous years, BT is delighted to continue making a difference to many more community groups throughout the area who wouldn’t normally have access to the World Wide Web”.
