Youth Mental Health NGO Boosts Services Thanks to Donated Technology
42nd Street provides support for young people experiencing stress and mental health problems in and around the Manchester area in the United Kingdom. The organization serves young people with a wide range of problems, from mild anxiety and depression to severe mental health problems such as psychoses. One of the organization's specialties is helping people who harm themselves. 42nd Street also delivers training to other professionals. For example, the Headz-Up program, which is funded by Comic Relief, is designed to equip local professionals and volunteers with improved knowledge, skills, and confidence to respond to the mental health needs of youth.
Before receiving donations from Cisco and Microsoft, the office's IT systems were draining time and money. The old network had run its course, and staff members didn't know from day to day whether they'd have email or be able to access their files. In addition, they needed to create reports for government grants, which meant they needed a reliable and accurate system and database. The organization had lacked these, elevating the risk of losing funding.
The donations from Cisco and Microsoft through TechSoup Global partner Charity Digital came at a crucial time. 42nd Street received a Cisco router wireless access point and 48-port Ethernet switch, Microsoft Small Business Server, Microsoft Windows Pro Upgrade, Publisher 2007, and Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007. These donations allowed the organization to rebuild its entire infrastructure. The improvement to daily reliability made a huge impact on the organization's work, including improved dependability for the computers the youth use at the center.
