Co-creation sessions to shape ambitious new strategic services

by The Mix Staff

Monday 7th October 2013

As part of the ‘supporting young people through mobile technology’ research, we ran co-creations sessions with young people and youth/technology experts were used to shape ambitious new strategic services for YouthNet to develop. This stage was divided into five steps.

What we did

Three co-creation sessions were used to shape ambitious new strategic services for YouthNet to develop. Young people were integral to this process.

Co-creation workshop with young people

• Young people were recruited in pairs through an independent recruitment agency.
• A total of 14 16- to 25-year-olds got involved.
• All participants were from the London area because there were no significant regional differences when it comes to seeking help through mobile technology.
• All participants were selected based on their level of confidence and creativity with digital technology and used a Smartphone to access the internet. Their understanding of how technology works helped push new ideas forward.
• At the end of the session, 14 broad and innovative nubs of ideas were created.

YouthNet’s consolidation 

• YouthNet refined and prioritised the ideas based on its expertise in working with young people in an online environment.
• After this consolidation phase, 13 ideas were selected; six of which were new ideas based on the needs that emerged from the co-creation session.

Development workshop with experts

• Experts in working with young people and technology from YouthNet’s network were invited to the session.
• At the end of the session, eight ideas were refined.

Evaluation and refining workshop with young people

• Young people from London were recruited in pairs through an independent recruitment agency.
• A total of 12 16- to 25-year-olds were involved.
• At the end of the session, five of the eight ideas were refined and developed further.

Who we did this with

Young people and experts in youth work and mobile technology were involved in the co-creation session.

Table 4: Experts involved