Despite a decrease in teenage pregnancy across England, UK – Manchester is still classified as the 4^th highest city with under 18 contraception rate, escalating the rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). Locally, Brook Manchester is successful in attracting young people but was missing an opportunity to translate their efficiency without having an evaluation tool-kit to enable professionals to inform national policy, show good practise and ensure that they serve young people’s needs.

Another major outcome of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project was to embed digital strategies in Brook Manchester’s daily activities in order to engage their clients through a variety of communication channels.

What is a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)?

The knowledge transfer scheme was established in 1975 and ever since, it has been a possibility between academics, recently graduated individuals and an organisation to work on a joint project. This way, the academics apply research into a real world project; the graduate gains valuable work experience and guidance from experienced mentors, along with the prospect to undertake personal development; and the business, which has the opportunity to increase their competitiveness, productivity and performance through a joint project.

A Business IT graduate from University of Salford, with a wide experience in system development and marketing I joined Brook Manchester as a knowledge transfer partnerships associate. Brook is a sexual health organisation which offers free and confidential advice and contraception to young people.

Throughout the KTP journey at Brook Manchester, I was guided by my supervisors, Ben Light, Professor of Digital Media, School of Media, University of Salford; Paula Ormandy, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Salford, a health service researcher with wide expertise in service evaluation, and Stephanie Malls, Director of Brook Manchester and recently Interim Executive Director of Quality at Brook.

KTP journey at Brook Manchester

During the 2 years of the KTP project between the University of Salford and Brook, I successfully liaised with sexual health professionals and the academics to deliver the outcomes set as part of the project. I have undertaken a company audit to understand the needs, researched into best practises in sexual health and health in general and converted my findings into framework strategies.

One of the many tasks delivered was to create an application to enable youth workers to deliver education in the busy areas of Manchester. The application was nominated for a national award, and to prove its success it was further picked up by Manchester Evening News and we were Invited to BBC radio to talk about the  Knowledge Transfer Partnership Project, the application and its benefits.

The application http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW8FD1uEduA:

Now, the Knowledge Transfer Partnership project has been moved to a national level and I am the process of developing and trialing with young people a moderated forum and chatroom with enhanced evaluation opportunities. During the project we aim to analyse daily online activities and the data to establish a total cost of running a forum and the chat room, technical and clinical issues, confidentiality, etc. If this is successful – then the project will become part of Brook services.

KTP – Brook –  SOCIAL MEDIA  and digital technologies

When I have started the KTP project, I personally thought that through some of the social media mediums, especially Facebook and Hi5, the organisation would be able social engagement. During the research undertaken, I’ve learned that those mediums are not always suitable.

Young people are on social networking websites for fun and a push from health organisations is seen as invading their privacy and their fun time. However, research shows that up to the age of 16, young people use more than 6 devices simultaneously and we have explored this information further.

We’ve created video applications, including the condom demo and evaluated them during the trial period. The data gathered shows that young people prefer the condom video as it is more private, less embarrassing, and clearer.

The key lesson from our project is that knowing your audience, analysing their needs and engage them through their ideal channel are key factors in achieving the objectives wanted.

Have you tried to engage your audiences in Social Media and did you manage to get the level of engagement you wanted?