App Club with Leys CDI (Community Development Initiative)

Leys CDI App Club

The Project

This project brings together young people and youth workers at Leys Community Development Initiative (Leys CDI) with researchers from the University of Oxford Department of Computer Science.

Together young people and researchers are developing an app to help Leys CDI connect with young people. 

The project offers young people and researchers a chance to work alongside each other and learn from each other.  The young people involved are developing their skills and experience in app design and creation along with greater awareness of career paths and opportunities in this field.

The new co-created app will help provide Leys CDI with a quick, effective and secure method for keeping in touch that young people themselves are most likely to use. Young people and their parents and carers will be kept up to date about activities and opportunities and Leys CDI will be better able to evaluate how young people are getting involved, to share with funders for example. 

The mission of the club is to transfer step-by-step app development skills and knowledge to club participants over a six-week period. The objectives are for the young people to learn about the life cycle of app development, understand the diverse skills involved in the app development, and develop team collaboration skills.

The Partners

Leys Community Development Initiative

Leys CDI was founded to develop and co-ordinate projects of long term benefit to the Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys estates in Oxford. We run youth-led social and educational activities for young people aged 9 to 18. This project is well established, and its success lies in its community roots. 

Why is Leys CDI needed? Blackbird Leys ranks amongst the 20% most deprived areas within England, and also amongst the 10% most deprived in terms of Education, Skills, and Training. Young people experience many barriers and issues and left unsupported face an increased risk of loneliness and mental health problems, are more likely to display high risk negative behaviour, have a lack of access to training, volunteering opportunities and skills development resulting in higher risk of unemployment.

University of Oxford – Computer Science Department

The Human Centred Computing theme at the University of Oxford conducts research to examine the impacts that contemporary computing systems have on individuals, communities and societies, and to identify ways that these innovations can be ethical and better support human flourishing.  We use a range of research methods and our findings promote various forms of positive impact, such as: fostering responsibility in the design, building, implementation and evaluation of new forms of computer systems; education and engagement; and frameworks
for policy and governance. Our work is committed to the support of human autonomy and wellbeing, the promotion of human values, and the protection the natural environment.

Researchers from the HCC are excited about this opportunity of working together with Leys CDI and their young people to create a digital artefact of their needs. We hope this will be a productive journey for exploring how to support the learning of app programming of young people and how young people perceive the role of these contemporary computing technologies in their everyday life.