How a Free VOICE Website Can Help Your Organisation

Is your website out of date because only one person knows how to edit it?
Is your website expensive to host?
Or perhaps you think you can’t afford a website at all?

The VOICE system, offered by the Royal Borough of Kingston in partnership with Kingston Voluntary Action, provides an effective solution to these common problems.  VOICE is free to use for voluntary and community groups, public sector organisations, schools/colleges and councillors.  It has been specifically designed to meet the needs of these groups, and provides a wealth of features, whilst still being easy to manage. 

You can choose from a range of design templates and add your own logos and photographs so that it fits with your organisation’s identity.  You can easily set up a basic website with just a few pages of information about your organisation, but VOICE also has several useful functions that can be added to your site to make it more interactive, including a calendar, discussion forums, opinion polls and mailing list.

You can register for a free VOICE site and set up your own website in minutes, but you may find it useful to attend one of the training courses run by KVA every two months, which will give you a thorough demonstration of system.  The next training courses run on 22 July with beginners in the morning and advanced in the afternoon.  There is a fee of £20 for voluntary/community organisations for each half day session. This fee includes unlimited technical support from KVA afterwards to help you to develop your website further.

Case Study - Addison Gardens Allotment Association

Addison Gardens Allotment Association set up their Voice website in September, when their secretary, Jeff Hollingworth attended the beginners course.  Two months later, he attended the advanced course to learn how to customise the site further.  They now have a fully functioning website with its own domain name, eye-catching images and a range of advanced features including photo albums, private area for association members, and pages that are editable by certain members.

“ We just wanted a simple website to promote ourselves and to communicate with association members. The Voice website more than fits the bill. It’s extremely easy to use and the two excellent half day training courses run by KVA clearly explain the basic principles. The free hosting facility is obviously very useful, but the key is that the simplicity of the site enables it to be easily updated. There is outstanding back-up from KVA and the website developers to help with any technical problems and Justine has been marvellous in providing a helping hand while the site has been under construction.”
Jeff Hollingworth, Addison Gardens Allotment Association

To register for a free VOICE site visit the Kingston VOICE Portal.

Contact Justine Harvey, Information & Communications Co-ordinator at KVA for advice about developing your website or to book a place on the training course.