FreeIT - Stafford.

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
It's our absolute pleasure
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Your kind donations of unwanted equipment and your help with our parts and running costs make this all possible
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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
* BUY US A BATTERY *
Thanks again to our PayPal supporters and sponsors, you've all been so generous and as you can see, your contributions have allowed us to buy a stack of parts to restore some very broken laptops back to their former glory.
Now we can get those out into the community where they are desperately needed
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We'll always replace unusable, unrepairable, damaged or dangerous parts as part of our refurbishment process, and we couldn't do this without you all.
We're almost spent out again though, so if you're considering buying us a battery please visit our PayPal at www.paypal.me/freeitstafford and choose a 'friends and family' payment so we don't incur fees
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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
We proudly present.... number 400!
This laptop has been fully restored to original condition and it will be heading off in to the community where it is desperately needed in the coming days
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Thank you to the donor of this HP laptop and to everyone who's helped us buy the parts we needed to make this happen
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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
**** STOLEN ****
An item has been stolen from us, in broad daylight.
Perpetrator has entered the community centre in Highfields while open to public, and brazenly taken equipment destined for collection by a charity who needs them.
We are lucky to have replacements to hand, and all of this has been captured on CCTV, but if anyone in the Highfields area is offered a 21 inch HP monitor (was in an orange bag) please inform police.
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
We're often asked why we aren't fully registered as a charity through the UK Charity Commission, and the answer in a nutshell, right now, is money.
We can't prove an income of Β£5000 a year (we saw about a quarter of that in the last 12 months), we don't have an offer of main stream funding, and we certainly can't afford to have our accounts audited even though we know they are in perfect order and we've nothing to hide.
Frankly, we're more concerned with putting all of our efforts into what we're doing, than diverting our already limited resources into fighting to meet formalities.
We have everything else they're asking for, but for now we'll continue to grow through natural progression and we'll eventually be able to stumble our way past those last pre-requisites
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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
A huge welcome onboard to our new sponsor Mrs I.T. Fix It, who's helping us pay for our running expenses and spare parts
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This friendly local firm will now be able to boast their support for our great cause, and we'll splash their advert on the screen of every laptop and PC that we rehome
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To get involved please visit the 'sponsors' page on our website at www.freeitstafford.org

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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Welcome onboard to our newest corporate sponsor, your friendly local multi-skilled multi-gadget 'Tech Guy'.
Tim The Tech Guy has helped us out with countless repairs already but has now opted to become a part of our sponsored advertising plan, to offset some of our other running costs and replacement parts. The 'Tech Guy' company details will now be added to the background on every PC and laptop that we rehome
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https://www.facebook.com/staffordtechguy
To find out how your business can join in, visit the 'sponsors' page on our website at www.freeitstafford.org

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tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Welcome onboard to our newest corporate sponsor, your friendly local multi-skilled multi-gadget 'Tech Guy'.
Tim The Tech Guy has helped us out with countless repairs already but has now opted to become a part of our sponsored advertising plan, to offset some of our other running costs and replacement parts. The 'Tech Guy' company details will now be added to the background on every PC and laptop that we rehome
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https://www.facebook.com/staffordtechguy
To find out how your business can join in, visit the 'sponsors' page on our website at www.freeitstafford.org
As I've mentioned elsewhere I recommend his services.
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
* Secure erasing *
A common question we're asked is if, and how, we'll make sure any existing data is erased from your donation. And yes, we do, so please make sure you've taken a back up of your important stuff before you donate, because once it's gone, it's really gone!
As for the how, well this varies from device to device.

- For tablet PC's and iPads, we use the manufacturer's recommended specific process. If this fails for any reason, or the device is account locked, we'll use it only for spare parts, and the internal memory chip is physically destroyed through a myriad of inventive methods with heavy implements.
- For laptops and PC's the process is a little more comprehensive., We use dedicated software tools which meet the government standard "HMG Infosec 5". The software fills the hard drive with jargon 3 times over to ensure all previous data is unrecoverable. It takes all day but it's the most recognised way of data destruction in this industry. Again if this fails for any reason we'll resort to physical destruction, but we'd sooner try to re-use as much as we can. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infosec_Standard_5
- And let's not forget the numerous documents and notes we find hiding in laptop bags you've donated, and CD's left in drives, and postage stickers left on second hand packing boxes. For those we use a combination of a cross-cut shredder and, let's call it "thermal" methods.

For all of these we can produce erase certificates to satisfy any GDPR audit trailing you may require as a business donor.

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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
* Zero to landfill *
Although we have no formal independent certification, as this would involve huge costs, we run our project with a "zero to landfill" policy.
We always try to rehome as much as we can, but inevitably there will be items which we can only use for parts and the remainder has to go somewhere.
Our equipment waste is sorted by material, for example hard plastics, rubbers, mixed metals, aluminium, copper, dead batteries, etc.
Some of those we're able to cash in, which allows us to add funds to the project, and the rest is sorted in to the correct sections at the recycling site by our volunteers.
We're registered with the Environment Agency as a charitable lower tier waste carrier, broker and dealer
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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Our volunteers have been absolute legends the last couple of months, filling in the gaps left by an illness in the team. This project would fail miserably if it weren't for these guys.
Huge thanks due to them all, they've really taken up the reins and have been running around like busy bees fetching, carrying, and installing, to help us fulfil the promises we'd had to put on hold, and keep our project tenable.
Here's our Jack, carrying out some extra works in the internet cafe at The Den youth club in Rugeley, to get them back on track following some equipment damage.
It's your kind donations of unwanted gadgets, and funds, that allow us to do all of this for free and help so many other good causes

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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Massive respects to Vicki and the team at Online For Equine in Hixon, for thinking of us before they headed to the tip...
They've donated a huge stack of their redundant equipment which we'll now put through our secure erase procedure to ensure all of their remaining business data is destroyed, then we can pass it all on to those who desperately need it!
If you are a local business with unwanted I.T. gear please drop us a line, we can provide free sanitisation certificates to satisfy your GDPR policies on data disposal, and we'll re-home your old kit instead of profiting
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https://www.onlineforequine.co.uk/
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Thank you all for your patience while we have dealt with some hurdles. We've cleared a bit of the backlog, thanks to our sponsors and you lovely people helping us to pay for the parts we needed, and now we can afford to update the list of items we're able to accept
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We'll still need a little more time to fully catch up, so we'll revise and publicise as we go, if you aren't sure if we can reuse your item please drop us a line
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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
We replace damaged or missing chargers for tablet PC's and iPads, and this can often mean buying those in.
If you have a spare, good condition charger, or maybe the mains plug or the USB lead on their own, which are not being used, please consider donating them to us to save us a little expense
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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
How to find our donation point at Tranquility Recycling, open 9-4 Monday to Saturday
Ask in the shop for assistance
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Rear offices, Castlefields, Stafford ST161BQ

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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Do you have an old iPad that won't update any more, and will no longer run your favourite apps?
Don't take it to the tip, drop it in to us!
Some schools have the ability to re-use them, to install their own educational software, which is compatible with even the older versions of iOS and bypasses the need to ever update them.
We regularly rehome iPads that you've donated, which we've fixed up, reset, sanitised and PAT tested, to Greenhall School in Stafford
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Please ensure if you donate, that you've unregistered your device from your "iCloud" and "Find My iPad", otherwise we're unable to erase your old data
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