Recommended Blog by Lisa Cropp

This blog meets the needs of our audience in a number of ways. First, the blog talks about how it is committed to supporting real positive change in the lives of individuals and families with support needs, including accessing education, exploring potential employment opportunities, developing a social active life, and developing relationships.  The blog also talks about how C-change will work with you, regardless of age and personal circumstances.  Second, this blog offers help in specific areas, such as, employment opportunities, developing an active social life, accessing education, and managing financial matters.  This blog also helps young adults maintain health and well being.  Third, there are success stories/testimonials from people who have turned to this blog for help.  Fourth, C-change designs programs around the needs and outcomes of the people they work for, with the person/people they work for being in charge of their own lives.  In other words, C-change is constantly listening and learning from the people they work for in order to find the resources that will help them get the life they want.  I like how C-change organizes planning days at least once a year and a follow up session no more than six months later to ensure things (the person’s goals and aspirations) are on track.  Planning days encourage all people who know and care about a person to come together to share ideas about what they would like to do in the year ahead.  Another way the blog meets the needs of our audience is by sharing news (upcoming and past events) and different views from various people involved in the organization.  The blog offers website links for children and young people, dating, mental health, families, and addiction.  You see, the blog is targeting challenges (employment, education, social life, financial matters) that young people face when transitioning into adulthood.

The blog stresses how C-change offers guidance, assistance, and support, but most importantly, C-change points people in the right direction in order to help people find their place in society.  Research agrees that offering advice when needed and supporting the decisions of young people is more effective than telling young people what and how to do things.  C-change expresses thier views on entering the work force as a young adult, which is, it’s not just about finding a job, it’s about finding yourself in the right type of job.  Thus, young people need to sell themselves by showing employers their qualities, strengths, and capacities that define who you are in order to land the job which is suitable for you.

The quality of application in the blog posts were excellent in that they explained, in detail, how C-change helps people and what C-change does.  The blog also highlighted important points in bold lettering.  All the blog web links, history, progressive stories, newsletters, and the C-change approach were directly related and appropriate for the blog topic (transitioning to adulthood).  The quality of writing was very good and the language used in the blog was understandable and flowed together nicely.  I found very few grammatical errors and the words were used in a way that really enhanced what the C-change program is all about.  I liked how the writers made the site user-friendly by adding videos of real people’s success stories and using various drawings to illustrate the main points of the blog.  For me, the best part of the blog was that the writer’s were speaking to their audience, not at them.  I would definitely recommend this blog because of its easy navigation, resources, and useful information.   

http://www.c-change.org.uk/

Pickhardt, C PhD.  Boomerang Kids.  Sourcebooks, Inc:  Illinois.  c2011.