titleKarten Centres and their contribution to

ISCs

Session objectives

• Understanding of the Karten CTEC Centres’

model

• Understanding of the background to the

Network

• Share how we can all benefit from the

Network

• Develop a plan for future actions

What are Karten Centres?

• IT Centres for disabled people in host organisations

• 113 in UK and Israel• Capital costs funded through the Ian Karten

Charitable Trust• No model of what a centre ought to be• Easy application process• No focus on a specific disability or sector

Where are the centres?

• In General FE colleges• In ISCs• In Day Services• In training provision• In residential provision• In homes for older people• In hospitals

What do the Centres do?

• Traditionally, a bank of PCs with assistive technology, both hardware and software

• Now – limited only by the imagination of the hosts

• Office skills• Social enterprises• Multi-media centres• Enablers of self employment

Background to the Karten Network

• Ian needed a scholarship to complete his degree and vowed to give back what he could – 3000 times over

• Saw a young man using chin switches and an on-screen keyboard to write a letter independently

• Fired his imagination as to the enabling impact of technology

The transformational effect of capital investment

• A source of funding that fills a big gap,

enabling projects to get underway and prove

themselves

• Fills the shortfall in government funding

Impact of working across sectors

• Different sectors have different strengths and

different challenges

• We tend to work within our own sectors

• The Karten Network gives the opportunity to

share best practice across sector boundaries

Benefits for those without a CTEC Centre

• Annual conference: Tuesday 23rd October,

QAC

• Electronic newsletter

• Potential for further funding in the future

• Information resource

How to take this forward

• Research potential

• Work placements

• Transition

Thank you!

Ceri HibbertNetwork Development Manager

ceri@karten-network.org.uk

07530 702134