17th January 2009, 10:28 AM
If I was looking for a community project to take part in I would be wanting to see the information clearly presented. I would also want to see that there were projects actually happening. There is nothing worse than going to a web page and seeing that the last project happened in 2004.
For some people who are thinking about getting involved but might like a little encouragement the smallest things could put them off. The feel of a website needs to be friendly, approachable and have clear direction. It needs to be easy to navigate and not take you back to the same old negative information like "no volunteer positions available at the moment".
I realise that a lot of this comes down to funding and probably the IT departments at local councils but sometimes it feels that people bandy the word "community" about in order to fulfill a void but offer very little in return.
However, there are some council websites which are very good. I had a look at the Notts one and it was very clear and had the information available for people to actually get invovled. Try going to your local county website and see if you can find the information about how to get invovled. Remember to put yourself in the position of someone who has no prior knowledge and see where this leads you.
For some people who are thinking about getting involved but might like a little encouragement the smallest things could put them off. The feel of a website needs to be friendly, approachable and have clear direction. It needs to be easy to navigate and not take you back to the same old negative information like "no volunteer positions available at the moment".
I realise that a lot of this comes down to funding and probably the IT departments at local councils but sometimes it feels that people bandy the word "community" about in order to fulfill a void but offer very little in return.
However, there are some council websites which are very good. I had a look at the Notts one and it was very clear and had the information available for people to actually get invovled. Try going to your local county website and see if you can find the information about how to get invovled. Remember to put yourself in the position of someone who has no prior knowledge and see where this leads you.