Market Research...

[webcrone]

I help run personal development courses for teenagers that run for three days and cost around £350. There's a group of us do this and we don't make any money from it - we use a high-quality venue with all meals included, we fly in a workshop leader from the US, we bring in a couple of guys to run a dance and drumming workshop. I've been involved with 5 of these workshops over past few years and they have been a great success - the kids (ranging from 13 - 19) find it transformational and they, and their parents, report great things afterwards about how they feel more confident and self-assured but in a responsible way - they are also more aware that their behaviour impacts on others - and how they find it easier to make good decisions and hold out against peer pressure. We've had kids with eating and emotional disorders who have begun to recover, and others who have turned their academic performance around.

In marketing the course we find that we get parents who really want their kids to attend but their kids refuse, and teenagers who want to attend but whose parents don't see the value in it, and often (but not always) it's the parents who pay.

If you've stuck with me this far, thank you!

My question to you is what would be worth £350 of your money? My own experience isn't very useful as I only got involved after a huge crisis with my own teenage kids, and at the point of crisis I'd have paid anything at all for help because I was truly desperate and had run out of other options.

I don't have teenagers but there would have to be a big crisis before I'd shell out £350 on personal development stuff. However, my sister was a real nightmare adolescent so if this had been around then, I'm sure my mother would have tried it.

sounds like a very good format but I am afraid I could not justify a £350 cost-could you get local authorities to recommend people /teenagers and susbsidise it for the parents ?

by that I mean get the local authority social services to subsidise it for teenagers that might benefit iyswim

Over £300 a day sounds very expensive, but I suppose when you think about the cost of the venue, food, speaker being flown in, other staff, materials etc, then it's pretty cheap.

Having said that, I couldn't justify £350 for three days for one member of the family, when I can get us a week away on a beach holiday for £300 each for seven whole days.

Thanks for the replies.

themoon - it's £350 for the weekend not per day - but I do take your point about being able to buy a weeks holiday for a similar amount.

SNOWBall - yes, we're looking into this and how to get grant funding, commercial sponsorship etc. We'd love to get the cost down and it's the venue that costs most, so we're also looking at other options on that front.

Edam - the crisis I faced was indeed pretty huge and I'd have done anything at the time to get things moving in a different direction (and I do mean ANYTHING!). As it happens I paid for my kids to have one-to-one mentoring over a period of time as the courses didn't run in the UK. I was so impressed with the results (and it was a no result-no fee arrangement) that I went on to train in the process we use, which helps develop really significant life skills.

The course sounds good but £350 for a weekend is to much. Our family of five could go away for the weekend for a lot less than that.

webcrone, can I ask why you fly in a workshop leader from the US, surely there are fantastically qualified people in this field in the UK? And that would help get the cost down.

dolally - the workshop uses a very specific educational process which is not yet particularly well known, and there are very few people trained in it (maybe 15 in total at the moment, worldwide, with a few others close to completing their training). The guy we fly in is very experienced in this process and also in working with groups of teenagers. Being flown in from the US aint that glamourous - economy flight and staying with friends, certainly not a luxury lifestyle!

what is it?

these courses always sound much better than they are..well actually they usually sound like a load of marketing spiel/us twaddle

I can't be convinced that a weekend is going to change a life however it is dressed up

and I wouldn't be happy to be subsidising something which lasts a single weekend for a select few when I saw it in the council accounts

Hi Zippi, you're right to be skeptical. A bit of critical thinking never hurts . Nonetheless the testimony of the kids who've been through the workshop, the vast majority of whom stay in touch, with us and with each other, speaks volumes, as does the feedback we get from their parents.

Does a weekend change lives? Personally, I think a mere moment can change the direction of a life: a chance meeting here, a conversation there, something unexpected cropping up that challenges a long-held world view.

I may pay this amount if I was seriously worried about the behaviour /direction of my 15 yr old dd.But as with the others,we couldn't afford to spend £350 and she probably wouldn't go unless a friend went aswell.

I have 2 teenage boys, I agree with edam that there'd have to be a fairly serious problem for us to shell out £350 for a weekend. Are there any grants available for community type projects like this ?

I think the problem would be convincing me it was the answer, and then convincing my kids to go on it! My ds wants to go on a week long school trip next year - a lot of saving will have to be done - and during his state exams this summer his sister is off school, and she is doing a watersports course she really wants to do. The idea of trying to persuade them to do something - they are pretty good kids too - is daunting.

I personally would pay it if I was really worried about my son. It's not really appropriate to equate it to a family holiday, perhaps better to think of it almost as how much would you pay in private healthcare costs if they had a physical problem? The answer has got to be whatever it costs, within reason.

I personally thingk that is really good value for a 3 day course particularly since all food is included. It is only about £117 a day. If I thought my teenager needed it and I thought they would go I'd definitely pay it.

I personally don't think that one weekend woulkd solver any severe problems, so that alone would put me off, let alone the issue of tryting to persuade teenagers to go to soemthing they didn't want to. If i was having a mojor crisis would prefer to spoend the money on a run of possibly weekly sessions with someone like a psychologist.

i have three teenagers - so to be frank over a thousand pounds - is - wow.

i would get 4 weeks holiday for that for all of us.

i think it much depends on the support you get in your area. we have a drug and alchohol misuse project, local youh projects, of course church, social services, then there are things like parent line. but your local social services would be able to put you in contact with local authority run projects which maybe of some use.

thereas also 'FRANK'

local parenting classes

eating disorders, emotional problems etc are things I would tackle through the health service route with a back up and follow through route with professional medical practitioners

I guess I'm not a motivational speaker/course person..I've never seen anyone who could convince me otherwise

You haven't said what they do in the weekend programme apart from drumming which may be fun but it is pretty readily available

what it doesnt tackle it the parents inability to parent.

its not always the childs fault totally - a lot of teenagers can be twatty by virtue of being teenagers. its how you handle it.

i agree zippi - health stuff throuhg doctor - ask for councelling phyciatric etc via NHS.

The price is comparable to GCSE revision classes which in my area are around £250 per subject for five half days. Fortunately, my DS is amazingly well balanced (despite his parents!)but there are plenty of teenagers who have problems with self esteem who could benefit.

I think you can get drawn into the paying out sums of money in desperation route and it will end up a bottomless pit..ime when push comes to shove then there can be good nhs help

what if you offered something after the seminar that added more value to the package? like build a website where people who attended the course can later talk and chat and have occasional chats with the expert from the conference or something like that?

i would definately spend 350 on something like that. i was a teen with a problem and i wish my parents would have sent me to something like what you are describing.

i can understand comparing it to a family vacation - but if your teen is in trouble, a family vacation may not help him, while building confidence may help over a long period of time.

i know its hard to get funding so in the meantime - how/where do you publicize the course? maybe you should find a way to encourage parents whose kids wont go, or kids whose parents dont see the value, to contact you and you will offer them ways to help persuade the other side? (also something that can be achieved through a website).

what about asking teens who were involved in a course and benefited, to give a webchat about their experience, or be available to answer questions for people who are interested in the future?

what is the special educational method?