With less than a month to go before entries close it’s time to pick up the pace and make your nominations. We’ve already received some great nominations, and the IT Volunteer of the Year Award is always one of the hardest Awards to judge. Every year we receive so many heart-warming stories of individuals who give up their time to help their community – and some have been doing this for years, even decades!
Take David Bennoson for example. He has been giving up his time to volunteer with the RNIB since 1971, and is now part of the RNIB Technology Support Squad, working as Volunteer Coordinator for Gloucestershire. The service supports visually impaired people to get help with everyday technology, and David was involved in developing and trialling the new system, designed to cope with the increasing number of requests for help within the area.
The service is being rolled out as a national system, and David’s part in the development and coordination has been instrumental to its success. Last year we celebrated David’s dedication and hard work by picking him as winner of the IT Volunteer of the Year Award.
Alison Crerar won the Award in 2012 for her years of dedication in the fields of usability and accessibility. Alison lead the development of IT Can Help in Scotland, coordinating a network of volunteers who offer free IT support to disabled people. Starting from scratch in 1999, Alison has grown to managing six teams of volunteers, as well as providing training and support in assistive technology herself. You can watch a video of Alison thanking those that nominated her for the Award here.
In 2011 the winner was Colin Crook, for his coordination of Silver Surfer IT taster sessions. As a service leader at IBM Colin is responsible for coordinating volunteers across the country to run taster sessions in sheltered accommodation for elderly people across the UK, using all kinds of assistive technology tools and speech recognition programmes to assist people with sight impairments.
We want you to tell us about someone that you know, who gives up their valuable time to help their community through technology. It doesn’t matter how or who they help – as long as they are committed to using their IT skills to make a positive impact, either within an organisation or individually. Nominations are open until May 6th.
