Conwy support agency wins Welsh Government backing for ICT improvements

Community and Voluntary Support Conwy (CVSC) has received backing from Communities 2.0, the Welsh Government’s digital inclusion programme, to upgrade its ICT equipment.

Community and Voluntary Support Conwy helps voluntary and community organisations in the Conwy area. It offers funding advice and support in accessing funding, recruitment and placement of volunteers, workshops, training and it manages consultation responses on behalf of third sector organisations.  

The organisation also hosts several projects such as ‘Making the Connections’ an EU funded project to stimulate partnership working between Local Service Board Partners; ‘The Rural Key Fund’, a rural grant scheme; a play project, and ‘Enterprising Communities’ which provides support for Social Enterprises. The organisation has also worked with Communities 2.0 to deliver introductory internet training to digitally excluded people in the area.

The Communities 2.0 team performed an ICT review for Community and Voluntary Support Conwy and offered several recommendations to improve the organisations' efficiency through the use of ICT. The review helped the organisation assess its existing equipment and identify training needs.

The Welsh Government support will help CVSC improve their network, office functionality and increase efficiency. The new equipment will reduce ‘down time’ caused by failure of existing hardware and allow staff to access documents and ‘hot-desk’ at different locations. The support includes a contribution towards a new server and laptops. Communities 2.0 is also supporting training in the new systems.

Communities 2.0 is a Welsh Government programme which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Wendy Jones is Chief Officer of Community and Voluntary Support Conwy. She commented,

“Communities 2.0 have been extremely helpful throughout this process, helping assess what ICT we need to take the organisation forward and helping with the specifications and training. This support will allow us to offer the same wide range of services to third sector organisations in Conwy, but to do it more reliably and more efficiently”.

Communities 2.0 project director Cathryn Marcus commented:

“Communities 2.0 are delighted to be able to add its support to this timely investment in Community and Voluntary Support Conwy. The organisation offers important services across the third sector in Conwy and this investment will help the organisation to deliver those services more efficiently and effectively”.