The story so far...

Building the UK Circuit Rider movement - Lasa's story so far...

• In 2002 Lasa created the UKRiders mailing list for UK Circuit Riders to support each other and to keep in touch with developments. There are around 380 subscribers on the list at present (March 2008).
• A Circuit Rider Steering Group was established with a wide range of organisations, including NCVO, NACVS and ACRE, as well as representatives of local groups. Bimonthly meetings which allowed Circuit Riders to talk about their work and discuss issues relevant to the movement were organised in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Darlington, Nottingham and Hereford.
• Lasa worked with N-TEN to organise an international Circuit Rider conference on 13-14 September 2004 in London. This was followed by conferences in 2005 and 2007.
• Lasa ran a two-year project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation which produced publications and web resources, and organised meetings to promote the concept of circuit riding.
• The Steering Group contributed to the ChangeUp consultation which fed into the circuit rider development work which forms part of the remit of the national ICT Hub. At a regional level, Lasa project managed a cross-London project for a partnership of organisations.
• As part of the ICT Hub Lasa organised regional circuit rider meetings during 2006 and 2007 to inform and engage potential Riders and organisations.
• The London ICT Champion, Miles Maier, will be developing a London-wide ICT Strategy, representing the Sector on ICT issues at a Regional and Sub-regional level and facilitating an inclusive Circuit Rider network with a specific aim of reaching hard to reach groups. He will be working in conjunction with other Regional Champions across England.
• During 2007 and 2008, as part of the ICT Hub, Lasa developed training and quality standards, issuing a news digest for Riders (Round Up) and examining mentoring for emerging Riders. We also organised the 2008 Conference.
• In early 2008 we launched www.ukriders.info as repository and community tool for its ongoing Circuit Rider development work including training, conference notes, links to Flickr and YouTube, blogs and more.
• Lasa has been successful in its bid for funds from the Big Lottery BASIS fund for the London Region ICT Infrastructure Project and is continuing to develop training and qualification routes for London-based Circuit Riders and other voluntary sector ICT professional, staff, volunteers and development workers as part of this project.