What does COPE do?
How does COPE use ICT?
What difference has ICT made?
What was learnt? 
How to find out more

What does COPE do?  

COPE (Cambridge Older People's Enterprise) is a registered charity, run by volunteers, for the over 50's in Cambridgeshire.  They campaign on issues affecting the over 50s, signpost members to other organisations for help and consult with 1,313 members through monthly newsletters.

How does COPE use ICT?  

COPE wanted to set up a website which had an interactive page, together with other pages advertising their events, objectives and activities.  The overall aim was to increase membership, as their voice is in their numbers. Staff at CIAC (Cambridge Independent Advice Centre, now Advice for Life) provided help and advice and designed the website.

What difference has ICT made?  

ICT has been a big help to COPE as statutory and other voluntary organisations are now able to read about the objectives and activities of COPE as well as get in touch with them. Partnership working with other groups is very important to COPE.

The project has also dragged COPE into the 21st century by teaching them how to use modern tchnology.  Some of the executive members have also enrolled on computer courses although the Chairman still refuses to have a computer in his home!

What was learnt?  

COPE would recommend this approach to other organisations as it is a brilliant way to get messages across.  Hits have been received from Canada and Australia and they have even been targeted by a Turkish hacking group, who succeeded in flying the Turkish flag on their site for nearly two weeks.  Fortunately, no information was lost and although it was a very worrying period, CIAC got an associate in Canada to fix it.

How to find out more  

Contact name: Rhona Boorman, Secretary, COPE

Web: www.cambridgecope50.org
Email: cambridgecope@hotmail.co.uk

Useful references

Find out more about the Cambridgeshire Circuit Riders project by contacting Paul Ruskin at paul.ruskin@afl.org.uk.

Find out more about the system used to build the Cambridge Cope website at http://foss.ciac.org.uk/article37.html

Fore more information on building a website, view the Knowledgebase article on planning, designing and managing websites.