Sidmouth Help Link
Introduction to Sidmouth Help Link
Sidmouth Help Link is a small, independent charity that serves Sidmouth and the surrounding villages.
Services include:
- a general information service;
- a volunteer scheme that offers a range of voluntary placements
- a help scheme that matches clients to volunteers for a wide range of tasks + associated projects volunteer referral, photocopying and office services for other voluntary organisations.
Mission - To facilitate voluntary assistance to those in need. Based - Sidmouth (Devon)
Number of Staff - 3 part-time, plus a number of volunteers
Key Projects and Outcomes (determined through initial meeting)
1. Website - For the organisation to have a new website that they are able to maintain and keep up to date themselves.
2. Email - For the organisation to have an email account setup in outlook, in order to take advantage of the many extra options available and have an appropriate solution to combat the high levels of spam the organisation was receiving.
3. Security - To ensure the organisation had the appropriate protection in place on office computers.
4. General - To ensure the organisation had a better understanding of ICT and how they can use it more effectively. To know where to look for general support and advice when needed.
Evolve Actions and Developments
1. Website - The Evolve Co-ordinator worked with the organisation to put together a website plan which was complimented by the organisations attendance at a Evolve workshop that again focused on the development of a website plan, looked at possible options and how to ensure that you get the most out of having a website through effective promotion and management.
2. Email - The organisation was migrated to outlook and shown the possibilities ie contact management that this now created. An open source spam solution was suggested, which proved to be very successful for the organisation.
3. Security - The organisation where encouraged to look at articles on the knowledgebase to increase their understanding of security issues. All office computers were installed with AVG and windows updates installed and subsequently set to automatic. A wireless access code was setup on the organisation’s router to ensure that only authorised people could access their connection.
4. General - General information and advice was passed on regarding backing up, computer housekeeping, hosting, etc as well as the configuration of a donated laptop for wireless connectivity, which helped increase their capacity both within and outside the office.
“On his first visit Rob Turner managed to tease out our problems, make them feel manageable, translate them into solutions and to explain them to us in a language that we could understand.”
“We now feel we have our IT on a sure footing and that what has been put in place with the help of Evolve will keep us going into the future and enable us to function more confidently and efficiently as an organisation.”