Belfast, the main city of Northern Ireland, has suffered more than 30 years of inter-communal violence. In partnership with Belfast City Council, HP has now opened an HP Digital Community Centre (DCC) in four community centres. They are bringing together all sections of the community – and in particular the unemployed, young and single parents in need of support – for IT classes and work skills training. The centres also act as a resource for students and teachers.
Belfast’s latest HP DCC will be officially opened on 8 February, though it began supporting the needs of the community in 2005.
In addition to equipment, HP provides project management support. As with other HP Digital Community Centres in EMEA, the programme benefits from collaboration between government, business, public sector organisations and HP. The work is supported by agencies of the government of Northern Ireland and of the Republic of Ireland.
Matching the needs of each community
Across the EMEA region, 11 DCCs are in place, the others being Dikhatole (South Africa), Kumasi (Ghana), Fatick (Senegal), Dublin (Ireland), Govan (Scotland), Saint-Denis (France), Miskolc (Hungary), Slavutych (Ukraine), Tula (Russia) and Wahdat (Jordan). The opening of the 12th DCC will take place in Alta de Lisboa (Portugal) at the beginning of March.
The DCCs are the latest initiatives in an HP programme that aims to provide some of the world’s under-served communities with the infrastructure and tools for learning and development. They focus on how IT can be used for a range of activities, such as job-seeking, better management of community groups and small business creation.
Business objectives
A key aim for HP is to strengthen the link between philanthropic investments and long-term business objectives. The approach is to engage closely with the community, just as HP engages with its customers, to understand the specific needs and issues they would like technology to help solve.
Our priority is to help each community make sense of the role ICT will play in its future development, and the DCC partners work to ensure each locality builds a sustainable capacity to execute on their vision and plans. This partner "eco-system" includes business, government and NGO bodies that bring different contributions to the project, sharing expertise, resources and accountability. In South Africa, Russia and the Ukraine, for example, one of HP’s partners is ORT – one of the largest non-profit organisations in the field of vocational and technology training.
For more detailed information on some of the DCCs click here
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