Yesterday was the kick-off event for the research- and practice-oriented seminar “Communicating Self-Help in Thuringia.” The seminar is led by Christina Schumann and Sophia Schaller in cooperation with the Thuringian State Contact Center for Self-Help (LAKOST).
In the seminar, students are working on a socially highly relevant issue: Through a focus group discussion, they are exploring how young adults can best be reached through communication to make them aware of self-help services and motivate them to use these services. The goal is to derive recommendations for a communication strategy that LAKOST can use for its planned campaign on the topic.
These were two highlights of the kickoff event:
- Visit by two representatives of the State Contact Office (Katrin Wieacker and Melanie Seznec-Schmidt) to Ilmenau & insights into their project on targeted communication regarding self-help
- World Café with three discussion rounds, in which the students themselves discussed three questions:
- What are young adults’ perceptions of self-help?
- What advantages and disadvantages do young adults see in self-help; what prevents them from taking advantage of self-help services, and what would help break down barriers?
- What messages would motivate young adults to participate in a self-help program, and through which channels should these messages be disseminated?
We wish the students in the seminar every success with their research project and are truly looking forward to the results they will present to LAKOST this summer!
