Online engagement with young people

1. Online engagement with young people Wednesday 21st July Watershed, Bristol UK By Les Compton Deputy Head of Youth, Play and Outdoor Education

2. Phase 1 developments

3. To provide children, young people and their families with comprehensive, accurate and accessible information on positive activities To develop a single repository for information in order to maximise efficiency Includes an integrated activity provider search of organisations on 1 Big Database To comply with statutory requirements for publicising activities Purpose of project

4. To develop a web based search engine of positive activities To hold and update information on all out of school activity provision To enable sufficient sharing of information to allow for one calendar to show sports, arts, performance etc programmes across the city To provide the facility for users of the site to feedback on the events available To ensure that Phase 1 works towards and supports the ongoing vision of one shared database for Bristol Phase 1 Objectives

5. To commission Focus as the preferred supplier of the Go Places Do Things website Site content: A search facility for both activities and opportunity providers in Bristol A calendar of events and activities A news facility with the ability for users to add their comments A ‘Have your say’ section for feedback and comments A registration facility for activity providers A ‘Your Bristol’ site for posting Media Clips To enable existing Bristol City Council databases (1 Bid Database and Events on Line) to feed content into the calendar Phase 1 specification

6. A group of young people were recruited in February 08 to advise and steer the development Young Consultants

7. Worked with the project team on original design, layout and on content Carried out user testing on the preview version of the site and fed back ideas and changes to be implemented Quarterly reviews of the site with project group including usage, content and functionality Developed proposals for Phase 2 Young Consultants

8. A range of strategies were developed to promote awareness and use. These included: Letters to students Postcards/stickers/posters circulated across Bristol from June onwards Publicity launch gaining coverage in Evening Post (x2), Venue (x2) Bristol radio and Kiss FM Publicity and Marketing of site

9. Media partnership with Kiss FM featuring: online promotion on Kiss FM, production of two website promotional advertisements, each broad cast 20 times over seven weeks Three roving reporter and several street team promotions during on air activity Promoted over 1500 events throughout the city since launch Thriving Facebook presence Publicity and Marketing of site cont.

10. During the summer holidays we exceeded 11,000 hits in one week in August Often people are browsing the site for over 15-20 minutes On average viewers looked at 6 pages per session The most popular key words for searching the events calendar were music, dance, football, sport, volunteering and youth Usage of website

11. Website Usage

12. During the summer the feedback was positive: “Good to find one place with relevant info” “I think tis is a gr8 site, and has given me loads of things to do this summer:) (sic)” “I really think this is an excellent idea for my age group to get them out in town and having fun I am so fed up of being skint and not being able to see my mates! so getting every one together is just a perfect idea!” “Excellent site, wish I discovered it at the start of the summer. Very well laid-out and easy to navigate”. Evaluation of GPDT by young people using the Your Views section of the site

13. Review of the look and feel of the site to give it a new template. Less use of black and the inclusion of bright colours The inclusion of more videos to form a media zone Review and update of home page layout to refocus the site on the Events and Latest News The introduction of a new eConsultation module Suggestions for improvements from users included:

14. Phase 2 Developments • Home Page Redesign • Updates to the Events Calendar to include images • Analysis of the Registration Process • Your Bristol / Media Section • Volunteering Section • Miscellaneous and Viral Features • eConsultations

15. The survey secured a return of 1,450 4% of young people indicating 84% take part in a positive activity at least once a week 52% thought the activities were fairly to very good 40% wanted more sorts and 34% more arts and crafts The barriers are: 34% because the activities are not available in their area 34% because young people do not know what activities are available 18% had no motivation Strategy for Change – Have Your Say survey 2009

16. Feedback to date has been anecdotal and mostly positive Ensuring that the content entered directly by Activity Providers is suitable & interesting for young people Allocating resource to updating and moderating the online forum Working with young people to encourage even more participation, such as news and reviews Areas to address going forward

17. Over the summer where possible all activities funded via ESP budgets were put onto the 1BigDatabase which fed directly onto GPDT. This worked really well and at times there were over 50 activities per day being promoted across the city. Partnership working with ESP

18. Young Consultants feedback on development options, average scores by order of importance (1= very important, 10 = least important) 2 = Employment, Vacancies and Apprenticeships & Transport & Travel 4= Audio/MP3 content, Further/Higher Education, Forum, Competitions, Service Provider Search and Functionality 5= Photo gallery, Online polls, Enhanced News, Publication to social networking sites 6= Enhanced events diary, User registration, Entertainment 7= Online consultation, Movie Gallery, Play Area Facility 9= eCards 'What next? Priorities from Young Consultants’