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The SPOTlight Newsletter Project
Background
This project was both an intervention and evaluation. It was called SPOTlight – Supporting Parents of Teenagers. The aim of the project was to investigate the effectiveness of using newsletters as a form of information and support for parents of teenagers. The project was funded by the Home Office's Family Support Grant, with additional funding from the Carnegie UK Trust. It began in October 1999 and a final report will shortly be available.
What the project involved
There were four newsletters in total, which were in a ‘magazine’ style, designed by a professional designer. The newsletters contained suggestions and tips, a ‘problem page’, various articles, a young people’s page and a list of helpful organisations and websites for parents and young people. The newsletters were written by staff at TSA following consultation with parents and practitioners. The newsletters were theme based, and covered young people’s health; stress and well-being; friends and the peer group; and rules, discipline and communication.
The project involved working with four state secondary schools, which were diverse in terms of geographical location, attainment levels of pupils and socio-economic location. One school was selected specifically because it had a significant proportion of minority ethnic pupils.
A detailed evaluation of the project was undertaken. The research involved face to face interviews with 40 families at three time points, 800 telephone interviews and over 500 self completion questionnaires. The research focused on:
- The extent to which the newsletters were read and used by parents
- How useful parents found them
- Whether they led to increased knowledge and sources of support and/or any changes in the parent/teenager relationship
- Whether there were any differences in usage by key factors such as school, socio- economic status, ethnicity and family type.
The research findings have now been published. A four page summary of the research report is available free and a copy of the full report is available for £7.50 (cost covers copying, postage and packing). For a copy of either of these please contact Debi Roker.
The project and research findings have been disseminated widely at a range of national and international conferences.
Developments from the project
Two significant developments have resulted from this project. First, the Home Office has provided additional funding to make the newsletters available in different formats, in order to make them more accessible. They are now available on audio-tape and in large print. In addition, the four newsletters are now available as a bound pack, available through TSA’s Publications Department.
Second, the Home Office has funded TSA to undertake a new project, which takes forward some of the issues from the Spotlight Newsletter Project. This new project will work with ten community groups, which are working with parents of teenagers with particular needs. TSA will work with these groups to develop their own ‘tailor made’ newsletters. This will include working with minority ethnic organisations, parents of teenagers with disabilities and fathers of teenagers. The project is due to finish in December 2003 (see the Community Newsletters project). If you would like further information about this project please contact Julie Shepherd.
Project Workers
Julie Shepherd, Debi Roker, John Coleman, Helen Richardson were responsible for this project. Hannah Corbett provided administrative support. For more information please contact Julie Shepherd.