# St Basils wins Microsoft UK's DesignIT 2008 competition

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/06/23/st-basils-wins-microsoft-uk039s-designit-2008-competition/
- Published: 2008-06-23T08:10:40+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Youth homelessness charity St Basils has won Microsoft’s DesignIT 2008 competition,
which aims to recognise the creativity of the UK’s IT professional community.

The innovative idea submitted on their behalf by IT professional James Elliott will
now be implemented to the value of £15,000.

After short listing by a panel of experts the public voted for their favourite design,
which will now become reality.

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James Elliott is a keen supporter of [St Basils](http://www.stbasils.org.uk) work
and was aware that one of the biggest difficulties faced by young homeless people
is keeping their whole life in a rucksack. It is important for them to keep personal
information required to access housing, employment, health and other services safe
from theft or loss.

James wanted to create a ‘Virtual Rucksack’, providing a centralised, web-based 
resource to help them get back on their feet. For the young homeless person, the
system will act as a central store for their key personal records and documents 
as well as links to other support services such as careers, housing and health.

For St Basils, the system will provide a digital record of the individual case histories
for support at the point of delivery and between visits. Eventually other organisations
will be able to link into the system to provide additional support services.

Microsoft’s DesignIT competition, now in its third year, aims to help UK charities
by inviting IT professionals to come up with ways to solve their IT challenges through
innovative and creative ideas.

Bruce Lynn, Head of the Server Business Group, Microsoft Ltd said: “James’ design
is a great example of the ingenuity which is consistently demonstrated by IT professionals
across the UK”.

www.microsoft.com/uk/designit

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