Web links up lives (From Bournemouth Echo)

Web links up lives

SUPPLYING useful online information about services for disabled people should generate a £500,000 turnover for a startup Bournemouth business.

SCREEN TEAM: Helen Spencer, operations manager at The Care Division with Maureen who has learning disabilities and is celebrating independent living f

Not just that but profit is forecast at DotComUnity Ltd in its first year – despite recession.

This will be achieved through securing sponsorship on up to 50 regional websites, which will be rolled out by November covering the UK, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Dotcomunity.co.uk was launched in Dorset and there are over 300 organisations listed on the database for the county.

The business has already secured sponsorship from Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust for its Hampshire portal.

“Sussex, Kent, Surrey and Essex will go live by the end of April,” said managing director Stephen Piper, who is also director of The Care Division recruitment agency in Christchurch Road.

He has so far invested £50,000 in the venture and explained that the website is intended to help improve the “restricted lives” of those with both learning and physical disabilities.

Mr Piper added: “This website allows carers to locate services they would not normally be able to find.”

Such examples include hairdressers and other professionals including solicitors and recruitment specialists.

It is planned that all the websites will be live by November, at which point 17,000 service providers will be listed.