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Company: Lavender Web Design
Project: Your Life Line

http://www.yourlifeline.org.uk

Dates: Aug 2007 to Mar 2008

How did the project start?

Graeme Smith, Allied Health Professional Lead for Northumberland Tyne & Wear Trust, approached Lavender Web Design to create the 'Your Life Line' website. The students of Thornhill School, Sunderland, had been looking at the issue of mental health and how it can affect young people. From these lessons Graeme has been helping the students to create videos, plays, presentations, and songs about what they have been learning. The 'Your Life Line' website project was launched for two main reasons; to give an on-line presence to this work and to provide a way for young people to engage with these issues, using media they understand. They can join in chat room discussions, ask questions about issues they are dealing with, and read testimonies of people who have had to deal with mental health issues in their life. It is important that we engage with young people about these subjects so that they are encouraged to be open about it, and to realise there are people that they can turn to if they need help. The website also acts as a resource for teachers to be able to discuss mental health issues in their class.
"We are young people who believe young people always need a choice and need listening to, only by feeling listened to, can the stuff in our heads start making some sense. This is Your Life Line"

What options did you consider?

The project required that the Thornhill web team would need the ability to manage the website content. Being actively involved in the maintenance of the website content gives the students a sense of ownership over it, encouraging them to learn about mental health by producing creative material about the subject. Because of the variety of media created from the project (video, audio, etc.), it was necessary to have a comprehensive content management system in place, that could enable the web team to maintain the site themselves. The Content Management System is tailored specifically for the needs of the 'Your Life Line' project.

What help and expertise did you receive?

We worked with Blinc1 designs, who provided some design elements and the rest of the design and development was handled in house. Graeme Smith advised about the structure of the website and how he wanted the information displayed, with the goal of making it appealing to young people.

Did you face any challenges or learn any lessons?

Because the website uses so many different ways to deliver information, it was hard to make the content management process simple. Making the effort to keep the content structure straightforward helped make the site easy to update. Building additional functionality, like the shopping cart and downloadable MP3 files, was quite a challenge, ensuring that the user didn't get lost in the process and could easily access the files that they purchased. This was an additional feature provided to help support the running cost of the site. Regardless of any technical difficulties, the real lesson learned was how to provide a website that young people would want to contribute to. Mental health is an issue that we should discuss, to let people know that they are not alone in their suffering and that there is help available, and this website goes some way to breaking down those barriers.

What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?

The website is still fresh out of the box, only launching in March 2008, so we are excited to see the impact that it is going to have over the next couple of months. The feedback from the students involved with the project is good, and they are very happy with the website and continue to develop content for the 'Your Life Line' project. Happy customers make for a happy business.

What are your plans for the future?

The site will continue to grow and we intend to closely monitor the site traffic to see what content people are accessing, and we will use this information to guide us to move the project forward in the future. The website has the support of Sunderland Football Club, the Northern Echo newspaper, Radio 1, and Comic Relief. We are looking to gain more support from high profile people so we can continue to promote the 'Your Life Line' project and help make a difference in lives of young people.