SCTV launches a more accessible website (February 5, 2008)

The district’s own website for young people www.sctv.org.uk has just reinvented itself in a deliberate move to make sure that more young people can visit their site and keep up to date with what matters to them in Suffolk Coastal.

Suffolk Coastal Teen Voices (SCTV) last year launched its website but the young people behind it quickly realised that they were accidentally excluding many of their target audience.

“We originally designed our site with FlashPlayer, a software programme which allowed us to have lots of nice-looking graphics and animations but which we quickly discovered was not compatible with everyone’s computers. So we have linked up with onesuffolk and now relaunched our site,” said Alex Stewart of SCTV.

“We now have a site which looks better than ever and which is more accessible than before. SCTV is all about getting better access to services for young people and giving them a say in how services are provided, so we felt a bit hypocritical to have a website that young people at schools, youth clubs or at home were unable to use.

“SCTV would like to give its thanks to Kerry and her team from onesuffolk who designed the website – it now looks great. The next task is to get all the information that we think young people will want and find useful onto the site.

“Because we feel SCTV’s website should be about the community working with us, and not just about promoting SCTV, we are giving youth groups, organisations, schools and councils the chance to send us their news, information and events to promote on our site.

“We really want to make the site a hub for the community, a place where young people can see what’s happening in their area and a place where youth-related organisations can promote their information to their target audience for free. Just email enquiries@sctv.org.uk ,” added Alex.

SCTV is the first districtwide forum for young people and aims to promote the reputation of young people in Suffolk Coastal and raise awareness of their needs for local services.

The formation of the group has been assisted by the district’s youth co-ordinator, who is funded by the Suffolk Coastal Local Strategic Partnership (LSP).

“Congratulations are due once again to SCTV for identifying a potential problem and so quickly putting it right. Their new site looks even better than the old one and I am sure will attract even more young people who want to find out information and get involved in SCTV,” said Cllr Doreen Savage of the Suffolk Coastal LSP.

The new site went live at 4pm on Friday, and the group will be adding more information over the coming days and weeks to keep the site up to date. Anyone wanting to contact SCTV can email enquiries@sctv.org.uk

SCTV is just the latest of nearly 200 community websites by local groups, voluntary organisations and parish councils that has been helped start up by onesuffolk

The websites are free to non-profit making organisations and onesuffolk provide a free bespoke design service for larger organisations. onesuffolk is a partnership of the district, borough and county councils in Suffolk along with the Police.