National Awards celebrate the benefits of ICT
Tuesday 22nd June 2010
Judges praise wide range of high quality entries
Forty two finalist organisations gathered last night at the National eWell-Being Awards 2010 at a ceremony held at the UNISON Yorkshire and Humberside offices in Leeds. The awards conceived by the charity UK CEED and sponsored by Unison and Becta, are now in their 8th year and this year received 120 entries for projects demonstrating the innovative application of Information Communication Technology for social and environmental improvement.
This year the awards linked with Race Online 2012, the national campaign for digital inclusion led by the Government's Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox.
The winning digital inclusion project was the NHS Choices ‘Libraries Inclusion Programme' which aims to tackle health inequalities and improve the health of excluded groups through digital engagement programmes in libraries.
The judges singled out one organisation for special recognition for a true, long-term commitment to promoting digital inclusion: Bristol based social enterprise, Knowle West Media Centre. This project demonstrated considerable social benefits creating jobs and building skills as well as changing community perception in one of the most deprived areas in the country.
The awards highlighted independent living projects, such as the winning entry, Self Help Services' ‘Community Based Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Services' programme which aims to deliver Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Services (cCBT) to those experiencing mild to moderate mental health problems within non-stigmatising community settings.
The Sustainable Use of ICT in schools category saw the title of winner to the Djanogly City Academy Nottingham, Nottingham Blue Coat and Technology College and Fernwood Schools' ‘Energy Reduction Project' run by students from 3 schools looking at innovative ways to halve the Academy's energy consumption.
There were an impressive variety of projects designed to improve public services. The winning entry, ‘One Link', an Isle of Wight Council project which provides a ‘one-stop-shop' for information which empowers people with long-term health and social care needs to better manage their condition.
Looking at the area of green IT, the Energy Efficiency category was topped by TelecityGroup's Energy Management Programme, which is improving the environmental efficiency of its data centres through innovative operation and design.
The judges selected Consense as the overall winner of this year's awards for their ‘Open Debate Online Consultation System'. In 2005 Consense launched the online tool which enables businesses to put forward their plans to local communities and engage in discussion helping to form a planning system. It is unique in that it aims to engage the silent majority - those who may not have much free time, are without a preconceived opinion or are in support but don't realise the value of their comment. All this makes for much more of a balanced and accurate account of public opinion.
In her keynote address at the awards, Saeeda Begum, a Cabinet Office Social Enterprise Ambassador and Director of Trescom, praised the finalists for being at the forefront of innovation in ICT for environmental and social improvement and encouraged other organisations to follow the best practice demonstrated by this year's winners.
Following the event the dissemination of best practice will be further facilitated by the publication of an award digital magazine with details of all the highly commended and winning projects with film, photos and articles.
For a full list of finalists and further information on the National eWell-Being Awards visit sustainitawards.co.uk or contact Sarah Weaving at UK CEED on 01733 311644 or s.weaving@ukceed.org.
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