A meeting place for young Changemakers

Service design that builds social entrepreneurship

Those who engage as children are more inclined to continue doing that into adulthood. This is one of the reasons why Ashoka and Raoul Wallenberg Academy (RWA) want to encourage youths who are driven to make the world a better place. Together they organise networking meetings and have started a boot camp to educate and support young people.

Ashoka and RWA employed Antrop to find a way to reach even more young people. Together with the customer, we created workshops for a clear impact target and detailed target groups. The two organisations agreed that the new service would help to increase the youth's interest and knowledge of social entrepreneurship and inspire them to start their own initiatives 

Ashoka and Raoul Wallenberg Academy's collaboration with Antrop can be summed up strategically, aesthetically and empathically. Through an innovative and supportive process that gave many valuable and important insights, the foundation for our continued work was created to give young change makers the knowledge and inspiration needed to realize their ideas. We look forward to spreading social entrepreneurship through Changemakers Yard!

Johanna Westien and Emma Lindgren, Project Manager Raoul Wallenberg Academy, Deputy Managing Director, Ashoka Scandinavia

But how do we reach the youths then?

The project was quick to identify two main challenges in the project. A non-profit organisation with many amazing ideas does not always have the time and money to implement everything you're passionate about. Also, the question of where to find these young people between 16-21 years - what digital context do they want and with what language do we reach them?

After 22 hours of deep interviews with young people, teachers and established entrepreneurs, some clear customer insights emerged that highlighted how the digital service was designed. For example:

• You need to know yourself to help others.
• Facebook first. Contrary to what many people think, young people use social media like Facebook, as a network and tool, for events and sharing videos.
• Honest Stories - A story must be genuine and touching.

110% frictionless design

The result was The Yard, a focal point for young changemakers who want to meet others and engage. Both name, structure and design were tested iteratively and adjusted during the project.

It was clear that the service requires a completely frictionless design - the target audience does not want to click too much. The graphic form rests on the words honest, courageous and social. It is evident in the handwritten illustrations, a brave copy and pictures and films that engage.

The Yard is largely based on user-generated videos from other change makers. It's their own stories that are told, it's the genuine and honest story that concerns, and they are shared through social media.

Youth's own language

The rest of the content is also entirely influenced by the young people's presence. It is a place for - and for a large part of - the young, and with a language they feel comfortable with. Integrated with their own stories, there are resources, links, and social media feeds that inspire to see and learn more.

Already this summer, the youths participating in the boot camp will start creating video content to the Facebook network launching this fall. The desktop and mobile platform will be developed in parallel and launched in the beginning of 2018.