Category: Charity Insights 2016

Reflections after Four Weeks at Full Fact.

When I started at Full Fact, I wanted to build a program to carry out their first ever automated factcheck.

Four weeks later, that what’s I finished with: so far, the automated factchecker can check ‘Employment is rising’. It reads the word ‘employment’, goes to the Office for National Statistics’ labour force data, and runs a couple of simple tests to get an idea of whether the number of people in work really is rising.

Beyond that one example, the code I wrote shows real promise. It understands what kind of data needs to be looked up when presented with an example sentence.

Who wants to be the barrister for the defence? (2)

Another bright day greeted me as I left home to reach the Royal Court of Justice at the beginning of my second week. Since the bus takes the same amount of time as walking, I decided to stroll my way to NCCL’s office, while listening to historical podcasts. In a week I learned about eunuchs, Agrippina, the war of butter vs. margarine and Alexander the Great, just to cite a few. And I found a great Law-related collection of radio shows, Law in Action (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tgy1). I also signed up to an online magazine, the Law Society Gazette (http://www.lawgazette.co.uk). The more I read, the more I saw how complex the legal system is.

My first week at the Kensington & Chelsea Foundation

At the end of my first week at the foundation, I have come to know of the extreme contrasts that exist in the royal borough that most of us living here know very little about. The foundation is dedicated to making connections between local charities and businesses and guide them in maintaining long-term commitments.

During my first week, I was briefed about how connections are made with businesses and how information is stored on a database.  I have also learnt about what many of the charities in the borough do and how they help local citizens. It’s amazing what some some charities do in order to help people and how most people are unaware that such help exists.

Wait by the entrance on the red cushions (1)

Note: the Royal Court of Justice (RCJ) is open to the public 9am-4.30pm. However no photos are allowed inside the building. Hence, other than a picture of the exterior of the building, I cannot post photos of the courtrooms or my office. The good news is that you can go to the RCJ anytime and see this beautiful building for yourself. And you can go sit and listen to cases – but more on that in the next post.

On my first day at the National Centre of the Citizenship and the Law (NCCL, http://www.nccl.org.uk/) I was, frankly, terrified. I walked through the airport-like security checks at the Royal Court of Justice (RCJ) and I looked up to the massive hall of the RCJ.

CAT: Weeks 3 & 4: Farewell to the Hills

I’m on the train home from the Centre for Alternative Technology after finishing the final week of my placement. My four weeks at CAT have been a great experience for many reasons. The people, the work and the amazing natural surroundings have been restorative and given me new energy and perspective. I will miss my morning walk through the ancient woods to the rewilded quarry, the birdsong and the tranquillity of the reservoir.

Throughout my time at CAT I delivered the ZCB talk to a total of 163 people. While the audience figures were on average quite low, I have gained a lot of confidence in delivering aural presentations and public engagement.

Weeks 2 and 3 at the Brilliant Club

Weeks 2 and 3 of my placement

I’ve developed a wide range of skills during the second week at the Brilliant Club. My supervisor was away and has left me a list of tasks to complete that week. This has greatly aided the development of my time management, organisational and written communication skills as I was required to work independently and correspond with participants of the programme, which gave me a great insight into what working for a charity is really like. 

During Weeks 2 and 3, I’ve continued my research into social mobility which is becoming more and more interesting, as I begin to draw links between different publications.

Save the Rhino Final: Data Mining

Throughout my time at Save the Rhino I have had many opportunities to do a mixture of tasks to get a feel for everything that goes into charity work, with a particular focus on corporate relationships. However, working a 2 month period I have managed to “showcase” my skills and have been allocated a final task: data mining.

As a biologist we work strongly in statistics and with writing a personal blog, I find data mining very interesting. For those of you who don’t know: this is the act of searching a customer base to give a profile to a typical customer so that they can be targeted effectively.

My first week with OneZoom

Who are OneZoom?

OneZoom are a small up-and-coming charity, founded in 2012, dedicated to providing educational material about evolution. They have developed a tool that allows users to view all species on earth in a huge evolutionary tree (you can see it here: www.onezoom.org/life). It has already been shown at science fairs across the UK, and is now a fixed feature at a number of museums of natural history around the globe. Despite its huge achievements, OneZoom is almost entirely the work of just two people, working in their spare time to make a vast body of knowledge on biodiversity and evolution available to anyone of any age.

Eden Project – Final post

My internship at the Eden Project ended on the 12th of August, and I am now back in Reading missing the Cornish countryside tremendously. The whole internship experience at Eden was an incredible one. I have had some great experiences and met some amazing people and I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with such an esteemed charity.

Carrying on from the previous blog post, by the time my internship had officially ended I had completed the Nuclear Energy masterfile entry and submitted it to Jo, the Director of Interpretations. I am now awaiting feedback on the document.

CAT Week 2: People and Environment

Hello from sunny/miserably wet/weather-indecisive Powys.

Visitor numbers and hence audience figures for the Zero Carbon Britain (ZCB) talks have been low due to extremes of hot and wet weather. CAT tends to be busiest when it’s a bit cloudy since most families head to the beach on really hot days, and no-one wants to tramp about in the rain (at a mostly outdoor activity centre) when it’s pelting down! In between giving talks I continued to update the ‘Who’s Getting Ready for Zero’ database with new scenarios although progress has been hampered somewhat by an ultra-slow satellite link-up internet connection… At the end of last week my supervisor Paul and I began discussing the idea of doing a ‘Zero Carbon Liverpool’ for a collaborator and expanding the ‘Zero Carbon’ brand out to cities across the UK.