Practical Participation

The Sex Sense Website

Sex Sense is a local sexual health advice service for young people in Portsmouth & South-East Hampshire. With a small team covering a large area they needed an easy to maintain online presence which would raise awareness of the services they offer – and would make sure young people could easily find out about clinics and drop in advice sessions available to them. We developed a Drupal based website for the service – and explored how online advertising and widgets could help raise awareness of the Sex Sense service.

Creative consultation
Finding out what young people wanted to know about the Sex Sense service was a top priority when we started development – but because of the nature of the service – getting a group of service users together for a workshop wasn’t going to work. So, instead we designed an accessible visual worksheet that Sex Sense staff could ask young people at drop-in sessions to take a look at, or which they could use to have informal discussions with small groups of young people.

The responses we got helped set priorities for the site’s development. A map of clinic locations, and details of bus-times were felt to be particularly important – so we included both Google Maps and Transport Direct’s route planner into the site.

Web strategy, not just websites

Consultation Kit used by Sex Sense Staff (download full PDF version)

We were clear from the start that Sex Sense needed a web strategy, not just a website. Information about the service is found on a variety of other websites, and we knew that to raise awareness of the service amongst young people we couldn’t just rely on them searching for ‘Sex Sense Portsmouth’ or typing in the web address. So, we looked broader than just website creation and we have been working on:

• Making sure the site is search engine optimised to a variety of key words that young people may search on;

• Providing Sex Sense with information on how to use tools like Google Alerts and advanced search strings to find out who else is featuring information about their service – so they ensure correct details are given on other websites;

• Providing guidance on how to encourage other relevant sites to link to information on the Sex Sense site;

• Providing RSS feeds of key information from the site such as clinic and drop-in session times, and basic information about the service – so that other sites can use these, rather than copying data;

• Making use of online advertising to target information to a geographically specific area;

We’ve encountered some challenges with using social media sites to target online advertising for a sexual health service at under 13 – 19 year olds, but are continuing to explore and evaluate effective online advertising for the service.

A bit more background
We first started thinking about the need for web or content strategies at BarCampUKGovWeb08 and you can read a few reflections on that here.

Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council Website

The Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council (CYEC) supports youth-led reciprocal exchanges between the UK and Commonwealth Countries – as well as co-organising a wide range of global youth work and Commonwealth youth projects. We recently developed a Drupal based website for CYEC, and will be creating a resource pack to support exchange groups and CYEC projects to promote their own work online using free and low cost social media tools.

Youth-led design process
CYEC are committed to youth-led ways of working – so it was only natural that our development of the CYEC website should take place in partnership with CYEC’s Youth Action Group – young people and young-adults who are getting involved in the governance of the organisation. We ran a series of 1/2 day design sessions with the Youth Action Group to identify the right structure and content for the site – and used a content-jam approach to rapidly and collaboratively write most of the copy for the site.

For the visual design of the site we turned to Joff Williams of Think Pigment – providing a spec based upon the ideas of the Youth Action Group, and consulting with the Youth Action Group on the draft design as it developed.

Flexible project spaces
Over 30 CYEC exchanges take place each year – and CYEC wanted to be able to provide each exchange with space on their website. However, we recognised that not every exchange would want to add content directly to the CYEC site, so developed flexible project spaces for the site which can either be added to directly, or which can pull in content automatically from an exchange group’s own Blog or online photo gallery.

Not only does bringing together information on exchanges on the CYEC site help showcase the projects that CYEC supports, but it also creates a library of information linked to exchange themes and countries, which future exchange groups can look over when planning their exchanges.

The project spaces on the CYEC site can also be used to provide information and interactive features around the global youth work projects, and Commonwealth Youth Fora which CYEC supports.

A social media youth exchange toolkit
The next phase of getting CYEC online involves creating a social media toolkit to be given to each exchange group funded by CYEC. The toolkit will include details of how exchange groups can use social media tools to raise awareness of their exchanges and the issues that they explore.

Visit the CYEC Website

Hear by Right is a standards tool which supports organisations in mapping and planning for improved youth participation.

Tim developed the first Hear by Right website in 2003, and since then we have continued to maintain, update and develop the content management system behind the site – as well as providing regular training and support for the Participation Team at The National Youth Agency who maintain the content.

The Hear by Right website is recognised as a leading resource for youth participation in the UK.

Sharing the learning from strategic planning
At the heart of Hear by Right is a mapping and planning matrix, provided as a word document for users of Hear by Right to fill in. We took this matrix, and provided tools to convert each mapping and planning entry into a unique entry in the Hear by Right content management system.

By encouraging the many local authorities, government departments, public bodies and third sector organisations using Hear by Right to share their completed mapping and planning matrices, this makes it possible to explore any of the standards and indicators in Hear by Right, and to see what other organisations are doing or are planning in order to meet that indicator.

A library of shared resources
Alongside shared entries from the mapping and planning matrices, the site includes space for share resources linked to organisational sectors and to standards and indicators from Hear by Right. So, instead of just looking at an indicator about including youth participation as a core part of staff job descriptions, users of Hear by Right can download a selection of example job descriptions shared by other Hear by Right users, or they can access relevant briefing papers prepared by Hear by Right partners.

Supporting local networks
Every organisation taking part in a Hear by Right training session is invited to fill in a contact card which will allow them to be added to a local network map – supporting practitioners to find others geographically nearby who they can work with to develop their youth participation and to share their learning.

In the future we hope to add more social features to the Hear by Right site to connect practitioners to each other more directly in online communities.

From strategy on a shelf, to shared learning
Standards should be about change – not form filling. That was always a core value of Hear by Right, and so developing the Hear by Right website was an ideal opportunity to explore how standards can act as a taxonomy for online shared learning.

The role of online tools in bringing strategy to life is a theme we are keen to explore further.

Visit the Hear by Right Website