TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards winners announced in House of Lords ceremony
Social Responsibilty
November 5th, 2008
30 charities to benefit from £60,000 technology Award
The TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards were presented today to 30 of the UK’s most exciting charity projects at a ceremony at the House of Lords.
The TalkTalk Awards, run in partnership with UK digital inclusion charity Citizens Online, opened for entries in June and called for submissions from non-profit making organisations and charities in the UK. The Awards are given to organisations that best demonstrate how they would use technology in an innovative way.
Each winning organisation will receive a grant of £2,000 to help fund their particular project. Five overall winners of the award categories – Creativity & Culture, Play & Sport, Body & Soul, Learning & Knowledge and Work & Training – also received a laptop and an exclusive one-to-one mentoring session with dotcom entrepreneur and founder of Lastminute.com, Martha Lane-Fox, where they were given invaluable advice on how to fulfil their projects’ aims and build on their success.
The Awards have been designed to help groups make the most of the internet by encouraging applications for investment in PCs, hardware, software or technical expertise. Winning charities included: Welsh Sailing Venture, which takes hundreds of disabled people each year on sailing trips around the Pembrokeshire coastline and uses wifi technology to allow disabled people to help navigate the boat; Screenreader, which provides free software allowing visually impaired people to ‘read’ what is on their computer screen; and Connection at St Martin’s, which provides online training courses and job searching for homeless people in London to help them get jobs and move off the streets.
“As technology becomes an increasingly important part of our lives we are conscious that not everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the benefits it brings,” said Wendy Becker, TalkTalk managing director. “The TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards assist organisations who are delivering real benefits to the community and could do even greater work if they were given a helping hand with technology. We had applications from groups that supported disability, protected the environment, assisted the disadvantaged, championed cultural integration and promoted education. Of the 2,200 exceptional entries, we believe we have selected 30 very worthy projects that will benefit from the grant.”
Martha Lane-Fox said: “It was a great privilege to be part of the TalkTalk awards – I have been amazed at the variety and scope of the projects entered. As you can imagine, the judging was quite heated but one thing shone through all the winning charities – their passion. As someone who has been lucky enough to start my own businesses, I know the hard work and focus that is needed to make an idea successful – I am delighted that the winners will get recognition for their dedication and risk taking, without which the world would be a much less inspiring place!”
John Fisher, Chief Executive, Citizens Online said: “The Awards are helping us continue our work in encouraging people to make the most of the internet and opening up access for all.”
The winners of the TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards
Work & Training
Live IT Sidekicks, Midlothian
209radio, Cambridge
Aspire, London
Unique Social Enterprise, Newark
UCanDoIt, London
Cambridge Online, Cambridge
Screenreader.net, Peterborough
Creativity & Culture
Somerset Film, Bridgwater
PhotoVoice, London
Bankie Talk, Glasgow
MusicLinks, Kendal
Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow
RSPB, Glasgow
StreetVibes Youth, London
Learning & Knowledge
Connection at St Martin’s, London
Bullying UK, Harrogate
BRfm Community Radio, Nantyglo
Deaf Parenting UK, Croydon
Disabled Holiday Information, Oswestry
Play & Sport
Mighty Maiden All-Star Cougars, London
Street League, Glasgow
SpecialEffect, Charlbury
Making People Happy, Halesowen
Welsh Sailing Venture, Llansteffan
Body & Soul
Iain Rennie Hospice at Home, Tring
Penny Brohn Cancer Care, Bristol
Connect, London
Epilepsy Action, Leeds
Chestnut Tree House, Arundel
eQuality Networks, Luton
-ends-
For media information, please contact:
Pete Marcus / Alexandrina Kennedy
020 7638 9571
Notes to editors
About TalkTalk
• TalkTalk, launched in February 2003, is the home phone and broadband company from The Carphone Warehouse. The Carphone Warehouse is the third-largest broadband provider in the UK. It now has 2.8 million broadband customers* signed up to TalkTalk and AOL Broadband, which it acquired in October 2006.
• In April 2006, TalkTalk launched the UK’s first ever FREE broadband service. With its Talk Global packages TalkTalk customers can now receive fast broadband of up to 8Mb, along with a great value phone bundle. TalkTalk customers talk to each other for free.
• As of April 2008, TalkTalk has unbundled approximately 1700 exchanges, so free broadband is now available to over 80% of UK households.
• In uSwitch’s Customer Satisfaction Report in 2008, TalkTalk was voted the best value for money home phone provider and the best value for money bundle (combining home phone and broadband). This is the most comprehensive survey of UK telephone and broadband suppliers, and is based on the verdicts of over 10,000 home phone and 11,000 broadband customers.
• TalkTalk is proud to support TreeHouse, the national charity for autism education. Together TreeHouse and TalkTalk are working to transform the lives of all children with autism, raising funds and driving awareness of autism through a variety of fresh, interactive initiatives. TreeHouse is a registered charity, number 1063184. In September 2006, TalkTalk launched a new directory enquiry service, 118111 from which 1p per call is donated to TreeHouse.
* As of financial statement July 2008
About Citizens Online
Citizens Online is a UK-wide charity committed to addressing and promoting the issues of digital inclusion. Our vision is “to make the benefits of digital technology easy to access and usable by all.” We work closely with industry, government and the voluntary sector to deliver projects which promote social inclusion and community regeneration through the use of ICT and digital technology.
Contact:
Heidi Lloyd
Director of Strategy and Partnerships
01793 882800
http://www.citizensonline.org.uk