50 Ways to Active Citizenship

mistong

Hi Everyone

I am involved in the Junior Chamber International (JCI) http://www.jci-ireland.org We are a voluntary organisation for young people in there 20's and 30's who are looking to be leaders and active citizens.

The focus of the organisation is learning through doing and this usually involves running projects and events. One of the most recent projects that we are running is the 50 Ways to Active Citizenship.

We launched the website http://www.fifty-ways.com where we are looking for people to go to the website and pledge to do one of 50 Simple things that can help make them an active citizen and also help our communities.

I was wondering if anyone on here is interested in going to the site and pledging to do one of the 50 Ways? Also if you have any suggestions on how we can get the word out I would be delighted to hear from you

Cheers
Mark

spaceylou

Hi, just wondering about the website - if your target group is for people in their 20s and 30s (which I fit into perfectly at 28) why does the website look like it was designed with 13 year olds in mind?

I don't mean to be critical without a purpose but as someone who is in your target group from what I understood in your initial post, and is actually looking for volunteer oppertunities at the moment, and just generally would like to be an 'active' citizen I was really turned off the website.

In the past I have volunteered as a youth leader (group aged 10 - 16) and I would certainly have considered using it as a resource for the teenagers but not as a resource for myself, if that makes sense.

spaceylou

oh and ps - in the civic section you suggest to join garda reserves/civil defence/st johns ambulance........order of malta is another great organisation that would fit into this catagory

mistong

Hay cheers for the feedback The Fifty Ways is a project that is being run by the Voluntary organisation Junior Chamber international (JCI) Ireland. The JCI is a world wide group in 115 countries that is giving people in there 20s and 30s an opportunity to develop in 4 Main areas of opportunity.

Business: members get experience at this is by organising business type projects Networking Events and the JCI Dublin friendly business awards are two examples http://friendlybusinessawards.com

Community: The Active Citizenship week and the Fifty-Ways projects are examples in this area.

International: Being an international organisation the members get the opportunity to attend events run by other JCI Branches all around the world and in Ireland. I am off to Tunisia next week to our world convention and I am really looking forward to meeting up with my JCI friends I have met over the years.

Training: This area is one where we do public speaking, debating, guest speakers and leadership academies, train the trainers and all the branches in Ireland run training events throughout the year depending on what there members want.

You can get some more info at the following places

http://www.jci-ireland.org
http://www.jcidublin.com
http://www.jci.cc

Also I will get the Order of Malta up on the list as we are always looking for new ways to get people being Active Citizens

Enii

Anyone find "Active Alfie" to be the most childish and patronising character "who lives in the Internet"?

spaceylou

yeah kinda the point I was trying to make up above - he'd be great for a site aimed at 12 year olds.....but judging by what has been said here and the stuff suggested on the site (like voting) their target audience is somewhat older......:rolleyes:

CamillaRhodes

Hi Mark,

I like the idea of encouraging more active citizenship, but I'm sorry to say I gotta agree with the others. That website simply is not appropriate for the age group you're targeting. In fact, I think it's generous to suggest 13 year olds would look at it with anything other than scathing cynicism. You need to ditch the Alfie character and take your target audience a little more seriously.

Perhaps a more constructive criticism (?) I would suggest making the site a little more interactive. If one of the '50 ways' is to join a certain organisation, that suggestion should provide a link to the organisation, etc. You might also consider (if it's not too technically difficult - I'm not a techie so don't have a clue) allowing people to sign up to the site and then actively pledging to undertake one of the 50 ways, so that other users can see how many people have signed up to do what.

Finally, you really need to clean up the formatting of the text on the site, it shouldn't be difficult for your website designer but is really necessary, it looks quite a mess.

Overall opinion - nice idea, but you're not ready to launch yet. Sort out the website and you might be going somewhere. Sorry if this is all a bit too negative!

HudsuckerProxy

Hey - Yeah, I think everyone is taking the criticism a bit far. As I see it Active Alfie is a sort of mascot character like the leopard for the 2010 world cup - 'zakumi'.
It has a kids feel but I don't feel offended by his presence in the same way that I don't mind the mascot appearing in the corner of the screen during intervals in the football games.
Above all I think the content on the site is very good and I really like the suggestion that you could pledge to undertake one of the 50 ways, maybe post pictures or advice for others or links to other sites to encourage others to participate.
Overall - well done!

mistong

Hi Everyone

Thanks for the help in pointing the project in the correct direction. It is a work in progress and something we are looking to improve on all the time.

Will look into perhaps using the site for primary schools or taking the 4 big pictures of Alfie down from the front page and putting a more discreet logo that is more relaxed.

Thanks Again
Mark