Sparks

FROM THE AGE OF 11 MANY YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE NO LEISURE ACTIVITIES. WE HELP THEM FIND SOMETHING THEY’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT.

The founder of Sparks App carried out two years of research to find out why many young people had no leisure activities. Alexandra Krook reached the conclusion that their needs were not being matched by how clubs and various leisure activities currently work. Now she has launched a solution together with the young people themselves.

Alexandra Krook, CEO and founder of Sparks Generation, tell us a bit about yourself and why the Sparks App is needed.

It started when I saw some research showing how important meaningful leisure activities are for young people’s development. They are highly significant for a sense of community and meaning, and are an important piece of the puzzle in young people’s mental health.

But the older children and young people get, the more they drop their leisure activities. The group that somehow ends up socially excluded just gets bigger and bigger, from the age of 11 upwards. At the same time, reports by anti-bullying organisation Friends show that young people feel isolated at school.

This takes place in parallel with digital and social media becoming incredibly important at this age – so imagine if we could use these channels to get more people to find leisure activities that give them enjoyment and a feeling of community with others.

The solution is an app, then?

No, the solution is not just an app. It’s a bit more complex than that. We’ve carried out a lot of work to understand why so many drop their leisure activities, or never start any. I spent more than two years researching to understand why people didn’t have any activities and I wanted to get the young people to develop a solution to the problem themselves. In total, more than a hundred young people took part in focus groups, interviews and workshops in Flen, Södertälje and Danderyd to answer questions such as ‘Why don’t you have any leisure activities?’, ‘What should we do about that?’ and ‘What would get you to start doing pottery, or to want to try volleyball or something like that?’ Together with the young people, we developed a model. First and foremost, they said that we needed to go on digital and social media – because that’s where they find inspiration and discover things. That’s their world: Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok. And Twitch, which many guys – gamers – use. That’s where you can sow the seed: ‘Oh, you can do pottery. That looks cool!’. But then perhaps their self-esteem or self-confidence crumbles and they think ‘I wouldn’t dare do that’. That’s why they suggested we make how-to videos. They want to know what clay is, where it comes from, how sticky they will get, and so on. We also realised that there has to be a shared function. Then it’s easier to get a friend on board.

Once the research and the model were complete, I presented the results to the Erling-Persson Foundation. I told them I wanted to build a non-profit organisation that uses digital social media to get young people to find out about and try out a range of activities. That’s when we got our first donation, which was what made it possible to form Sparks Generation and start a smallscale test.

So first you got a donation for testing out Sparks Generation and whether the basic idea was viable?

Yes. In phase one we were joined by the Swedish Volleyball Federation, World Archery Sweden and a few others. And it worked: the young people watched our YouTube videos, for instance. Then they went and signed up to our very simple website. About 1,000 continued all the way to trying out activities, at more than 20 locations around Sweden. And that led to many of them asking about more activities to try out.

Alexandra Krook, CEO and founder of Sparks Generation.

It became very clear that their needs are not being matched by how clubs and various leisure activities currently work. Up till now, nearly all of them have run try-it-out sessions at the same time. There was an enormous range of activities to try out for one week in August, but then nothing. If you look at how consumer products are now marketed, it’s based more and more on ‘campaigning every day’. They’ve learnt to display what they have to offer the whole time.

In the same way, young people need to find out everything that’s happening right now. They have fairly short planning horizons.

We realised we needed to find out more, so we formulated a new project to carry out a new round of research and develop the method and the platform further. We made a further application and the funding was awarded.

Are you working with young people in this phase too?

We had just over 20 young people involved throughout our development work. They were able to influence everything, from the design and text to the structure and functionality. The service is quite like Snapchat and Instagram. Users might not actually know what they’re looking for – instead they want to browse around and see what’s on offer. A broad, relevant offering is incredibly important for making the service feel attractive. That’s why we need to make it extremely easy for clubs, youth centres, libraries, and music and arts schools to add on everything they have to offer. Thanks to the donation from the Erling-Persson Foundation we were able to engage PwC Experience Center, which specialises in this kind of design and development.

Has the Sparks App already launched?

Yes, we have a pilot up and running in Upplands Bro municipality. It was launched in mid-October and it’s marketed by local young people of upper secondary school age. They go into the schools and tell young people about it in their way: “Hi, find something you’re passionate about! Whatever you think is important. It might be theatre or maths, or space, or whatever. You can find everything that’s going on where you live right here.”

Are there any results you can tell us about?

In the secondary schools we visited, 40 percent of the young people sign up to an account straight away. 30 percent of them have already tried out some kind of activity. The service is growing all the time. More young people try something new and more of them try out more than one activity. The next phase is to take it out to other municipalities. We’ll be ready to do that very soon.

You’ve already mentioned how important it is for the individual that they have meaningful leisure activities. What’s the potential significance of that at an overall societal level?

There are very clear effects at an individual level and at local level. Perhaps also even higher up, at a system level.

At an individual level, research shows that young people who get into meaningful leisure activities have a greater sense of enjoyment, motivation and purpose. They have a more positive attitude to the future and get better grades. They are more likely to stay away from drugs and alcohol. So already there we can contribute to young people getting on the right track.

There are also effects at a municipal level. Firstly, young people feel more included in society. They notice that there are things on offer and that there are people making an effort to help them find something. The activities offered are wide-ranging. It’s not just sport – there’s also art, culture, nature, coding and so on. Now we’re also looking into the possibility of adding work experience in various jobs. We don’t judge and we don’t say one thing is better than something else. There’s room for all interests here, so it’s a very inclusive service in that sense.

At a system level we also have an influence. By getting the young people to complete our Sparks survey, we can map their interests. We call it the Sparks Chart: it shows what the young people in the municipality are passionate about and what they want to try out. The Sparks Chart can be used to adapt the range of leisure activities on offer to match demand.

The head of leisure and cultural services in Upplands Bro said something like: “How many young people sign up to become club members through the Sparks app isn’t the most important thing. The important thing is that young people try things out and at the same time do something inspiring and fun, right here and now.” I agree. If we can get more young people doing something other than parking themselves in front of a screen as soon as school is out, or perhaps hanging around town not doing anything at all, and instead go and try out, say, producing music – then that’s good for everyone. It’s good for the young people, it’s good for various places around town and it’s good for society in general. It has an effect at all levels.

Does the app only have activities to try out or can people register for things like short courses as well?

We’ve started with try-it-out sessions. But now lots of organisations want to offer free courses – so that people can book four pottery sessions at an art school, for example. Right now we’re in the process of developing this functionality.

But since we’re aimed directly at young people between the ages of 10 and 16, it won’t be possible to buy anything via us. If those that have tried something want to join the club, it’s up to the leaders of that club to provide information on times, costs etc. that is aimed at the young people’s parents and guardians.

Having got off the ground thanks to donations, will Sparks then be able to finance itself?

In the longer term Sparks has to be able to keep going without any grants or donations. Although we’re a non-profit organisation, we need to have a sustainable business model and be able to finance ourselves. It’s free for any club to come on board, but the municipality pays a licensing fee to use the app and a cost for ambassadors. So they pay for the visits our Sparks ambassadors make to the schools.

The goal is to have at least 15 municipalities in the app within three years. Then we’ll be able to stand on our own two feet. In the longer term, I can envisage Sparks being developed in three different dimensions. We’ll move up the age groups and provide an offering for those at upper secondary level. And also to adults – we want to find new interests too. As adults, we may even be prepared to pay for it. Then we’ll have a business model in which adult Sparks users help finance the free offering for young people – a kind of intergenerational sponsorship. I also hope to be able to include young people with differing abilities, so that Sparks can help match their needs. It’s largely a matter of bringing in a wider offering. The technical side can always be solved.

But shouldn’t the municipalities take responsibility for this themselves – making sure that young people find the activities that are available?

That’s a good point, but I’m not sure that it’s efficient for each municipality to have its own digital marketing department that develops apps. Some have actually tried to do that type of thing, but people have always underestimated how important the marketing is and that technical development has to take place all the time. My idea is that instead of each municipality developing its own app, they can use us instead. Then they don’t have to do the development work or invest in the technology. If they work with us, the costs can be shared between everyone who comes on board. The more municipalities that join us, the cheaper it will be.

How come you are putting so much commitment into Sparks, a non-profit organisation?

I realised how important it is to have meaningful leisure activities. And digitalisation can make the ‘leisure activities sector’ much more effective.

Do you remember how it felt when you found out that the Sparks App had been awarded the donation?

It was 9.50 in the morning on 5 March 2020. I was sitting on a train down to Skåne, on my way to a meeting with the City of Malmö. The train was packed – strict corona rules hadn’t been brought in yet – and I got an email from the Foundation saying they had awarded us a grant. I quickly wrote back and said ‘I’m sitting on a train, but if I wasn’t I’d be jumping up and down in the corridor whooping!’ That’s how it felt – it was awesome. And incredibly important.

43%

The percentage of all 13-year-old girls in Sweden that spend more than three hours a day on their mobiles.

61–84%

Influencers have a young audience: 61 percent of 9- to 12-year-olds and 84 percent of 13- to 16-year-olds follow channels on YouTube. They are used to spontaneous inspiration and switch focus quickly.

9–12

A 2014 survey asked young people in Stockholm between the ages of 13 and 19 how many leisure activities they would like to have if they could choose. The response of 9–12 a week suggests that many would engage in a leisure activity if only they could find one that suited them.

ABOUT THE PROJECT Recipient: Sparks Generation – a non-profit organisation that uses to digital channels to help youth activity providers reach out and young people find activities.

Title: ‘Sparks App’ – a project aimed at helping young people spend their leisure time meaningfully.

What it involves: sparksapp.se is a free app that lets young people see what activities are on offer and sign up straight away to try out activities locally. Activities are presented in an inspiring and easily accessible way. The app is now being tested in a pilot project with Upplands Bro municipality.

Funding: The Erling-Persson Foundation is supporting the project with SEK 4 million over three years.