Advice for other youth civic engagement website developers

August 10th, 2009 at 12:21pm admin Permalink

The following points of advice come from our experience in developing, marketing, and extending the Puget Sound Off youth engagement web site. We hope some of it will be helpful for others seeking to develop youth civic sites of their own.

• Think carefully about the aesthetic lay-out of your site, and consult youth in its design
• Take care to align the goals of different partners in the project
• Ensure technology expertise on your core partner team
• Be aware of the legal/policy tension between developing an open engagement system and making more conservative decisions based on safety concerns for youth
• Take care to ensure staff continuity
• Define the roles of different core partners carefully and keep them in mind as the project develops
• Plan your site design carefully; bring on a developer in the beginning
• Create curricula for both teachers and youth
• Technology access in schools and local organizations may be an issue
• Be patient regarding barriers partner organizations face to collaborating or quickly incorporating your site into their activities
• Be aware that youth organizations and schools may be slow to adapt their existing conceptions of citizenship
• Carefully structure and provide support for good project management
• Emphasize the planning and development phase of your project
• Provide more design funding than we did
• Establish a consistent for of technology for project management and team communications
• Engage diverse communities and local partners
• Bring on people with expertise in writing for education for curriculum development
• Focus on issues that matter in your community on your site
• Leverage local media to promote your site
• Plan events and conferences
• Seek research funding to support your project
• Develop your project collaboratively between organizations
• Invest in diverse content during the development phase of the project
• Involve youth and experts in the site design phase
• Be patient
• Define your niche and goals carefully
• Engage community volunteers
• Carefully estimate costs
• Approach youth engagement creatively
• Approach local funders and corporations
• Have a strong marketing plan

Entry Filed under: PSO website development, practitioners and scholars