Social Sense attracted over 150 visitors from throughout the UK to their recent national roadshows, where engaging positively and measurably with young people was top of the agenda.

Delegates from local authorities, schools, public health groups and many more joined the team at venues in Manchester, Newcastle, London and Birmingham. Social Sense presented and discussed the work which they have been doing over the last 5 years, and the exciting and engaging future projects which are on the horizon.
Key themes included delivering ‘more for less’ by harnessing technology and proven social theories with the knowledge, enthusiasm and support young people can bring to leading projects within schools and the wider community.

The roadshows covered the topics below:

• How Social Sense’s approach directly fits with the new 2014-17 Public Health England Strategy and recommendations for improving the health and lifestyles of young people

• How it delivers a range of Ofsted objectives for schools looking to evidence improvements/enhancements in PSHE, behaviour, achievement and attainment

• The new Mindfulness programme being delivered in schools

• Future plans, including our new “Social Return on Investment” independent evaluation work

• The new #ctzn app’ currently being tested prior to roll out

In Manchester, Happy Fit spoke about the effectiveness of ‘Mindfulness’ while in London, the charity 4Children spoke about the need to better join up youth services to maintain the focus on the young person. In Newcastle, Northumbria University shared their experiences and evidence of using the Social Norms approach in the North East.

Ruth Holtrom from the Co-operative College said “I am really impressed with the innovative and creative ideas behind Social Sense and the ‘R U Different?’ project. We need more schemes like this to effectively engage young people in the digital age. Furthermore, at these events I felt that Social Sense had a genuine enthusiasm for partnership and collaboration, which is very important”.

Gary Lovatt, Managing Director at Social Sense said: “The events offered us an invaluable opportunity to reflect on our work and receive feedback from like minded individuals and organisations across the UK, who share our passion for delivering better outcomes for young people.

Our aim is to continually innovate and create new opportunities for positive and measurable change, and we do place a great deal of value on working with partners, and of course young people directly”

If you would like more information about the work that Social Sense are doing, please visit www.rudifferent.co.uk, call 0161 2145216 or email [email protected].