Our First Focus Group

Earlier today, Connect <> Lockleaze held it’s first focus group.

We believe it is vital to the success of the project that the community be able to influence how the three IT centres are used: the type of activities and courses run, how much hand-holding is required, opening hours etc.

North Bristol Advice Centre (NBAC) kindly organised a meeting at the Langley Centre this afternoon. Sadly, the turnout was lower than we would have liked however we did receive excellent feedback.

None of the participants had heard of Connect <> Lockleaze so, despite our sessions being fully utilised, we still need to make more of the community aware of the wonderful resources they have around Gainsborough Square!

A few other things we learned were:

• 33% did not own a computer but knew you could access them at a library.
• 33% had never used a computer before but were interested in learning.
• 100% expressed a desire to access our computers either alone or with informal assistance only – not structured courses.

We will be taking these and their other comments on board as we design our next set of sessions.

As well as ideas for Connect <> Lockleaze, the participants were keen to sing the praises of NBAC’s dedicated advice workers and the huge difference advice service made to their lives.

We plan to hold more Focus Group sessions throughout the year so if you would like to come along (just a couple of hours) to make your voice heard, please contact Katherine Tanko at North Bristol Advice Centre on 0117 951 5751.