DOT-COMmunICaTions ~ Our Mission & Status

We were formed as a not-for-profit social and community enterprise which is defined as: "Businesses with primarily social objectives, who's surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business, or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners".

DOT-COMmunications is specifically a Charitable Social Enterprise - the definition of which is:

• The social enterprise has exclusively charitable purposes and those purposes must be for the public benefit.


• Trustees are responsible for administration and management and must not be paid for this work.


• Any profits or surpluses made must be invested back into the charity and used to support its charitable purposes.


• Assets must always be used for the purposes of the charity.

DOT-COMmunications is directly overseen and managed at present by the trustees of the parent charity, The Ground Floor Project, none of whom receive any form of payment and any profits made can only be used to further the aims.

DOT-COMmunICaTions Aims:

1. To advance the education of the public in the subject of the social and practical benefits of information technology.


2. To provide charitable organisations and their clients with access to education, advice, support and assistance in relation to all aspects of information technology.


3. The relief of unemployment for the benefit of the public in such ways as may be thought fit, including assistance and support to find employment.


4. To promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people from becoming socially excluded through the provision of employment training and information technology, relieving the needs of those people who are socially excluded and assisting them to integrate into society.
   
   For the purpose of this clause 'socially excluded' means being excluded from society, or parts of society, as a result of one or more of the following factors: unemployment; financial hardship; youth or old age; ill health (physical or mental) and poor educational or skills attainment.


5. The protection and preservation of the environment for the public benefit by:
   
   a) the promotion of waste reduction, re-use reclamation, recycling, use of recycled products and the use of surplus information technology equipment;
   
   b) advancing the education of the public about all aspects of electrical and electronic waste generation, electrical and electronic waste management and recycling of the same.


6. The relief of financial hardship by the recycling and provision of information technology equipment, advice and support.

Ground Floor is a registered charity (no. 515918) and a company limited by guarantee (no. 1867571). DOT-COMmunications is a Registered Working Name of the Ground Floor Project.

All social enterprises established by the Ground Floor Project, including DOT-COMmunications, aim to promote positive community action and address social exclusion that increases opportunities and benefits for disadvantaged people living in Calderdale. To this end, we are actively involved in providing, developing, supporting and sustaining a wide range of community led and self-help initiatives within the region.

Throughout its long history, the Ground Floor Project and its many community initiatives have recieved regional and national recognition and awards for its work both on a local, regional and national level. In recent years  Ground Floor was awarded runner-up in the West Yorkshire Social Enterprise Awards for both 'Innovation in Enterprise' and ' Entrepreneur of the Year' categories (2005). In 2007 we were awarded both The HRH Duke of York's Community Initiative Award and Special Leadership Award for exceptional achievement. In 2007 we were recipient of the Best New Deal "Placement Provider" Award 2007, and "Employer of the Year" 2008.

We were awarded the HRH Duke of York's Community Initiative Award again in 2010 (it can only be awarded every three years) making Ground Floor the first community organisation in Calderdale ever to receive this award consecutively. We were also named winner of The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service - the MBE for voluntary groups, in June 2010.

DOT-COMmunICaTions' systems and procedures comply with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Standard (ISO15000), the Information Security Management System (ISMS) Standard (ISO 27001), as well as Best Practice Incident Management Processes and Quality Assurance practices based on ISO 9001 principles.

In June 2010 our 3R-iT Refurbishment Project became only the fourth I.T. Refurbishment Project to achieve full accredited membership of the Regional Electronics Initiative.

Please note:

For further information concerning legal status, please contact:

Attn: Legal Affairs
DOT-COMmunications
Salem Community Resource Centre
Central Street,
Hebden Bridge
West Yorkshire,
United Kingdom
HX7 6HB