Young People's Activities: help us decide

Our funding for Young People's activities has been cut and we need to review what we do.

Our first step is to find out what you - local young people aged between 8 and 13 and their parents or carers - would prefer us to offer. Once we've found that out we can try to raise some funding so that we can provide some activities for young people.

If you could choose only one, which of the following would you prefer?
(a) Term-time, Thursday and Friday evenings
(b) Term-time, Friday evenings and Saturday day-time
(c) School holidays, Monday to Friday day-time

Send a short email to yp@grantox.co.uk telling us what you would prefer.

Better still, if you've got a bit more time fill in one of the response cards in our reception - that way you can tell us a bit more about your preferences.

We appreciate the time that you take helping us to decide what to do.

Christmas opening hours

We will close at

• 12.00 noon on Wednesday 21 December 2011

and re-open at

• 10.00am on Thursday 5 January 2012

Our classes will break over Christmas

• ESOL classes finish on Tuesday 20 December and restart on Thursday 5 January.
• Online Basics classes finish on Friday 16 December and restart on Tuesday 10 January.
• Silver Surfers classes finish on Wednesday 21 December and restart on Monday 9 January.
• MOWLL classes finish on Thursday 15 December and restart on Wednesday 10 January.

We would like to wish all our customers a happy and prosperous festive season.

Nick Hurd MP meets GTDT

During his visit to Liverpool today Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, met GTDT staff along with representatives of the Kuumba Imani Centre to discuss the latest initiatives and how areas like Toxteth could benefit.

He was especially interested to discuss how the Community Organisers, hosted by GTDT, would benefit the area by encouraging local people to work together to overcome issues which affect their lives.

GTDT's Chief Executive, Lindsey Guy, said 'We were especially pleased to discuss things face-to-face with the minister. He really seemed to appreciate the efforts that organisations like GTDT are making in these difficult times.'

Community Organisers recruited

We have now completed our recruitment process for Community Organisers.

All applications were read carefully and a shortlist of six candidates was drawn up based on how well they fitted the role profile. All six candidates were interviewed to find out more about their skills and experience and were then ranked in order of preference. We have now made in principle offers to some of people who came for interviews.

It's unfortunate that we couldn't offer everyone a position because all the applications were of a high standard. But the people who were finally offered a job were able to demonstrate that their skills and experience fitted the job especially well.

Congratulations to those who were successful!

BBC FirstClick at GTDT

The BBC in partnership with UK online centres has launched FirstClick, a campaign to encourage the estimated 9.2 million people in the UK who have never used the internet to take the first steps to get online.

GTDT will be running FirstClick courses to help people understand the internet and enjoy its benefits. The course is aimed at complete beginners so don’t worry if you haven’t use a computer before.

You’ll learn how to turn a computer on, how to control a mouse, how to use a keyboard and how to connect to the internet.

Interested? Contact us and we'll get you started.

Martha Lane Fox visits GTDT

Martha Lane Fox, the Government's Digital Champion (and co-founder of lastminute.com), dropped in on GTDT during her recent visit to Liverpool. She wanted to talk informally to some of the local people who use our UK online Centre to improve their IT skills and get online.

She spent about half an hour with us and gained valuable insight into some of the problems people face getting online in an area like Toxteth, as well as the ways in which GTDT is helping people to overcome these problems.

Some 8.4 million people are 'digitally excluded' in the UK, meaning that they do not have access to computers and the internet. GTDT is part of a national campaign to encourage people to try out the internet and get themselves online. If you're interested in getting online call in and one of our friendly staff will tell you what's on offer.

Martha Lane Fox meets one of GTDT's Digital Champions

GTDT is now recruiting

Trainee Community Organisers to work and learn in the Toxteth area.

GTDT is the first organisation in Liverpool selected to host Community Organisers as part of the national programme.

Click here to see the job advert. For an Application Pack, phone us, call in or send an email to the address on the advert. The deadline for receiving applications is midnight on Sunday 20 November so if you want to apply you need to hurry!

Google Juice Bar - a great success

GTDT's Digital Champions were out in force to provide support to local business people who were taking up the offer of a free Online Health Check from the experts at the Google Juice Bar.

GTDT Digital Champion Vidah Owusu (right) chats about improving business websites

The Juice Bar stopped off at Blackburne House on the 2, 3 and 4 November and our Digital Champions were on hand to ensure that local business people got the most out of their time with the Google experts.

Over 8 million people in the UK don't make use of the internet and are 'digitally excluded' - and many of these people live in disadvantages neighbourhoods. Digital Champions work within the community to encourage people to get online and make better use of the internet.

This is part of the Race Online 2012 initiaitve led by Martha Lane Fox and supported by UK online Centres Go ON campaign.

Become a Digital Champion

A Digital Champion is someone who likes being online and enjoys what the internet enables them to do and someone who is willing to inspire and support people who don't use the internet to give them their first taste of the world wide web.

What do Digital Champions do?

You can do as little as "Giving an hour" to a friend, family member or someone else you know to help them get online.

You can get more involved by ticking the box below to share your details with us and we can keep you informed of events and organisations that need support from Digital Champions. If you’re not sure whether this is for you, feel free to call in and have a chat with someone about it.

Business Startup clients - hurry!

Our current business startup project comes to an end on 30 November 2011 and we want to make sure that we can help as many people as possible before then. So if you want to start your own business - or even if you're not sure - phone up to book an appointment to talk to our Business Assessor.

If you want to start your business our qualified Business Advisor will help you create a business plan and cash flow forecast as well as discussing any problems you might encounter.

If you decide to operate through a limited company we can set this up for you at no charge.

And because we know time is tight, if you start your business before the end of November we'll give you £100 towards your startup costs.

We hope to have a new business startup project in the new year - so if you're interested but don't want to start your business right now, watch this space!