A little bit of history
Cosmic (or Project Cosmic as it was back then) began our journey in mid-1996 when a small group consisting of youth workers and local community champions put their heads together to develop a plan for new facilities and support for young people in the market town of Ottery St Mary, Devon.
Cosmic itself is an acronym - Centre for Ottery St Mary's Internet Cafe!
Starting off as a facility providing an internet cafe use by the youth club and local community groups, we were soon in a position to offer some computer training sessions led by volunteers.
We added part-time employees in training delivery and, at the same time, offered work to local talent in developing websites for local businesses. These initial service areas developed rapidly and soon our training and web offers were in demand and the teams grew.
In 2001 and 2002 Cosmic achieved major success in bidding for government funding to have its own centre and we moved into Ridgeway House. At the same time we won funding for our hugely successful mobile delivery project - the Space Shuttle.
With both centre-based activities and mobile provision across the South West, our success in social impact grew rapidly and matched the success of our commercial growth. The mid-2000s saw Cosmic in the role of Digital Champions for the South West, and also Social Enterprise Ambassadors as part of Government programmes.
Continued growth and development allowed us to develop new service areas, and new projects with specific focus on social impact. Our Tech Support services for local schools, and the development of our Digital Apprenticeship programme were two major additions to the Cosmic model. Cosmic's brand and reputation led to new opportunities and further involvement in regional and national programmes of digital skills delivery.
Whilst our official address is still within East Devon, our reach has grown further afield. We deliver projects nationally, and have ongoing contracts across the whole South West. We will continue to evolve, grow and reshape ourselves... tracking our own progress alongside the developments in the Digital technologies that we promote to our customers.
