D5.2: Intermediate Evaluation

This Intermediate Evaluation Deliverable reports on the progress to date of the Pilot partners use of the STEP platform in carrying out eParticipation activities with young people across the various European regions involved in the project. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods have been utilised to evaluate the platform with the end users, including surveys and interviews. This approach has been effective in highlighting both the positive and negative aspects of the platform itself and how it is being used.
Early results from both young people and Policy Makers are evaluating the platform positively for most aspects, including effectively having their voice heard by the relevant person, attractiveness of the platform, help/support. Aspects such as the platform being able to get other Young People (YP) interested in important environmental issues and seeing the ideas from other YP were also rated well. Ease of use was mostly positive, but some aspects such as young people knowing how to make a post for the first time could be improved upon. Interviews with end users gave us some useful insights about their use of the platform and any issues that they had encountered. These findings are discussed in more detail in the results section. Recommendations for improvement are also proposed in Chapter 3. Intended audience is primarily the people involved in the project but this deliverable may be of interest to
others carrying out eParticipation activities as it highlights some if the issues that may be encountered and suggests actions for resolution.