Microsoft congratulates the following Unlimited Potential (UP) grant recipients. We are proud to support their work.
Austria
neunerCOMPUTING
Vienna-based neunerHAUS provides a safe and secure environment for homeless people. In addition to providing shelter, neunerHAUS promotes physical health and social and vocational integration to their program participants. In 2005, Microsoft Austria worked with neunerHAUS to convert a spare room in one of its residences into a computer lab. Microsoft Unlimited Potential provided financial resources, software, help in finding hardware and furniture for the lab, and help with securing government funding. Together, these resources enabled neunerHAUS to provide IT skills training to its clients, to obtain training for the European Computer Driving License (ECDL), and to provide job application and interviews skills training.
Seniorkom meets IT-Academy
The Austrian Council for the Aged is the official organization serving the interests of approximately 2 million senior citizens. This organization also works to provide IT skills training for older people. Through a program sponsored by this organization that connects senior citizens with school-aged youths, program participants in Vienna have been successful in bridging the digital divide and the generation gap. In this program, funded by Microsoft Unlimited Potential, teenagers will train seniors in IT skills in 20 public senior high schools in the Vienna area. The senior trainees will, in turn, provide peer training in basic IT skills at seniors clubs to help other seniors to actively participate in the information society. Course material will be designed and made available to the seniors clubs and national symposiums for senior citizens throughout the country through the Seniorkom platform.
Austrian Computer Society (OCG)
As a result of inadequate training opportunities, many people with disabilities in Austria are excluded from the information society. As a result, there is a higher level of unemployment in this population. The Austrian Computer Society's Barrier Free project helps people with disabilities receive training on the European Computer Driving License (ECDL), which is an internationally recognized and certified program of IT competence. This program has been funded through Microsoft Unlimited Potential since 2004, and with support from the Austrian Ministry of Education and the University of Linz, the program provides training curriculum specially adapted for people with disabilities. The program is now available through an interactive learning platform and has already started train-the-trainer workshops for 300 test centers. Over the next three years, the program will deliver ICT skills training and accreditation to people with disabilities, thereby providing enhanced opportunities in the job market.
Belgium
e-space maritime: Robin Hood
With the goal of reducing the digital divide, Robin Hood develops training for underserved populations in areas where opportunities for training are scarce. Microsoft Unlimited Potential supports the Cybernomade mobile unit, which reaches people directly where they live, whether it's in the middle of a village or in the center of an urban district. With the success of its involvement in the community, the organization has received several requests to established Public Access Technology Centers that can offer extended services. The organization is currently building a new center that will specifically target women and will expand into new areas of IT skills training, as well as professional and social integration.
Partnership DO IT
In response to a growing need to tackle social exclusion and long-term unemployment in Belgium, 11 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have partnered under the DO IT initiative to deliver a broader impact in both French- and Dutch-speaking regions of Belgium. Through combined training resources and a network of community technology learning centers, the project aims to train unemployed people in IT skills and to facilitate their reintegration into the labor market. Driven by the Brussels NGO Interface3, which has a strong history in training the underserved, the initiative focuses on women, youth, and immigrants. Microsoft has partnered with Interface3 on similar training efforts over the last four years and continues to support the DO IT program with this Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, curriculum, and software donations to help those reached through these IT skills training efforts to realize their potential.
Bulgaria
Horizonti Foundation
In Bulgaria, more than 18,000 people are permanently blind and an additional 40,000 have visual impairments. Only two schools in the country are well equipped to serve people who are blind. A Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant supports the successes of SpeechLab, a software program that is a text-to-speech synthesizer and reads and pronounces text files and Web pages in Bulgarian. The innovations provided by this project have enabled a broad range of community organizations to assist the visually impaired in Bulgaria in accessing information resources that were previously unavailable to them. The free SpeechLab software is widely distributed in communities across Bulgaria, and the next phase of this project focuses on delivering further training and providing training materials to the visually impaired community and those who work with them through a train-the-trainers approach. Additionally, voice training materials will be distributed across Bulgaria to further expand and leverage the work accomplished so far, showcasing how innovation and technology come together to empower individuals to improve their lives.
iCentres Association
Bulgaria is working hard to make its work force competitive by spreading digital literacy throughout the population. The iCentres Project supports training a broad set of target groups in Bulgaria in core IT skills, with particular focus on the unemployed and people with disabilities. This project, supported through a Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) grant, builds on the successful training of more than 15,000 people in basic IT skills and English through the iCentres network. The existing network of over 100 telecenters throughout Bulgaria, established through collaboration with the Bulgarian government, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Microsoft, will be mobilized to provide the training. The project will use the localized UP curriculum and the latest tools in distance education to support project goals. The network is anticipated to grow to 300 centers in the next three years.
Croatia
UP Training for Unemployed Persons
Although Croatia has made significant progress in recent years, there are pockets of poverty and persistent unemployment that plague particular communities. This new project, supported by Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP), is a pilot effort and collaboration among three nongovernmental organizations that targets the training of the long-term unemployed. The project was designed based on research conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the government of Croatia that indicated this need. It is expected to roll out in the counties of Bjelovar, Vukovar, Križevci, Zadar-Šibenik, and Lika. The project will build on HDPIO's success in training IT trainers throughout Croatia and will provide training in cooperation with UNESCO. Trainees will be provided 40 hours of training in basic IT skills using newly localized UP curriculum. An online assessment of knowledge will be provided at the end of the course.
Czech Republic
Charta 77 Foundation
The PCs Against Barriers project provides underserved citizens with training in ICT skills and infrastructure to give them an equal chance to succeed economically, socially, and culturally. The project works with people who are confronting physical limitations by training them in IT skills that will help them overcome their challenges. For children, young people, adults, and seniors, the computer serves as a tool for study, communication, and work. The Microsoft Unlimited Potential support enables the community of people with disabilities to use computers to develop the basic IT skills they need for the local job market, gain access to employment, and develop advanced IT skills, including certification related to IT industry jobs. This focus on IT skills training evolves from the long-standing partnership and the successes of the 10-year relationship between Charta 77 and Microsoft. These training opportunities will be provided through a network of 16 centers across the Czech Republic.
Denmark
UP-Microsoft Digital Literacy
In 2006, Aeldermobilisieringen, an organization that represents five of the main senior citizens organizations in Denmark, launched the Microsoft Digital Literacy Curriculum in Danish, enabling seniors throughout Denmark to learn IT skills. Working with 100 existing community technology centers (CTCs, called Computer Cafés) across the country, Aeldermobilisieringen will help those who are over the age of 60 of age to use computers, attend training courses, and ultimately proactively participate in the information society. The courses will be given by senior citizen volunteers who posses IT knowledge and have been trained on the Microsoft Unlimited Potential curriculum. Peer trainers understand the needs of their audience, are able to effectively communicate with other seniors, and will give seniors new to the program a way to explore their potential.
Estonia
Tallinn City's Board of Disabled People
Tallinn's computer training and open Internet programs give people with disabilities the opportunity to participate in community activities, explore new careers and learning opportunities, and improve communication and networking with other people with disabilities. Microsoft Unlimited Potential support will provide basic ICT skills courses at two community technology centers (CTCs). These IT training programs will focus on basic Internet use and how to find resources for people with disabilities. Additionally, an intensive ICT course will be provided for 10 students, with the objective of gaining full-time employment with Estonian IT companies. The new assistive technologies available at the centers, such as speech synthesizers, will provide those with severe disabilities a way to communicate with others. The project seeks to train community members with disabilities so that they can access information and engage socially. Another goal is to inform the general public about disabilities and how technology can provide connections with this community, thereby increasing tolerance and strengthening society overall.
Finland
The Finnish Association of the Deaf (FAD)
FAD's Centaur project aims to increase the participation of deaf sign-language users participating in the information society. Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding supports training for 12 peer-support trainers who are deaf and regional trainings in 41 local deaf clubs across Finland. It will also support the purchase of the Meteor publication platform, which was developed by Sininen Meteoriitti on the Microsoft .NET platform. All the local clubs will use Meteor to produce and maintain their own home pages; they will also use the platform to publish training materials. Additionally, the clubs and FAD will form a community extranet where they can distribute information and tips. The clubs will be supplied with high-speed Internet connections, as well as IT equipment that will include adaptations that make video communication in sign language possible.
Finnish Association of People with Mobility Disabilities
In this time of equal opportunities, the ARGOW project in Finland is succeeding in showing how creative solutions and combined resources can significantly reduce the digital divide's affect on people with disabilities. ARGOW brings together four national nongovernmental organizations that represent people with disabilities (the Finnish Association of People with Mobility Disabilities, the Finnish MS Society, Kynnys ry/Threshold Association, and the Finnish Federation for the Visually Impaired). Through an innovative mobile classroom and a combined network of 37 community learning centers, the project aims to train people with disabilities in IT skills, reaching even the most remote areas of the country. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will provide funding for a train-the-trainers program. Additionally, the latest accessible software from Microsoft will benefit trainees across Finland, empowering them both socially and economically.
Fast Track to IT Ltd. (FIT)
In the North Karelia region in eastern Finland, unemployment rates exceed the national average at 14 percent. Through a strong partnership with Irish nongovernmental organization FIT, a long-time Microsoft Unlimited Potential community partner, this region in Finland will replicate and implement a proven IT skills training model that will target underserved and long-term unemployed community residents who want to reintegrate themselves into the labor market. Working in local partnership, the town of Joensuu, the University of Applied Sciences for North Karelia, and Microsoft will roll out the FIT training model by summer 2007 to provide underserved job seekers with training in the necessary skills to access a job in their region.
Seniors Bridging the Digital Divide
In a country with a rapidly aging population, the goal of this project is to prevent senior citizens from being excluded from the information society in Finland. In November 2006, the NGO Kalliolan Settlementti announced the first ever Senior Portal project in Finland which would be launched in February 2007. Through the creation of an additional mutual support network, IT skills training delivered by peers as well as the web portal service, and the UP project will empower seniors to actively participate in the information society.
France
ADIE
Founded in 1989 by Maria Novak, ADIE has helped establish over 35,000 small businesses in France. In a pilot project funded by a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant in 2005, ADIE demonstrated that efficient, effective support for microenterprises reduces their isolation and gives them the tools they need to thrive. With this grant, Microsoft provides funding to expand ADIE's training in microentrepreneurship to new regional branches across France. The goal of the training is to teach small-business owners, including women, the basic computer skills they need to produce professional-quality quotes and invoices, streamline their communications with clients and vendors, and use the Internet for tasks such as inventory control and Web site development. The training will also facilitate the sharing of ideas, tools, and business contacts among the participants.
Clique Sur Ta Ville
Clique Sur Ta Ville is a grassroots development initiative that addresses social integration by partnering with local governments to provide IT skills training in underserved urban communities around France. The program provides a comprehensive and customized program of train-the-trainer lessons and methods as well as tools that can help community learning centers provide locally relevant IT skills training. Following the successful implementation of the program in Marseilles and Saint-Étienne, funded by Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the program is now being expanded to three other cities in France.
Emmaüs
Established in 1953, Emmaüs is a nongovernmental organization renowned throughout France for its work to combat social exclusion and to improve the lives of the poor and homeless. With 40 centers across the country, Emmaüs has developed facilities such as daily care centers, social hotels, and housing, as well as literacy, health, food, accommodation, and prevention programs for young people and families. In 2003, Microsoft France and Emmaüs partnered to open a computer learning center in one of the Emmaüs centers in Paris. The center provides free and continuous public access and now also offers basic IT skills training, assistance in finding a job, and guidance on administrative paperwork. Since the first center opened, Microsoft has partnered with Emmaüs to open eight new cyber spaces at Emmaüs centers in and around Paris. A Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will provide funds to expand the program to open two new centers and provide training for the trainers and volunteers at all the centers.
PlaNet Finance France
PlaNet Finance's mission is to foster social integration by providing microfinancing to future entrepreneurs. The Microsoft Unlimited Potential program has supported PlaNet Finance's efforts in Asia and Africa, and this new PlaNet Finance pilot project will provide IT skills training relevant to creating small businesses to individuals in four disadvantaged areas in France.
Zy’va
Located in a western suburb of Paris, Zy’va is an association that is committed to the social progression of youth and their families living in the area. Focusing on empowerment through education, over the past 10 years Zyva has provided activities ranging from homework support, mentoring, cultural activities to language and IT skills training. With Microsoft UP funding, Zy’va will scale up its IT skills training program to include the support of a full time trainer. Zy’va has shown that by creating opportunities for young people to get ahead and empowering them with IT skills, individuals are ready to become integrated into the employment market.
Germany
IT Fitness Initiative
In November 2006, Bill Gates, along with the Federal Minister for Economics and Technology, officially launched the IT Fitness Initiative in Germany. This cross-industry initiative, which is spearheaded by Microsoft and driven by Bildungsnetz (IT Education Net), aims to bring IT skills training to 4 million unemployed and disadvantaged people in Germany by 2010. Bildungsnetz, working in collaboration with the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts, will provide train-the-trainer programs in vocational and lower-end secondary schools. It will also create an online e-learning platform for individuals who are not currently reached through the traditional education system. This initiative is supported by the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program and other industry partners such as Cisco. It and will ultimately contribute to empowering underserved youth in Germany to access employment, retain a job, or transition to a new job.
Greece
City of Athens, Centre for Employment and Entrepreneurship
This grant supports the expansion and third phase of a Microsoft Unlimited Potential project started in 2005. The funds will be used to add two additional sites to the four centers that currently offer training in IT skills to inner-city residents throughout Greece. These centers, located in some of the poorest neighborhoods of Athens (Thessaloniki, Patras, and soon Ionnina and Kastoria), provide opportunities to local residents, including unemployed youth and people over 45. The program aims to retain workers in the region and to increase their potential for employment by providing IT skills training and online resources for both employment opportunities and career counseling. The project will collaborate with municipal authorities who are working to increase job opportunities for different segments of the unemployed population.
Hungary
Nonprofit Information and Training Centre Foundation (NIOK)
This is a new project involving an umbrella entity, NIOK, the 20 member organizations of the Civil Centre Service Center network (CISZOK), and various public sector entities, including the Ministry of Labor. With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, the project will work to build the capacity of nongovernmental organizations to use ICT in serving their employment-seeking clientele and will help those individuals learn basic IT skills to improve their employment prospects. Through a train-the-trainer approach, as well as use of the new Microsoft Digital Literacy curriculum (soon to be localized in Hungarian), people will receive basic IT skills training through the CISZOK network.
Ireland
Fast Track to IT Ltd. (FIT)
Through a FIT training initiative that has been successful in the Republic of Ireland for several years, Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will enable expansion of the program to Northern Ireland, where FIT is also working with local nongovernmental organizations and government entities to replicate its training model in six community technology centers. FIT focuses on training disadvantaged job seekers, including women, to gain access to employment opportunities through a customized approach in response to industry skills shortages. This cross-community initiative will provide relevant training for women to help them gain IT skills and connect with employment opportunities.
Digital Communities Programme
This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant supports the Digital Communities Programme, which is the largest of its kind in Ireland. Through a Dublin Institute of Technology initiative, and by using a partnership approach to targeting educational disadvantage, this project will deliver high-quality IT skills training (IC3 & MOS) and provide computer access to youth who leave school early, as well as to immigrants at 19 centers in the inner city. The strong emphasis on professional and national accreditation in the training program will provide individuals with valuable skills that will help them reintegrate into the job market.
Enable Ireland
Enable Ireland, a long-time Microsoft community partner, will create and run the first-ever national assistive technology training center in the country. Supported by the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program and using the functionality provided by accessible software, the center will offer local training in assistive technology and will act as a hub for nationwide assistive technology training. This center will scale the reach of assistive technology in the country and help empower and promote independence among its trainees. It will also promote awareness among potential employers to help those who use assistive technology benefit from social and economic inclusion.
Italy
EmployAbility Skills NET
EmployAbility Skills NET is a long-term program that aims to enhance employment opportunities for people with disabilities in South Italy. The project will provide IT skills training to unemployed individuals who have disabilities. Its initial focus will be on the Naples area, where 80,000 citizens with disabilities are registered with the Naples Employment Center as unemployed. The program identifies and screens potential program participants and provides trainees with access to a computer equipped for any special needs. In addition to offering training in IT fundamentals, EmployAbility Skills NET provides a job coaching service that helps participants achieve the best possible job placements. Funding from Microsoft the Unlimited Potential program will be used for specialized staff training.
CNCA
The Futuro@ilfemminile project aims to provide women in underserved areas around Italy with IT skills training and entrepreneurial education that can include support to access or retain a job, or to transition to a new job. With previous Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, these training sessions were delivered in 10 cities in Italy in 2006.
Associazione degli Interessi Metropolitani (AIM)
In Italy and across Europe, there is a large population of aging citizens, and organizations are working to combat the digital divide that can result when older citizens lack IT skills and knowledge. For example, AIM's Internet Saloons in Milan, Venice, and Sondrio give seniors an opportunity to actively participate in the information society by providing basic IT skills training. When surveyed, past program participants indicated that training in IT skills enhanced their online capabilities to make daily living easier, enabling them to do things such as shop and bank online. The new skills also enabled program participants to use the Internet to meet people who share their interests and to maintain links with family in distant locations. With ongoing funding from the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program, the training in Milan has been phenomenally popular, and with this new grant, AIM will continue to offer its IT skills training through 2007.
Kazakhstan
IT Skills Building Centers Kazakhstan
This grant builds on the prior successes of a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant that worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to extend training opportunities to centers throughout Kazakhstan. In the first year of the program, many people received training, including unemployed workers, youth, senior citizens, stay-at-home mothers, staff of nongovernmental organizations, local government administrators, and others across Kazakhstan. This grant will continue training at seven locations in Almaty, Karatau, Karaganda, Kustanay, Ust-Kamenogorsk, and Taraz. This ongoing effort complements the government's digital inclusion agenda and will stress connections to other programming targeted at employability and increasing work-related skills.
Latvia
The Organization of People with Disabilities and Their Friends (APEIRONS)
Less than 10 percent of Latvian citizens with disabilities are employed. The APEIRONS' Open Door project aims to create educational, employment, and social opportunities for these disadvantaged young people and adults through free computer access, increased computer literacy, and IT skills development. The project is also dedicated to challenging stereotypes about people with disabilities and bringing people into the social and economic mainstream. With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, this project will provide one mobile classroom that will travel throughout Latvia and will visit villages and towns to offer training in basic IT skills. The APEIRONS organization has partners and supporters in all regions of Latvia and cooperates with local governments and regional disability organizations to provide services. These partners will work together and use their combined resources to provide a robust training facility for people with disabilities.
Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association (LIKTA)
Latvia counts a skilled work force as one of its most important assets, and as such LIKTA's Latvia@World project seeks to enable each member of the community to benefit from IT and to participate actively in the knowledge economy. Through this two–year-old effort supported by Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the Latvian government, municipalities, and other IT industry members, the Latvia@World initiative is working to help the Latvian population to overcome the digital divide. The initiative provides basic IT skills training and access to services available on the Internet to help people improve the skills they need to participate in the information society and pursue new job opportunities. In 2007 the organization plans to create four training centers in rural areas and to train trainers and community members in basic computer and Internet skills. The program will also provide several special levels of training and will take into account the trainings provided in existing training centers.
Lithuania
Lithuanian Paraplegic Association
The goal of this project is to provide people with disabilities with marketable skills so that they can better integrate into the information society. The program will provide people with various disabilities with basic IT skills training. Courses topics include hardware and software, Internet use, and Microsoft Office programs. The project will also provide assistance with communication and job searching. With the support of this Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant and other funding, the Lithuanian Paraplegic Association will continue to provide basic IT training for people with disabilities across the country.
Luxembourg
Fondation Caritas Luxembourg
Caritas, supported by Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding for the past three years, is providing asylum seekers in Luxembourg with access to computers, the Internet, and IT skills training through three community technology centers. The aim of this program is to minimize the digital divide and the isolation many asylum seekers experience when they are not connected in their communities. In addition to receiving basic training, beneficiaries can access public information resources, network with others online, and communicate with friends and family in their home countries. Workshops on job searching will complement the training resources available through this project.
Netherlands
Computerwijk
Through funding from the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program, this project will provide IT skills training to enable underprivileged and older people in the Geuzenveld-Slotermeer, Slotervaart, and Osdorp districts in Holland to participate in the information society. The population in these districts suffers from a high rate of unemployment; many people live on social benefits, and a majority are unable to speak the Dutch language. This IT skills training project will provide residents of these areas with greater self-esteem, new possibilities for further education and training, and assistance in finding a job.
Norway
Seniornett Norway
The mission of Seniornett Norway is to connect seniors to the information society. As does the rest of Scandinavia, Norway has a rapidly aging population that is at risk of becoming isolated with no IT knowledge. Seniornett, working in partnership with the Norwegian pensioners association, addresses the promotion of digital literacy among seniors and has a goal of establishing 500 training clubs throughout Norway by 2011. With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding and Microsoft software donations, Seniornett will deliver a train-the-trainer program and facilitate the creation of 25 clubs in 2007. Over three years, using creative solutions such as a mobile classroom, the project will work to empower Norwegian seniors to actively participate in the information society.
Poland
ICT Education II: Your Chance for Employment
This project provides ICT skills training opportunities in rural communities where digital inclusion is still very low. Priority for basic ICT skills training will be given to unemployed workers to help them find new job possibilities in areas such as e-learning or microentrepreneurship. This grant will continue the efforts provided by previous funding, which resulted in 700 people trained in 2006. With this Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, the Foundation for Agriculture and Rural Areas Development will reach additional community members with these training opportunities, and the Foundation will focus on creating partnerships and building local capacity for future sustainability and development of the project.
Portugal
CAIS Digital
Founded in 1994, CAIS aims to help underserved groups in Portugal to help themselves by working with a network of 15 charities and driving initiatives such as Ponte Digital (Digital Bridge), an IT skills training program launched in 2001 in partnership with local government. CAIS, now in its third year of partnership with the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program, continues to drive social integration in disadvantaged groups by providing training in basic IT skills and free Internet access in four training centers in Portugal (one in Porto and three in Lisbon). The center will continue to offer training on a comprehensive set of topics in 2007.
CITEVE
The Microsoft Unlimited Potential program has supported CITEVE, the technological arm of the textile industry, for three years in its initiative to help re-skill workers in the textile industry and those who have become unemployed due to the decline in this industry across Europe. The goal of this program is to empower individuals by providing IT skills training to help increase new employment prospects in a region where the textile industry has traditionally had a strong presence. The program continues to create economic prosperity in new industry sectors in the region.
Programa Escolhas
Helping disadvantaged youth discover and broaden the choices available to them in life is the driving force behind Programa Escolhas, a program supported by the Portuguese government and the Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) program. Escolhas also promotes social integration of youth in the most underserved areas of the country through ICT skills training. Building on past success, Programa Escolhas is expanding from 78 to 100 community technology centers (CTCs) in Portugal and will use the UP curriculum to train students. The program will use professional trainers in its train-the-trainer program to ensure consistent and quality training in all CTCs. A strong focus on accreditation will also help to prepare graduates for the job market.
Romania
EOS Romania
EOS is a nonprofit organization that encourages an open society and promotes sustainable development in Romania by enabling young people to acquire social and economic entrepreneurial skills and to receive ICT training. Microsoft has worked with EOS over the past six years on a number of efforts. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant expands the work initiated in three centers in Timis, a county in the western part of Romania where unemployment is high and economic transitions require that people have new skills. EOS will use this year's grant to launch a national network of training centers across Romania in collaboration with Civitas, and as complement to the World Bank–funded Knowledge Economy project. Over the next three years, the grant will support projects in more than 40 Outreach Community Training Centers. The centers will address the growing digital divide between urban and rural communities by providing opportunities for all members of the community to acquire the skills required for information literacy and knowledge creation.
Civitas Foundation for Civil Society
The Civitas Foundation for Civil Society, founded in 1992, was established to stimulate citizen involvement in decision-making and local governance, including human rights protection, civic education, and environmental protection. Together with Microsoft, the foundation has begun developing a long-term project to teach ICT skills to youth in rural communities. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support continued training efforts in three rural communities along the Transylvanian highway. Training will include courses in basic IT skills and courses in professional development for the staff working in the centers. The Civitas Foundation will also pursue exploratory work to establish two additional centers in conjunction with the larger Knowledge Economy effort taking place in Romania.
Russia
Project Harmony
This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant supports the second year of partnership with Project Harmony on its IDEA project. The initial grant helped to train over 8,000 people in ICT skills through a network of more than 40 IDEA centers. In the next three years, Project Harmony will engage with at least 20 centers each year to provide improved technology access and skills training to underserved communities in Russia. The centers will be selected from a group of 96 centers across Russia and will share progress and approaches with the extended network. In addition to providing curriculum to the project and all of the centers, the Microsoft grant will help offset the cost of training staff, materials, communications, evaluation and tracking, and management of the program.
Serbia and Montenegro
International Aid Network (IAN)
IAN is a nongovernmental humanitarian organization that provides psychosocial, educational, legal, and informational assistance to refugees, internally displaced persons, and other underserved people in Serbia. This is the second year of Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding for this effort. Through this grant, IAN will support the delivery of ICT training to these groups, with a focus on improving job-related skills and employability.
Slovakia
Development of Basic Computer Skills
The Development of Basic Computer Skills project is designed to help people over the age of 40 who have no computer skills and who are facing unemployment to learn the new skills that are necessary for success in today's labor market. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support the project in teaching computer basics to people across Slovakia and will provide trainers working in project centers with curriculum and training resources to help sustain the effort. By increasing the IT skills of participants, the project will increase their self-confidence and motivate them to pursue further education to gain additional skills and remain in the work force.
Slovenia
We Are Realizing Our Potential 2: MISSS
MISSS focuses on helping underserved populations connect to their communities and has identified that IT skills help individuals and communities reach a new level of personal development. Through basic IT skills training efforts, MISSS raises the skill level and employability of the people it serves. Over the next three years, this Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will help MISSS provide basic IT skills training across a network of 12 centers to improve the employability of Slovenia's underserved citizens, including recent immigrants, the Roma, and people with disabilities.
Spain
Conecta Now
Connect Now is a national initiative in Spain driven by Fundacion Esplai that focuses on increasing digital literacy among the most disadvantaged social groups. The goal of this initiative is to improve the social inclusion of disadvantaged people and to develop the information society. The program reaches beneficiaries through existing community learning center networks and the school infrastructure. The project combines two programs. The first, Conecta e-inclusion, is a program for young people, women, and immigrants that is based in the Red Conecta network and 500 other centers in associated networks. The second, Young Conecta, is a program specifically for young people that is based on a service learning plan used in the high schools. By successfully partnering with Microsoft Unlimited Potential, nongovernmental organizations, local government, and national government, and by applying a consistent methodology for delivering quality IT skills training throughout the network, Connect Now is making a strong impact in its second year. The project is on track to train people in more than 70 CTCs over the next three years.
Sweden
PROsIT - IT for Retired People
PRO is the largest nonprofit organization in Sweden, representing senior citizens in 1,500 local organizations. Many of these seniors are uncomfortable with new technologies, but PRO strongly believes that every person in the community needs the ability to participate in the information society. With knowledge of basic IT skills, seniors can enrich their lives through use of the Internet. They can use resources such as online banking, can stay in touch with distant relatives, and can communicate with doctors. However, many of the available IT training courses are not adapted to serve older people. To address this, since 2002, PRO has been developing programs in which seniors train their senior peers. In its fourth year of working with Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, PRO will use the grant from Microsoft to develop new training and to continue training district representatives and local trainers, who are all members of PRO and seniors themselves.
Switzerland
Association Arches
In response to a high unemployment rate in the French-speaking canton de Vaud, the Swiss federal government asked Microsoft and Association Arches to support an initiative aimed at providing social and economic integration opportunities for the unemployed population in this region through a IT skills training program. Microsoft was already involved in a similar effort with the Caritas organization, which loans refurbished computers to the unemployed. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support the training efforts of Association Arches in delivering professionally taught IT skills training that will target unemployed, immigrant, and other disadvantaged populations, including youth, and will enable participants to integrate into the job market.
Stiftung Zugang für Alle
This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support Stiftung Zugang für Alle in providing training to trainers on how to use the ECDL PD learning system to provide instruction for people with disabilities.
Ukraine
Institute of the Information Society
This project provides social rehabilitation for unemployed workers, teaches people how to use computer software and hardware, and fosters the development of business initiatives in the industrialized regions of Ukraine that have the highest unemployment rates. The program will train people how to use information technology applications and how to apply these skills in today's businesses. Funding from Microsoft Unlimited Potential will support a program that provides daily classes in IT skills and employment assistance to the unemployed. The project aligns with the Ukrainian government's social policy of addressing issues with unemployment, particularly helping the unemployed gain the work-force skills that are required by employers.
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