Latest bid summary

Following lots of calls and meetings with a range of organisations that have been supportive of the Voicebox bid, we thought it would be a good idea to publish a short summary of how the bid is shaping up. Although it’s getting close to the deadline now, we’re still keen to gauge your thoughts on it, so please do comment on the blog.

Voicebox Summary

At the heart of the bid is the Delivery Model, which is a high-level description of the approach we will describe to CLG using the diagram shown here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33342139@N08/3215275038/

The Model shows the following key areas of work within the project:

Research and Mapping (R&M) – This will start with a short and intensive (3 month) activity designed to collate existing expertise in the mentoring of social and community media skills to local communities. The knowledge gathered will start the population of a matrix of practice, as well as to identify gaps in provision. Information gathered at this early stage will inform our decisions on the types of demonstrator projects we would like to commission and of these, which we should fund. After three months the R&M work stream will remain active throughout the life of the project by gathering feedback from the demonstrator projects, which in turn will refine the matrix and re -evaluate the gaps.

Recruitment and Training of Mentors – Throughout the life of the project we will deliver a variety of training and mentoring interventions with the purpose of recruiting existing mentors into the project, and developing others to become so. A significant proportion of the effort will be spent in the first three to six months to ensure that trained mentors are able to engage with their communities, allowing the community projects they nurture to develop as long as possible across the two-year life of the Digital Mentors project. The method of training will vary; a mixture of face to face training ‘coming together’ events and online resources and mentoring delivered through a ‘bank’ of trainers.

Incubator projects – From month three onwards, we’ll start to incubate a range of projects using a variety of media, across a wide spectrum of target areas. Throughout the incubation period, we’ll keep a close eye on them and will look for lessons which can be fed in the R&M work stream. A small capital budget will be available to help remove barriers to engagement, though most incubator projects will be unfunded in the first year. A small number of projects will receive some funding following the research and training phase in order to stimulate activity which would otherwise not take place.  All incubators will be encouraged to make use of the bank of online resources that are aggregated and developed during the project, and contribute through peer-to-peer sharing.

Pathfinder projects -  At the end of year one, we’ll compare the outcomes of the R&M  analysis with the demonstrators emerging from the incubator projects and make informed decisions on which of these projects should be offered funding to develop their ideas more fully. Again, we want to have a wide variety of projects represented covering a range of target groups, communities of interest and geographies. We anticipate testing different levels of funding so that we can report back to CLG the projected levels of funding that would be required to deliver a national rollout. All pathfinder projects will be monitored closely and lessons fed back through the project management and R&M work stream.

Progression – We’ll provide opportunities for digital mentors and mentees (such as routes for accreditation) as well as to provide pathways to employment within the creative industries. These opportunities will be made available to both digital mentors and the community groups to whom they serve.

Strategic Leadership – The project will be effectively governed by a Project Board, and advised by a Strategy Group with representation from a wide selection of organisations with interest in digital mentoring, volunteering, the third sector and the public sector. We will develop a web platform which will be a hub for resources, information sharing and debate and a focus for the new partnerships which we will anticipate will develop through the project.

Timetable and process for development of the Digital Mentors bid

As you’re aware, CLG has now sent us the Digital Mentors ITT, a copy of which is available to view here. You’ll note that the closing date for applications has been put back slightly to 5pm on Wednesday 4 February.

I would recommend reading the ITT as it provides valuable information about what the Digital Mentors programme should deliver, which may (subject to your feedback) affect the current thinking on how our bid should be built.

In terms of ‘the process’ moving forward, I propose:

• By Tuesday 6 January - to have received all your feedback on a preferred delivery model via the Voicebox blog. Please refer here for a couple of suggestions which have already been put forward by Anne Faulkner and Mike Amos-Simpson (thanks both!). NOW is your chance to critique these against the backdrop of what CLG wish to have delivered, or to propose new ones. Please add to the existing thread (link shown above) with any edits or new models you would like to have considered for the Voicebox bid.
• By Tuesday 6 January - for UK online centres to have received a clear indication from any organisation interested in a funded role to lead a workstream. Please note we are NOT seeking to identify ‘demonstrator projects’ or ‘trainers’ at this stage. We’ve reviewed the original list of workstreams against what we know now. We believe there are four key workstreams to deliver this work, as follows:
  • Project Management of the programme (which includes within its remit ‘sustainability’ plus the project management of the ‘demonstrator projects’. This workstream will be delivered by UK online centres.
  • Research and Mapping
  • External communications
  • Training and toolkits

We anticipate that there will be other funded roles supporting some of these workstreams, which will be considered after the workstream leads have been established.

Any organisations wishing to lead on one of the three remaining workstreams should email me (bbrown@ufi.com) no later than 5pm on Monday 5 January clearly identifying your workstream of choice. Shortly after, I will publish the names of the organisations that have contacted me on the Voicebox blog.

• On Thursday 15 January - The potential workstream leads will be invited to meet in London for a strategy session. The aim of the meeting will be to:
  • Run through the delivery model, and sign it off
  • Agree the role and responsibility of each workstream
  • Agree the key tasks required by each workstream

We expect the session to cover a lot of ground; therefore please expect to be involved for the whole day. During the meeting, we’ll announce the process for the appointment of the workstream leads itself.

• By noon on Tuesday 20 January - this will be the deadline for the submission of a short application form for workstream lead candidates.
• By close of business Wednesday 21 January - The UK online centres bid writing team will make the final decision on who will lead each of the work streams.
• On Friday 23 January - meeting of all collaborators in the Voicebox bid in London to clarify ideas about the Digital Mentors approach
• Wednesday 4 February - Deadline for response to the ITT