If you would like a case study about your organisation listed here, please contact stephanie@crn.org.uk

Furniture Now! 

FN! has been proud to be formally involved in kerbside recycling working with Lewes District Council since 2002. They joined CRN UK in 2000 in order to network and work with community based kerbside recyclers.The charity originally led the way in Lewes District, introducing the first ever kerbside service as a voluntary opt-in scheme in 2000, using an electric milk float and volunteers from Kingston and other villages where the collection service was first offered. It was this campaigning activity, including the use of electric vehicles, that finally led the council to form the partnership with FN! that led on to full kerbside recycling activity in Lewes District. FN! also invested in a pedestrian controlled vehicle (PCV) to access the narrow twittens in the Medieval town. The operate in Lewes town and surrounding villages and Ringmer - over 9,000 clients.

Their Aims and Abjectives are;

Furniture Now! (FN!) will become a leading community waste, re-use and training organisation helping as many people as possible (80% of whom will be on low incomes or benefits) and be acknowledged as the best medium size voluntary sector organisation for which to work in the south east by December 2013.

Mission Statement
Furniture Now! (FN!) works to reduce society's negative environmental impact by providing re-use services for furniture and household effects and other re-use, recycling and composting schemes employing staff and numerous volunteers/ trainees. These schemes provide materials back to the community as well as high quality training opportunities to volunteers.

Values
• Sustainability: To minimise both the charity and society's environmental impact; to promote social justice and equality of access to services; to provide sufficient diverse income streams for the charity's continual effective and efficient operation.

• Individual Dignity, Empowerment and Development: To provide opportunities for people to acquire needed items at prices that are realistic and affordable, preserving and promoting individual dignity and providing learning and training opportunities to empower individuals to progress thereby reaching their potential.

• Partnership: To partner organisations and stakeholders in the delivery of these services, developing enduring mutually advantageous relationships to benefit the public while promoting the values of the charity.

• Transparency: To be open and honest with all stakeholders, publishing clear information on governance, financial and operational performance, policy, procedure and management.

They received £15,000 grant as support from Realliance to help develop operations. Rollout of all glass in Lewes District areas served by FN! led to an increase of 90 tonnes of recycling per annum. Overseeing food waste composting project with East Sussex County Council and ISO accreditation. 

FN! key projects are the restructure of the charity and fundraising for furniture re-use and training then opening high street shops, undertake bulky waste collections and open another service if possible. The kerbside recycling scheme has continued in partnership with Lewes District Council with a 6% rise in tonnage recycled by the charity which is in line with predictions and as detailed in the 2009 Service Update. However, 2010 will be the last year the service is offered by FN! to local residents.

Exciting times at Computers 4 Africa

Computers 4 Africa, a Kent based charitable social enterprise has merged with Microsoft founded charity Digital Pipeline. The restructured and enlarged organisation will be collectively known as Digital Pipeline but will retain Computers 4 Africa as a working name. Microsoft General Manager in the Education Industry Group, Marc East, said; "This represents an exciting next step in Digital Pipeline's growth that will enable it to reach out to and transform the future lives of an even greater number of disadvantaged people in Africa and other parts of the world." This merger could not come at a better time as Computers 4 Africa had already been preparing to move into a state of the art facility allowing them to process more equipment. With equipment donations growing year on year the charities are expectant of further growth in 2011. The impact which IT education has on children's lives is astounding, equipping them with skills which will help to transform their own and the lives of others in their community for the better.

Computers 4 Africa accept donations of working, redundant IT hardware from individuals, schools, colleges and businesses. Computers 4 Africa will collect from any UK mainland address free of charge, all we ask in return is that all donated equipment contains either a Pentium P4 chip or is less than 5 years old. Once back at our base all hard drives will be data wiped and each machine refurbished before continuing its' journey to a school, college or specific project in Africa.The final step in the merger came during April 2011 when Computers 4 Africa moved into new custom refurbished premises at Priory Park, Aylesford, Kent. The new premises will enable Computers 4 Africa's trained technicians to data wipe and process donated equipment more efficiently, allowing for shipments to be sent to Africa more frequently. The new premises will allow for further growth of the organisation over the coming years.
If you would like to learn more about Computers 4 Africa and Digital Pipeline please email Sue Boxall, Business Liaison Manager at sue.boxall@computers4africa.org.uk

website www.computer4africa.org.uk 

 ecomodo's voice added to WWF's 50th Anniversary message

As part of their 50th anniversary, the WWF asked 50 business and thought leaders to share their vision on how business can drive transformational change towards a sustainable future. Sitting amongst a prestigious line-up including: Jonathon Porritt, Paul Polman, (CEO, Unilever), Cyndi Rhoades (CEO, Worn Again), Ian Cheshire (CEO, Kingfisher), David Nussbaum (CEO, WWF UK), Deborah Meaden (Dragon's Den & WWF Ambassador) and John Elkington (Founder of Volans) is Ecomodo's co-founder, Tracy Currer.

Tracy had this to say about her involvement: "I felt very privileged to be invited by BigPictureTV to contribute a 50th Anniversary message to WWF's and extremely nervous. Luckily I didn't find out who else they had invited until later - it was scary enough. But to be honest all the big companies they asked to contribute were once little like us and to drive change it has to happen throughout every level within our society. So it's great to see the big players stepping up to the challenge. But the most bizarre thing had to be listening to Ian Cheshire from B&Q at the 'World with a Future' event last week talking about delivering "use" over "ownership" - at one point I thought he'd stolen my pitch ;-)"

...for more about WWF's Working with Business

...It's also ecomodo's first birthday!

 Proper Job

The Happy Heap is a short video describing in simple terms the composting process by Nicky Scott from Devon Community Composting Network and Proper Job.

Go to Proper Jobs website: www.proper-job.org

Cheshire Furniture Forum

Cheshire Furniture Re-use Forum is made up of 14 not-for-profit organisations who work with their local authority to collect and distribute furniture and household appliances throughout Cheshire.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QTwN7vT35uE

Computer Aid International

A short film about the work of Computer Aid International who provide high quality refurbished computers for re-use in health, education and not-for-profit organisations in developing countries.

Visit their website: www.computeraid.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=s4wccjRSLow