Week 6 assignment: content for CREO web site

I will be creating online content for CREO, a Salvadoran NGO whose objective is to help young adults get involved in country issues and in leading the country’s development.

The Audience

CREO’s audience includes Salvadorans ages 18 to 35 who make up the generation that will be leading the country in the near future.  CREO seeks to channel this group’s creativity, energy, leadership and capacity towards working for a better El Salvador.

People in this age group were very young or hadn’t been born during El Salvador’s Civil War.  Therefore, the only experience they have as active citizens is living within a stable political system.  Today El Salvador faces the possibility of a new period of political turmoil.  However, this new generation, because they didn’t go through the experience of the past, are apathetic about confronting the threats or at best don’t know what to do to confront them.  Most young Salvadorans continue to focus on the individual lives and prefer to avoid the local news rather than face reality.

Ideally, CREO would like to reach the entire 18 to 35 year old population in the country through its Web Site.  However, a more attainable objective, at least in the short run, is to focus on two segments of this population:

• those who would like to do something for their country, but don’t know where to start; and
• those that don’t really know what is going on nor what needs to be done, but who would get involved if they were made aware.

Both of these groups love their country and share the values that CREO defends.  Most of them are either young professionals or students, their socioeconomic status varies but they all have access to the internet, and most of them live in the greater San Salvador area.

Style and Design

Seeking to attract youth, the current CREO web site uses bright colors over a black backgroups, and a simple, yet “hip” style.  Considering that some of the users don’t have quality access to the internet, the developers try to avoid heavy graphics.  The site has been created for young people who want to get involved or at least have the potential to do so and therefore it attempts to give them space to interact.   This same style will be used in all subsequent sections, paying particular attention to making sure graphics are not too heavy and providing space for users to participate.  All the new content to be created will follow the AP Stylebook Guidelines (in a subsequent stage, an effort will be made to revise and/or adapt the existing content to such guidelines). 

Online Content

As has been stated, CREO seeks to involve youth in country issues.  In order to do so, the organization needs to educate them, provide them with the necessary tools, and motivate them. 

Currently the Site includes tools to educate its users about country issues, as well as spaces for them to participate and learn about ways in which they can get involved.  However, the organization as a whole and particularly the website needs to improve its efforts to motivate its audience to get involved.

With that in mind, I intend to develop a section which features CREO members who have gotten involved and made a difference.  Initially, those featured will be identified by CREO, however, the idea is that in the future users identify and nominate their peers.  In order to make being featured desirable, CREO will organize an annual award ceremony for involved youth which will be selected through online voting.

Featured profiles of involved youth could include:

• their background information, 
• a description of how they have been involved in country issues and what they have achieved, 
• what their plans are for the future, 
• their motivation to do what they do,
• pictures of their activities,
• links to their organization or blog, 
• a video,
• contact information, and 
• other multimedia elements  

The information will be obtained through an interview of the person.
Each profile will have space for visitor comments, as well as an application to send messages directly to the featured person.  Additionally, the section will use the web site’s existing social media tools to attract readers.

This section will help visitors learn from and be motivated by the example of other.  Those already involved in country issues will be motivated by the possibility of obtaining the award and will continue or increase their efforts.  Finally, visitors to the section will get the chance to contact the featured person to offer them help and thus get involved themselves.  The section to be created is based on the theories that we learn by example and that motivation is key to accomplish good results. 

In the future, as the section grows, there are additional elements that could be added:

• Separate sections for categories of the different types of involvement (ex. social work, politics, education policy, environment);
• An explanation of what the awards are, how they are chosen, prices, etc;
• A space to feature annual award recipients; and
• Direct access to places where youth can go to get involved in country issues.

The section will appear as a menu option on the Home Page.  That link will lead to a main Featured Profiles page which will have the list of names each with a three to five word description of the area in which they are involved.  Each name will be a link to another page that contains the full profile.  The main Featured Profiles page will also have links to the additional elements mentioned above, as well as to a page in which readers can nominate their peers.