Research Findings
About the organization
The organization I’m doing is The Samaritans of Singapore (SOS). It first began in 1953 in the United Kingdom by Reverend Chad Varah. He first launched a “999 for the suicidal” which help many people in difficulty. Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) was established on 1 December 1969. It is set up to provide emotional support to those who are in need and feeling stress.
Below is the statistics of the suicide rates throughout the years in Singapore.
Mission and Value
SOS has a 24-hour support by trained volunteers to provide those who are feeling suicidal a listening ear. And it’s mission is to be an available lifeline to anyone in crisis.
Current situation
1) Web Presence is bad, I feel the current SOS’s website is a little complicating. The layout and navigations are over-designed. This might be a little too complex especially for people who are in much stress and depressed. On top of that, people who not very good in computers will not be able to know how to navigate as well. And since SOS is targeted to these people, I feel the website should be kept simple like the Samaritan UK’s.
Below is the screen-cap of the Samaritans of Singapore(SOS) website.
2) SOS is in need for volunteers instead of donations. Therefore, by applying the use of social media, SOS can increase its awareness to the public.
3) The websites is more targeted to volunteers instead of those who are suffering. And it has not much informations or recent updates in the website as well.
Solution/Proposal
1) Create a user-friendly, less complicating and simple website.
2) Apply the use of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MircoSite(Blog).
This is the statistics of the social media websites ranked by visits.
With Facebook ranking the first, SOS can create a group in Facebook to update people about the organization. I feel this will help to create a greater influence on the community. Additionally, some could share their past experiences with others in MicroSites and be updated of the coming events. As for YouTube, SOS can upload videos about them to increase more public and social awareness.
3) Other proposals includes, organizing of campaigns and hold talks to attract volunteers. Put up advertisement on internet, radio and television. And have posters pasted up at the bus stop billboards.
In conclusion, social media is an effective tool in helping one to create awareness among the public and community as most of the population these days are using the internet. And internet has become part of our daily lives.
Refrences:
SOS (http://www.samaritans.org.sg/index1.html)
Suicide Rates (http://www.singstat.gov.sg/pubn/papers/people/ssnsep02-pg21-22.pdf)
