The Internet Community Hour was conceived to answer equity and access issues surrounding the Internet. With the sponsorship of OnlineWA and WAIA much has been achieved with a dedicated and growing team of inspiring workers.
Many people now have become mentors and trainers for the Internet Community Hour, and to list everyone would be hard to maintain but thank you to the original team, especially Andrew Purcell and Jodie Ray Dell who worked tirelessly to establish the program with Karen Melzack. ICH is now in its sixth year. Since our Incorporation we have been involved in bringing technology to isolated communities in WA.ICH together with Australia Asia Association and the First Click grant had thirty people trained to mentor the Internet and set up groups within their organisations and in their own languages. So Internet access is now possible for example to the Burmese, Indian and Cambodian communities to move forward with technology.
Another group is isolated women in WA prisons. ICH is very excited to have been able to bring internal email to the inmates of Bandyup prison mid April 2003. It is hoped with the other informal skills of learning to use the web (with our cd materials) webpage building and now a good understanding of sending, replying and editing email, essential skills in our society today. Other prisons have had excellent ICH mentoring programs too, including Nyandi prison, Eastern Goldfields and Geraldton.
The Vietnamese Community has continued to prosper and grow their IT with the formation of an IT Board and the outstanding services of Phi Nguyen and his group of mentors based at Mirrabooka SHS every Saturday morning. Phi is now the president of the IT Board. Other ICH/Vietnamese classes are being planned for HQ, Midland and their own Northbridge location on a weekly basis. Our ICH Youth at Risk chatline is being assessed now, with 20 students and 4 mentors using its services. The chatline is available for parents and other community members too in Vietnamese as well as English. Many thanks indeed to WAIA for hosting our site and to their on-going sponsorship and help.
With IT Manager Geoff Richards at Headquarters Leederville we have created a chain of technical support for our groups. HQ have enabled the prisons, the Vietnamese Community and Aboriginal families to gain access to reconditioned donated computers, connected to servers and the either intranet or Internet. This cirle of sustainability is a has become a natural cycle of community spirit and goodwill.
ICH is working very closely with HQ and their vision. Thank you to Paul Jagger, Geoff Richards, Tamra Hughes and Simon Newton for their outstanding contributions. We have some big ideas in the making...
Congratulations to the incredible work at Carlisle Senior Centre who have so successfully implimented the ICH methodology too. Everyday seniors are mentoring each other to use technology that can be overwhelming and difficult for many people. The dedication of Thelma Dyer and all of the mentors is exceptional. Classes have been running daily for the past year and we have bookings well into August 2003.
ICH with a project conceived with Vicky Latham and the Shire of Joondalup has joined the YMCA mobile bus moving into areas for Youth at Risk. We are very pleased to be on Board, and developing special materials for the bus We'll post some photos on the site soon.
My most grateful thanks goes to Kim Heitman. With his support and legal advice on many levels we have able to bring our ICH groups on-going future growth. A huge thank you also to Andrea McGurk, for the considerable contribution to the growth of the internet in our most needed areas.
with best ICH wishes k
2002 Highlights
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Past Achievements | |
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The Internet Community Hour had a successful presentation at the Western Australian Internet Association AGM on the 20th August 1998 at the Hilton Hotel.
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Photos
