Vancity Project Fund Oct 2007

C1. Organization info:

Staff #: 1 Volunteers #: 125+ Annual Budget: $ ~60K Year Founded:2006

C2. Vancity will not support any projects, events or activities associated with companies or organizations that promote the use of weapons, violence, sexual or racial discrimination, exploitation of people or exploitation of the natural environment.

Which other companies and organizations are involved with or supporting this project?

Computers for Schools, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Free Geek Portland, Vancouver Linux Users Group, Basel Action Network.

C3. In addition to this grant application, is your organization working with other areas of Vancity?

VanCity provides our organization with financial services.

Do you have any other grant applications pending with the following:

NO

C4. Please provide a 25 word summary of your project (Funds will be used to support a project that …):

...instructs and empowers volunteers to refurbish computer systems; these systems are then given free-of-charge to community members, nonprofits and organisations of social change.

C5. Briefly describe what you plan to do and how Vancity funds will be used. Please outline the following: goals and objectives of the project; specific activities that will be undertaken in the project; deliverables produced by the project; what you hope to achieve. You must attach a concise project work plan and timeline.

As the name suggests, the Build program assembles working computers needed for all other programs at Free Geek.

The community can access computers coming from the Build Program through Free Geek's other programs:

1. Adoption Program: computers are given free-of-charge to individuals who have completed 24 hours of time volunteering at Free Geek.

2. Free Geek Hardware Foundation: computer equipment is given free-of-charge to non-profits and organisations of social change.

3. Computer Thrift Shop: Surplus systems are directed to Free Geek's Computer Thrift Shop, where the public can buy low-cost equipment, thus reducing consumption, waste and energy expenditure via manufacturing and resource extraction.

4. In-house facilities and day-to-day operations, such as the public computer lab/free internet cafe.

Build Volunteers do not require any prior experience; they are taught how to build computers exclusively with used parts. Tested hardware is assembled into standardized desktop computers that are then loaded with Free/Open Source operating systems and applications software. Each system passes a quality control test before it is released to an adopter or non-profit. In exchange for the more detailed training necessary to begin this work, volunteers in the Build program agree to complete six computer systems. After completing six systems, volunteers are invited to keep the sixth computer for themselves, free-of-charge. The remaining five computers are distributed to the community through the Adoption and Hardware Grants programs, with surplus delivered to the Thrift Shop.

The Build Program provides a more technical education to volunteers than our current programs provide. Our first priority is to launch the program; up to now it has been in operation on an ad hoc basis. We already have a list of volunteers waiting to participate.

Both the day to day operations at Free Geek and our other programs require assembled working computers. We will draw upon the products of the program to provide systems to these areas.

We will produce a training curriculum that includes instructional material and workshop lessons to be used as the introduction to volunteers entering the program. Initially, our staff and experienced volunteers will work together to produce this material and run the workshops. As more volunteers gain experience through the program, the work of updating these materials and running the workshops can be carried by these individuals.

Ten volunteers per month will complete the program, providing the organization with 50 machines to supply our other programs. Each of these ten volunteers will have earned a machine to take home.

Included in the appendix is a concise workplan and timeline.

C6. Briefly describe your plan for evaluating the goals & objectives of the project. What questions will be addressed? Who will be involved in evaluating this work – staff, board, project participants, community, consultants, etc? How will the results be used? Please identify related costs in your budget.

Effectiveness and impact will be measured through multiple channels:

   * Financial stability

     Our ultimate goal is to produce a financially sustainable non-profit organisation which is able to achieve our mission.
   * Statistics

     Measuring the volume of donations which would otherwise likely end up in the landfill will give us a sense of the impact we are having on waste diversion. The volume of hardware we provide to other non-profits and our volunteers will show the economic impact we are having upon our target audience.
   * Feedback

     Feedback from our volunteers will tell us how we have performed in providing them with the tools and instructions required to help with their work and to make use of the hardware they have received. This feedback will be facilitated by an open meeting structure and consensus-based decision making process.

C7. How many people will directly benefit from the project?

Beneficiaries wil be wide ranging and cover the lower mainland area. Numbers will be based on hardware grant requests fulfilled, which can be greatly increased through this project.Free Geek has donated over 20 computers over the past year and anticipates a three-fold increase through this project. The build process also enhances skills and capacity for all participating volunteers, upwards of 20 direct participants.

As the systems produced by the Build Program feed into Free Geek's other programs, everyone receiving computing equipment from Free Geek will directly benefit from this program. Combining machines granted to volunteers and nonprofits and machines sold through our thrift store, we will be providing approximately 250 people with refurbished computer systems.

C8. In what community will the project primarily take place?

Due to its central location, near Science World, Free Geek Community Technology Centre is accessible to neighbourhoods throughout Metro Vancouver. Individuals and community organisations representing diverse income levels, ethnicities and backgrounds are able to access Free Geek's services by skytrain, bus, bicycle and auto.

C9. The project should draw on the strengths, skills, creativity and other assets of the organization and the community. Briefly describe:

What resources and assets will your organization contribute to the project?

Free Geek will engage the significant existing volunteer capacity of our organization, as well as space in our recycling/re-use facility and online resources/research. We have developed systems and processes throughout Free Geek that will serve as the foundation for the Build Program including material reuse and recycling, a vital knowledge base of software and hardware professionals and hobbyists and a suitably equipped facility. We also practise and promote sustainable and ethical recycling practices, while using free and open source software to implement innovative solutions to re-use challenges.

What other community resources and assets will you draw on for this project?

Free Geek will also draw on its network of environmental agents, grassroots connections, community events and promotional vehicles to publicize and promote the program. The program will be promoted through ongoing outreach activities to pursue opportunities for donations of more modern hardware, volunteers, and avenues to expand our own hardware grants.

C10. Describe your organization’s competence in the area of the proposal and your capacity to carry out this project, including the relevant experience of the staff involved in the project.

Free Geek is made up of a small staff, a Board of Directors, and a dedicated group of volunteers that collectively bring together a broad set of skills and experience that position us to successfully implement the Build Program. We have already implemented and are continuing to run a Computer Adoption Program and a Hardware Grant Program. We have a computer thrift store that has been providing affordable working systems and other equipment to the community.

For the past several months, our staff and volunteers have been filling the role of the proposed Build Program on an ad hoc basis in order to support our other programs. These individuals will work together to shape the program.

Our strong technical background will be the basis of implementing the program. Through creating and running our Adoption Program, we have developed our experience in coordinating and training volunteers. We will use this experience and the lessons learned in implementing this new program. Most importantly, our diverse body of core volunteers are equipped to create a supportive, safe, inclusive atmosphere that facilitates positive experiences and empowerment.

Included in the appendix is the detailed list of Free Geek's directors, staff, and volunteers, including their relevant experience and skillsets.

C11. The project should build the capacity of the community and the individuals involved in the project. For example: promotes cooperation, respect, mutual understanding; encourages citizen participation in decision-making; develops local leadership; builds community resources, including skills and knowledge.

Identify the most important way in which your project will build the capacity of the community and individuals.

The Build Program, like Free Geek, is founded on interdependence.

It translates an individual's civic spirit and desire for self-improvement into material benefit for the community at large. The individual emerges with a free working computer, a sense of accomplishment, and empowerment from being a resource to others. He or she has new job skills and a tool with which to pursue further knowledge and skills, as well as exposure to an industrious, creative, healthy community at Free Geek, as well as the Internet at large.

The community emerges with a reduction in pollution, since a re-used computer negates the need for a brand new system, with the energy expenditure involved in manufacturing, transport and resource-extraction. The refurbished system was saved from becoming a toxic waste, instead becoming a much-needed tool in the neighbourhood. The community can also derive benefit from this individual who is perhaps newly equipped to participate as a full citizen.

C12. Vancity encourages applications for projects that benefit low income and marginalized individuals, groups, or communities.

Does your project benefit low income and/or marginalized peoples? YES

If yes, who benefits and how?

Many of our volunteers have limited experience with and access to computers, often due to social and economic circumstances.

We foster a diverse workplace, both through articulated policies and a continuing dialogue on inclusivity. This diversity extends a sense of normalcy and engagement to people who may in other situations feel overlooked or patronized. There are opportunities for exploring a non-hierarchical, supportive working environment; volunteers are encouraged to explore involvement in the decision-making process or development of their leadership/teaching skills.

Free Geek provides these individuals with hardware/software training and critical computer skills, imminently transferable to securing employment or becoming a community resource in their own right. The Build Program precipitates an even greater number of opportunities to develop these skills through the number of computers produced.

The Build Program supports Free Geek's Hardware Foundation, which supplies free equipment to non-profits and organizations of social change. Such organizations typically offer services and resources to individuals in need, while at the same time operating on limited budgets themselves. Free Geek is pleased to support their efforts to better their communities through the hardware grant process.

Surplus equipment is offered at low-cost in our Computer Thrift Store. This helps people get affordable computers.

In the bigger picture, low-income and marginalized people in poorer countries suffer from toxic computer waste originating in wealthier countries. Free Geek considers re-use and waste reduction to have a direct positive impact on the health and well-being of all citizens, everywhere.

C13. Organizations are encouraged to share the learning from their project with other organizations or the community if appropriate.

Will your project have any learning that can be shared? YES

If yes, describe how you will share the learning and with whom?

Our Build Program techniques and results will be imparted to our members, the seven other Free Geeks, BC Digital Divide, and Computers for Schools. This will be done through our online wiki, correspondence, and meetings. We continue to build alliances with like-minded organisations so that we may collectively better serve the public.

The community-at-large will also be able to benefit from our experience as well, since our wiki is publicly available, in addition to open meetings and governance structures.

More profoundly, due to Free Geek's promotion of principles of sharing, interdependency, and cooperation, current and former Build volunteers become agents of sharing and empowerment themselves. Not only do they transmit knowledge and ability to other volunteers within Free Geek, becoming empowered in the process, but they can carry it to neighbours, family members and friends. Therefore a rhizome grows, through which community-building forces can be widely re-energized.

We are also pursuing specific initiatives that would allow qualities of this program to proliferate, including placing First Nations/college/high school interns and formerly incarcerated women.

C14. How will Vancity be recognized for its contribution to this project? List all advertising, staff involvement and promotional opportunities.

Vancity reserves the right to use materials relating to its support of this project in its promotional and advertising campaigns.

Free Geek would acknowledge VanCity's contribution to the project by featuring a story on our website. It would also be announced and archived on our mailing lists. Vancity would be welcome to mention its support of Free Geek in any relevant context.