Discussions with a client yesterday led to an interesting debate about how they find it harder to engage with all members of the community because a lot of young people don’t engage due to the impact of social media. Some older members of the committee mentioned how they feel young people can’t go 5 minutes without tapping away on their mobile phone but when they try to talk to young people either in person or ironically on a phone communication is difficult.
The Online Community Centre
Many community centres are benefitting from having a presence on social media such as Facebook to engage and communicate with young people. While technology is available to everyone it is younger people who seem to embrace it a lot quicker e.g. it won’t be long before they only spend money using their phone while older generations still won’t trust the banks to keep their money!
Communities have changed, and people have changed how they behave and communicate with others meaning community centres can’t rely on everyone coming through the door to an event held in the centre. One solution is holding a virtual event online whether it is about healthy eating, mental health or a jobs fair it is critical that community centres acknowledge that they can engage with more people in the community by embracing IT and being innovative in their approach to engagement.
Having an accessible website for all devices that clearly shows the services offered is very important so that people can see very quickly what might be of interest to them. Keeping it populated with up to date information helps sell the services that are available and encourage people to engage.
Making good use of Social Media is good because it is on a platform that people use for other reasons so unlike a website social media can be used to engage and provide people with information that leads them to a website or better still to call into a community centre.
Due to the nature of community centres they are led by the community. To get a true indication of what people in the community want a mixture of methods can be used but how do you engage with those not attending? Online Surveys are one way and there are some good platforms that can be used for free.
If you are feeling adventurous a great way to engage with people online is to build your own app which is more accessible for those users who like to tap away! They are a little bit more difficult to produce but they are getting easier and there are sites available for free that can offer help.
Whatever presence community centres decide to have online their location online will impact on how successful they are as much as their location in the community.
