Communicating Values and Support The Hornsey Trust and Omega Alpha Limited “Communicating Values and Support” How does a website help children with disabilities?

Project Outline “The Hornsey Trust, a registered charity, supports children with cerebral palsy, their families and professionals working with them.” The trust were looking for a way to communicate their services, and offer support, to parents of children with cerebral palsy. Wanted to raise their profile and increase fund raising. Decided they needed a website and approached Omega Alpha.

What happened next? Simon met Kath and we learned more about each others organisations. We discussed what Hornsey Trust wanted. We discussed how the trust might best present information - what audience, what style. We discussed what was realistic and what wasn’t. We got on with it!

Omega Alpha’s (Simon’s) input Problem: Hornsey Trust and Omega Alpha are over 200 miles apart! Solution: Once initial trust has been built up, and phone (plus post) work fine. Omega Alpha sent an outline of how the trust might want to organise their information on the website. The trust sent sketches, information, photographs (usually electronically). Omega Alpha sent a preliminary design.

Making it happen We developed a test website which Kath viewed on the net. We discussed and tweaked the site, helped the Trust go through the process of setting up a new ISP and . We also worked with them on domain name registration and set up. We published the finished site to the web.

Commitment Counts! Kath was committed to make it work. Simon was committed to make it work. Doesn't mean we have to respond to each others or phone calls every five minutes. Does mean we respect each others work and communicate in a manner which suits us both. “One of the most pleasing aspects of this project was the commitment of the Hornsey Trust to working with us on the project, and maintaining a dialogue, rather than simply accepting a piece of work at the end of the project.”

Benefits for the Hornsey Trust Website helps raise the profile of the the Trust. Website now acts as a resource for parents of children with cerebral palsy. Website displays course and training information at the Trust. Website includes information for potential donors. Website raises profile of the issues around being a parent of a child with cerebral palsy and offers a signpost to means of support. (Read ‘One Parent’s Story’)

What Omega Alpha wanted? Omega Alpha wanted to provide a resource to a good cause (children's charity), to help that cause promote itself and raise more funds, to develop a better understanding in the voluntary and community sector and to help to bridge the digital divide.

More benefits to Omega Alpha Enjoyable piece of work and a chance to work with new material. Opportunity to experiment with a new design. Opportunity to showcase an 'accessible' website. Raises profile of business in London. Good opportunity to put something back into something I care about but wouldn't otherwise be able to do. Fun AND inspiring.

Conclusions Build a relationship with the group for a successful project Distance working can be effective (OA can support the Trust when it's convenient to us - no real need for meetings and travel) The Trust saved money (and got the result best suited to them, not to company which sold it) Good profile for the business Good opportunity to meet new people Good to learn something different and do a piece of work which has a bit more real meaning than usual

Final thought "Commitment from the voluntary group is the fundamental aspect which helps make a pro bono project successful. The Hornsey Trust have been incredibly professional at all times and they were committed to working with us to make the project a success.“ Omega Alpha, October 2002