Promoting mediation to young people

1
Promoting mediation to young people their
families

• Ingrid Fitzsimons
• Youth Unit, SCSH.

2

• Stage 1 the brief
• Create a leaflet for a new homeless mediation
  service
• Promote to both young people families
• One month time scale

3

• Stage 2 research
• Key features of mediation materials
• A relaxed/welcoming tone
• A clear explanation of what was on offer
• Positive yet realistic images neither too
  glossy nor too grim

4

• Stage 3 development
• Text
• Set the right tone
• Clearly identify service
• Who is it aimed at?
• What is mediation?
• How does mediation/the service work?
• How it can help/what it is and what it is not

5

• Stage 3 development
• Text
• Quotes from different perspectives
• Diagram to show the different stages of mediation
• Contact information clearly displayed

6

• Stage 3 development
• Images format
• Version 1 had
• wee faces drawn on
• post-its to represent
• a range of emotions
• in a 2-fold format

7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9

• Stage 3 development
• Images format
• Version 2 had
• photographic
• images from
• istockphoto.com and
• was produced in a
• 3-fold format

10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12

• Stage 3 development
• Consultation
• Short timescale limited consultation
• Response from workers and young people
• Had recently worked with parents on parents guide
  so felt our judgement was reasonably well-informed

13

• Stage 3 development
• Response from workers
• Happy with tone and most of the text preferred
  the quotes rather than stories and were keen to
  highlight that this was a homelessness mediation
  service
• They disliked the green headline font on Version
  2 not allowed to use green, blue, red and/or
  white
• Preferred 3-fold format
• Preferred images of faces on post-its

14

• Stage 3 development
• Response from young people
• Liked the relaxed tone and felt it was easy to
  understand what the service offered and how it
  worked
• Liked the quotes felt they should be in
  different handwriting fonts as they were quotes
  from different people
• Preferred the 3-fold version

15

• Stage 3 development
• Response from young people
• Nobody commented on the colour of the fonts
• Nobody liked the post-it notes images. They felt
  the smiley faces were patronising
• They really liked the photos some thought the
  young guy was cute

16

• Stage 3 development
• Young peoples thoughts on the service
• All felt that the mediation service could be
  useful and could possibly reduce the amount of
  young people becoming homeless due to early
  intervention
• One young woman felt there would need to be
  follow-on support from the mediation due to
  issues raised either counselling or support
  package

17

• Stage 3 development
• Young peoples thoughts on the service
• They commented that both parties would need to
  want to resolve the issues or it wouldnt work
• Two young people wished that they could have had
  this service in their countries as it could have
  stopped or reduced their families breaking up
• All of the young people said they would like to
  see this service set up for homeless young people
  and would be interested in finding out more.

18

• Stage 4 the result
• A combination of ideas
• Took the young peoples ideas on photographic
  images
• Combined it with workers ideas on the text
• Changed the font from green to hot pink
• Challenged GHP on font colour (and they decided
  it would probably be OK) and promoted young
  peoples strong opinions on the images (which
  they accepted)

19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21

• Things to think about
• What is it that you want to happen (outcome) from
  this? e.g. that people know and understand about
  the service
• Clarify your audience are they homogenous or
  made up of distinct groups? Do they need things
  expressed in different ways? Would different
  images appeal?

22

• Things to think about
• What are the barriers? e.g. what might appeal to
  parents and families might not appeal to young
  people are people put off if they think the
  service is run by the council if they think it
  is trying to steer them towards one outcome or if
  they worry that involvement in mediation will go
  against young people when they apply for housing
• There might be trade-offs to be made - it might
  not please everybody

23

• Ideas for development
• Where will your leaflets/posters be distributed?
• Keep track of how many leaflets are taken in each
  distribution outlet
• Ask service users where they heard about the
  service
• Promotion to workers e.g. regular information
  sessions or promotional events
• Continue to develop the promotion of your service

24

• Its not the end
• The end product is always different from the
  original idea
• But its not the endwe will need to keep
  refreshing the mediation leaflet
• Continue to involve service users
• Evaluate if the promotional materials are working