Victoria Foundation rolls out Community Knowledge Centre
The Community Knowledge Centre is the Victoria Foundation’s exciting new initiative that will extend the Foundation’s commitment of connecting people who care with causes that matter®. It is the companion piece to Victoria’s Vital Signs® and provides an answer to the “now what?” question the report raises.
The Community Knowledge Centre is based on an initiative started by the Toronto Community Foundation in partnership with IBM Canada. Visit the Toronto Foundation’s website to see the impact of their Community Knowledge Centre.
Who will benefit from the Community Knowledge Centre?
Community
Innovators, community leaders, policy makers, education institutions, business community, and various levels of government will be provided with information about the community organizations working in various areas of need, along with a depth of information on the projects that the organisations they are engaged in.
The platform will be a valuable resource to help media gain access to stories that speak about the issues in our region and the organizations that are transforming people’s lives in our communities.
Donors
Donors will be provided with the knowledge and opportunities they need to become involved in effective solutions to many of the most pressing issues in our communities. They will also see the value of their prior involvement because the community organizations they supported can use the platform to talk about how that support helped them make a change.
The Community Knowledge Centre will provide potential donors and the general public an accessible resource when they wish to find out where their support is most needed.
Non-profit organisations
The Community Knowledge Centre provides a platform for local community organizations to tell their stories. These stories will demonstrate how the ongoing work of the groups has impacted the issues reflected in Vital Signs®. It provides them with a place to talk about how these issues affect our community, and how their work helps to improve day-to-day life for so many people in our communities.
By showing their work via multi-media profiles, community organisations can highlight recent projects they are engage in. The platform will also allow these organizations to highlight their collaborative work with like-minded organizations and/or individuals both locally and in the wider, provincial, national and international communities.
The first phase of the Community Knowledge Centre will feature community organizations that received a discretionary grant in 2011 from the Victoria Foundation. Profiled organizations will not be limited to the Greater Victoria region.
How does the Community Knowledge Centre work?
Victoria’s Vital Signs® consolidates data and research in 11 issue areas. These areas will constitute the backbone of the website; local community organizations featured on the site can tag their profiles with any and all of the Vital Signs® areas they are engaged with.
Users may search the site by issue area, alphabetically by organization, by geographic region, or by populations served. Each profile will include an overview of the work being done by that organization, and may contain links back to the group’s main website and CRA listing (Canada Revenue Agency’s listing of registered charities that provides information about their charitable status). Profiles will contain a combination of photographs, video and text, all relating to the organization’s work currently underway in the community.
Shaw TV is interested in working with community organizations that will be featured on the Community Knowledge Centre. If your organization has a story idea, please complete the Shaw TV Access Request and submit it to go_islandsouth@shaw.ca. Don’t forget to include that your request is for the Victoria Foundation Community Knowledge Centre. Please be aware that it is not necessary to fulfill a production role – a story pitch alone is adequate. Because of high demand, Shaw will not be able to produce all stories.
When will the Community Knowledge Centre be available?
The Toronto Community Foundation launched a beta version of its CKC online in June, 2010. They will start rolling it out to other Canadian community foundations in 2012, and with input from them the development will continue in partnership with IBM.