Chief executive Kerry Dalton says the CAB will use the grant, along with another $340,000 provided by the Consumer Affairs Ministry, to develop a website that will provide information and links to the 50,000 services listed on the organisation's database.
The CAB will also install Internet kiosks at its bureaux, which people will be able to use to access its database and e-government services.
Ms Dalton says the technology overhaul will take two years and will radically reshape the organisation.
"It's a scale of transformation that occurs very rarely in the life of an organisation. We know that technology is shaping the way people demand information and this is going to give people more choices."
The CAB fielded 600,000 queries from the public last year. About a third were from migrants, who also make up about a third of the CAB's 2700 volunteers.
The organisation provides advice on a wide range of issues from employment, consumer and tenancy problems through to relationship and budgeting advice.
Making its services available online is likely to bring new clients to the CAB, Ms Dalton says.
The grant was the largest made this year from the Community Partnership Fund, which was established in 2005 as part of the Government's Digital Strategy.
Community Sector Minister Winnie Laban announced last week that $10 million had been allocated to 64 community-related ICT projects. Funding was provided to extend the Computers in Homes scheme to several more disadvantaged areas and to help non-profit organisations put information and services online.
The New Zealand Archaeological Association will get nearly $500,000 to create an online searchable national database of archaeological sites.
Prison Fellowship New Zealand will receive $40,000 to set up a website "engaging the public about crime and punishment".
One of the smallest grants, $4000, will go to Waiheke Sustainability for computer equipment to record and map noxious weeds.
Quelle/Source: Stuff, 06.08.2007
