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UPBEET is a project for young adult carers aged 15-30 that is run by Dundee

Carers Centre.  Staff at UPBEET found that all the young adult carers that

they were supporting all use some form of social networking or social media

website. Upon discussion, staff found that they were using these sites to

keep in touch with friends, access information and support, express

themselves and play games.

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Staff at Dundee Carers Centre approached Abertay University to develop a

bespoke social networking platform that can be used to provide one to one

messaging, groups, peer mentoring and training programmes.

 

UPBEET and Abertay staff then ran consultation workshops with young

adult carers and professionals working with them to identify what they liked

about social networking sites, what could be better, and what their ideal site

would have.

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A key piece of learning from these exercises was that social networking websites are governed by very different online safety and data protection policies.  Some commercially available sites (e.g. Facebook) are not appropriate sites to deliver online support work as neither the young adult carer nor the support worker are in direct control of their data, and confidentiality and privacy cannot be assured as settings can be complex and change frequently.

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With this in mind, staff developed a rationale for which sites are to be used and in what way:

 

Centre Website – central hub for all info about our work

YouTube – videos of case studies, info in sign language and promotional videos etc.

Facebook – promotion of services and distribution of information to all people

Justgiving – fundraising activities

Twitter – information and activity directly from Centre Manager

UPBEET Social Networking Site – online alternative to face to face UPBEET services

 

 

“We created a private, bespoke system to retain control of all of the data, rather than using a public system where your information is stored by – and controlled by – someone else”

 

 

Dawn Carmichael, Abertay University

“The site is very different to generic social networking sites as it is run and used by a charity instead of a company.  We make sure that the site mirrors our existing services in accordance with privacy, data protection and confidentiality.  This is something that you do not see with generic social network sites as they are set up in an entirely different way, and we want this site to mirror how we run our support services.” 

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Gary Bell, Dundee Carers Centre

In addition to creating the site alongside young adult carers, staff at UPBEET delivered online safety workshops and master classes on digital literacy and using the new site.

 

The site was launched on the 10th June 2014 and has received positive feedback.  Also, young adult carers are reviewing how the site works for them and have proposed final changes to make the site more intuitive to their needs. 

 

Their feedback will form the next phase of the social media site and this will be developed further in the next 12 months.

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