What we’re looking for
You should be considering the following when you submit your idea:
What’s the problem you’re going to solve?
- We’re looking for ideas that make a positive impact on the pattern of youth offending and re-offending. Your idea can be either a specific solution to a problem or simply identify a need in a particular area. You might be inspired by personal experience or you might simply have spotted an opportunity to do something differently.
- Your idea must tackle a problem in a new way. It could involve coming up with a brand new idea, combining existing things in a new way or finding new ways of making existing solutions work better. The new thing about your idea might not be technically complex: it’s more likely to involve re-organising a process or getting something done in a different way.
- Take a look at the idea examples we’ve suggested here for some inspiration.
Simple web and mobile-based tools
- Web or mobile software must have a significant and central use in the implementation of your idea. Take a look at our about page to find out more about why we think this technology could impact on the pattern of youth offending.
- Remember to think about how the people who will use your service gain access to mobile phones or the web. We’re looking for ideas that have the potential to use technology in an innovative way, but they should also be practical and bear the users in mind. We’re interested in designing tools for ordinary people to use, not just creating something cool for the sake of it. We want to extend the benefits of technology to reach new audiences: we’re interested in cheap, simple, effective, easy-to-use tools.
Potential future impact
- We’re looking for ideas which will have significant potential to scale or be easily replicated. Think about how your idea might make impact in future, how might you grow it into a larger project, or alternatively how other people take it up and run it themselves?
For example:
- We’re looking for ideas which might:
1. Help a pre-existing not-for-profit or governmental organisation.
2. Become a company, charity, community interest company or other business in its own right.
You don’t have to have all the answers to these questions now – we’re looking for potential at this stage and will help you work this bit out if you’re unsure.
- We want to be sure that we have the time and resources needed to be of use to you. Take a look at how the weekend will work – is the Jailbrake event the right place for your idea? We think the most successful ideas won’t be so big they’re just too complex to even scratch the surface in a weekend – you’re not going to solve everything in 48 hours!
Development
- We’re looking for very early stage ideas: the kernel of something interesting. Jailbrake is about refining and testing an idea: not scaling up or replicating an existing project.
- However, if successful, we want you to show that you are committed to taking your idea on after the Jailbrake weekend. It might be that you’re part of a Youth Offending Team who could trial something or the organisation you work for is entering an idea it has the potential capacity to take forward. We’re pretty flexible on how you want to take an idea on, but we’re really looking for projects we can help develop beyond the Jailbrake weekend, so make sure you’ve got some ideas about how that might happen. And we’re on hand to help figure this out if you’re not quite sure.
Who should get involved
- We’re looking for people who have a real motivation to make a positive change to young lives. Whether you’re part of a youth offending team, involved with healthcare or schooling, a community police officer or a member of a local community, we want your help to find the best ideas for new ways of slowing down and stopping the cycle of youth offending.
