Winners of AOL Internet innovation awards announced
Howard Lake | 21 August 2005 | News
AOL UK and Citizens Online have announced the 30 winners of the 2005 AOL Innovation in the Community Awards.
Thirty charities and community groups across the UK have won £2,000 each in the AOL Innovation in the Community Awards for their innovative use of the Internet.
The winning projects have shown how the Web can have a positive impact in areas such as protecting the environment, developing new writing talent, the representation of ethnic minorities, and encouraging young volunteers.
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The annual scheme, run by AOL UK and the national charity Citizens Online since 2003, is open to any community group or registered charity in the UK looking for support for an Internet project.
As well as £2,000, each winning organisation receives a year’s free AOL Broadband Gold subscription to get their projects off the ground.
John Fisher, Chief Executive of Citizens Online, said: “This year’s winners have looked beyond the obvious to create valuable projects that have clear benefits for their community, this year enhanced by the increased availability of broadband across the UK.”
Many of this year’s 30 award recipients are planning to launch schemes providing peer support, with several using audio and webcam initiatives to enable people to share experiences and get support online.
The winning projects include:
Somerset Youth Volunteering Network in Glastonbury supports young locals with their involvement in volunteering, community action and citizenship, including a peer-to-peer mentoring scheme, youth-4-youth. The group will take the scheme online, making it more accessible to young people in remote rural locations.
Drake Music Project in Edinburgh, which provides musical and technological resources to enable people with disabilities to learn and make music, will develop an online workshop to encourage its users to experience and experiment with assistive technologies.
Ecodyfi in Powys, Mid Wales, is a community-owned organisation concerned with the sustainable regeneration of the Dyfi Valley in Mid Wales. It plans to put its award towards launching an online organic gardening course enabling the local community to grow their own organic fruit and vegetables.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.