20th October 2009 – Nominet Trust, a charitable organisation that funds innovative Internet related projects, announces funding for initiatives that will make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people throughout the UK. The projects receiving funding span the key areas of education, digital inclusion and online safety.

The Trust is committed to supporting distinctive regional and national Internet projects. For example, the West Wight Nursery will use the funding to provide Internet services to deprived and isolated areas in the Isle of Wight, while established countrywide organisations, such as the Internet Watch Foundation, will be able to help further protect children and all Internet users from Internet abuse.

The projects include:

Education

• · Newcastle Disability Forum: promoting and advancing the relief of disabled people within the Newcastle area by visiting their homes and teaching them to use the Internet: the project shows people how to use email and browse the web
• WCIT Charitable Operations / IT4Communities: teams unemployed IT graduates with experienced IT professionals and arranges for them to complete voluntary IT projects for charity organisations. This objective is threefold: charities obtain IT support, young graduates gain IT experience and experienced volunteers add mentoring to their skills base
• Make IT Happy, organised by PITCOM and e-skills UK: a UK-wide challenge for 9-11 year olds to show how technology can be used to make people happy by having a positive impact on the community.

Safety

• Gateshead College: raising awareness of Internet safety among further education students
• The Internet Watch Foundation: promoting the protection of children and all Internet users by developing transferable best practice models to facilitate the effective removal of child sexual abuse content around the world
• UK Internet Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership: scoping study to kick start the development of a strategic approach to protecting individuals and business from crime, anti-social behaviour and nuisance activity on the Internet
• Beatbullying (CyberMentor scheme): offering peer-to-peer support for all bullying-related issues in a safe virtual environment.

Inclusion

• ACE Centre Advisory Trust: providing the first searchable comparison web site (SpeechBubble), which offers detailed information about the wide variety of communications aids available on the market, for people who struggle to communicate because of their disabilities
• West Wight Nursery: providing communities in isolated rural locations and areas of social deprivation with computer training and free access to online education and support
• Screenreader.net: developing free technology to enable visually impaired people to access web sites.

Jonathan Welfare, Chairman of Nominet Trust’s Board says: “We have completed three rounds of funding to date and all the projects have been innovative, distinctive and help some of the most vulnerable groups in our society in some way. Many of the projects are scalable, have a wide reach and produce tangible benefits such as the UK Internet Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership and their work to keep people safe online. This means projects can be easily replicated to other parts of the UK and around the globe. This is important when addressing areas of inclusion, safety and education on the Internet because it means that larger numbers of people can benefit – and quickly. We are keen to fund more of the same as we head towards the end of the year."

Nominet Trust has donated almost £600K over the past six months to projects making a positive difference to UK Internet users.

Further information (external website)