Made in England
Banner: A walk in the park for those who are in the know!
spacer
Link: Back to previous page Link to Accessibility page Link to Home page Link to Contact Details page Link to RSS feed
Link to Virtual Tours page Link to Web Sites page Link to Photography page
 
Photo: Greenwich Tourist Attraction
 
Link to News page spacer Link to Sponsors page
 

Phone : 07875 617340
Email : info@58all.com

Mervyn Fernandez T/AS '58 ALL'
58 Alliance Road,
Plumstead, London
SE18 2BA

Based in Greenwich
Serving London, Kent, England
Virtual tours across Europe

 
 

Bridging the Gap

Who they are
"Bridging the Gap (BTG) is a small voluntary organisation which aims to help discharged prisoners settle back into the community. They offer advice and information to them, their families, prison and probation staff, students, academics and interested members of the public.

Most of the prisons in England and Wales DO NOT offer any pre-release program. Many discharged prisoners find that dramatic changes have taken place to the benefit system and even the currency during their sentence. Life outside can be bewildering at first.

BTG produce a 'Prisoners Information Manual' which includes a number of lists of useful addresses including benefits agencies, housing associations, job centres, housing benefits and council tax office addresses, C.A.Bs., registry offices and furniture re-cycling projects. BTG have been given permission from 'The Prison Reform Trust' to reproduce their unique series of 'Prisoners' Information Books' in their 'Prisoners Information Manual'. They run educational/pre-release programs to prepare inmates for release and offer speakers to talk about their work and the problems prisoners can face upon release. They also facilitate and oversee a network of some 500 prisoner pen pals."

What they had
As mentioned above, BTG produce a number of booklets of useful addresses including eg benefits agencies, housing associations, job centres etc. etc. These were in the form of Microsoft Word documents but in a mixture of formats. There were 9 of these booklets - all with slightly different layouts. Here are two examples :

A simple version
.
.
*Alexandria Public Caller Office Benefits Agency
9 Mitchell Way, Alexandria, Glasgow, G83 0LW.
Tel:- 0141 951 3100  Fax:- 0141 951 3101

Office opening times:-
Monday  08.45-16.00         Tuesday  08.45-16.00        Wednesday  08.45-16.00  
Thurdsay  08.45-16.00       Friday  08.45-15.30         Weekends Closed
 
*Campbeltown Benefits Agency
40 Hall Street, Campbeltown, Argyllshire, PA28 6BZ.
Tel:-01586 559200  Fax:-01586 559230
 
Office opening times:-
Monday  09.00-16.00         Tuesday  09.00-16.00        Wednesday  09.00-16.00
Thursday  09.00-16.00       Friday  09.00-15.00         Weekends Closed
.
.

A complex version
.
.
SUFFOLK - HOUSING DEPARTMENTS


BARBERGH DISTRICT Council - Housing Needs Service
Corks Lane,  Hadleigh,  Ipswich   IP7  6SJ

Tel: 01473 822 801            Fax: 01473 823 594

Service Offered:  Assessment of Priority Need under the Housing Act. Can 
provide temporary accommodation for those assessed as in Priority Need --
those with children or  pregnant, vulnerable because of age (60+), disability
or at risk from violence. Also offers general housing advice and information 
to private and Council tenants, and Homeless people.

Target Group:  People who are, or may be, Priority Homeless, and the general 
public.

Area Served:   Barbergh District Council Area

How to Contact:    Visit - or telephone to book an appointment - during office 
hours

Hours:            Mon.  9.00am - 5.00pm       Tues.  9.00am - 5.00pm
                  Wed.  9.00am - 5.00pm       Thurs. 9.00am - 5.00pm
                  Fri.  9.00am - 4.30pm
                  Weekends:  no



FOREST HEATH DISTRICT Council - Housing Section
College Heath Road,  Mildenhall,  Bury St.Edmunds,  Suffolk   IP28  7EY

Tel: 01638 719 000            Fax: 01638 719 000

Service Offered:  Assessment of Priority Need under the Housing Act. Can 
provide temporary accommodation for those assessed as in Priority Need --
those with children or  pregnant, vulnerable because of age (60+), disability
or at risk from violence. Also offers general housing advice and information
to private and Council tenants, and Homeless people.

Target Group:  People who are, or may be, Priority Homeless, and the general 
public.

Area Served:   Forest Heath District Council Area

How to Contact:    Visit or telephone to book an appointment - during office 
hours

Hours:            Mon.  8.30am - 5.00pm       Tues.  8.30am - 5.00pm
                  Wed.  8.30am - 5.00pm       Thurs. 8.30am - 5.00pm
                  Fri.  8.30am - 4.30pm
                  Weekends:  no
.
.

What they wanted
BTG have their very own web site www.btguk.org (designed and maintained by Jamjuice Web Design). They wanted to publish these documents onto their internet site but with a search facility. They also wanted to produce a CD of all their resources for distribution to people who have PCs but do not have internet access.

What we did
Each of these documents contained hundreds of "records". We took each document and wrote a script which trawled through it to create :
 a) an A to Z lookup page
 b) an alphabet index page for each alphabet
 c) a HTML web page for each record
 d) an XML file for each record
 e) a HTML index file which was a straight listing of the office names
 f) a CGI script which allows the XML files to be viewed from 2 seperate sites giving 2 look-n-feels. This was searchable by postcode.

To see this in action go to the Bridging The Gap web site. Then click on the 'resources' link. When on the 'resources' page look for 'Lists of job centres, benefit offices and register offices' title. Click on the link for 'Search online database'.
Compare this with Greenwich Church web site. Click on the button for 'Prison' and scroll down to the title 'Finding the offices when leaving prison'. Then click on link for 'Postcode'. Both these forms access the same XML files on the web, but display the information in the look-n-fell for their own web sites. No database engine required.

We also designed the graphics for their CD covers for version 1 & version 2.

BTG CD cover - March 2002

BTG CD cover - October 2003


 

 
   
© 2001 '58 ALL' • AccessibilityHomeSite MapContact Us