Six Jailbraking ideas

We had an amazing 50 ideas submitted to Jailbrake in just six weeks – and it’s been a tough job narrowing them down to just a handful that we think have the potential to become real projects.

So the six ideas that we’d like to help build at the Jailbrake weekend 26th-28th March 2010 are:

MyPA

An automated reminder service using text messages to help young people keep track of order restrictions, meetings, appointments and other commitments. MyPA would help a young person manage their time with YOTs or other people supporting them and could offer tailored ‘nudges’ (for example reminders of appointments the night before) and also more detailed advice (perhaps public transport information). For young people with chaotic lives, it could help them manage their time, commitments and relationships with supporting services.

We loved MyPA because, whilst text messages are used in some areas already to help remind young people of appointments and commitments, this idea could create a white-label tool that could be customised by young people and those who support them to suit lots of different situations and localities.

Phone a friend

A mobile-based system for providing peer-to-peer crisis support for vulnerable young people who want help getting out of situations where they feel they might caught up in criminal behaviour and don’t feel they have anyone else they can talk to. The service will be staffed by young people who have a history of contact with the criminal justice system.

Phone a friend caught our eye because peer-to-peer solutions are really effective. But it’s also a kind of panic button focused on the moment of crisis.

Lost and Found

A mobile text system to connect young people to services and support. Users are asked “What have you lost?” and can respond with pre-set answers covering different issues e.g. “I’ve lost my head” (mental health) and “I’ve lost my job” (employment & training). Users input part of their postcode and get a customised Google-map of all the relevant services around them with information on opening hours, contact details and so forth.

Lost and Found is a neat – and different – solution to the problem of connecting support services to young people. We also thought the idea that users could post feedback and rate services was an interesting one. It’s a little bit like 118 118 tailored to meet the needs of a particular group of services and service users.

Common Ground

This is an idea to provide a safe secure space online for offenders and victims of crime to engage in dialogue in a restorative fashion. These discussions would also give the perspective of both parties to the wider public, transforming their perceptions of young people in trouble with the law. The web-based system would aid existing restorative justice processes or all cases where the victim and the offender want to have a channel of communication. For instance, case workers in YOTs would encourage both parties to write to a page about the reasons for the violation, their experience of it, what they could do to amend, as well as their own backgrounds and life stories. The participants can choose to make their stories available, under appropriate levels of anonymity, to the broader public.

Service Signposter

Finding accommodation for ex-offenders is particularly challenging. Service Signposter is a tool to help young ex-offenders find a place to live by better matching up housing providers with those supporting a young person through a web-based platform. We’re thinking Service Signposter could do for accommodation what the Princes Trust’s brilliant Gate Mate project is doing for mentoring. It could be a place for housing providers to post details of availability and suitability of accommodation and for the people supporting an ex-offender to look up a suitable place for them to stay. There could even be a way for young people to rate the accommodation and provide feedback.

FLIP

An application that helps ex-offenders identify and communicate their talents and skills beyond those gained from formal qualifications, creating an online profile or CV that enables them to access a pool of job opportunities. The interface is designed using familiar social network language such as “create a profile”, “applications” and “quiz” to engage the user. The system takes this information and translates it into a list of skills and abilities in a language that can be used to write a personal profile (compatible with traditional careers planning). We’re excited to see how FLIP can also bring potential employers to the table and create a tool that really matches up young people with potential opportunities.

So what happens next?

Well Jailbrake is all about matching great ideas with the people they need to grow. Now we’ve got our six back-of-the-envelope ideas brimming with potential, we’re looking for people who are interested in helping make them a reality who we can invite along to the Jailbrake weekend to help make them happen.

You can read more about how the weekend works here.

If you think you’ve got the talent, skills, experience or know-how to help us build one of these ideas, get in touch and let us know how you’d like to get involved.

Posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.