Projects

New strategic MEaP website 2026

Apr 18, 2026 | Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Sharing Projects, Projects

Before the new MEaP website 2016: Initial Web Presence from 2013 to 2016

The MEaP (Making Education a Priority) consortium was founded in 2013 as a consortium of Greater Manchester Supplementary Schools including HIghway Hope Supplementary School, Highway Hope Enterprising, Nurturing Foundations Supplementary School and G.I.F.T. Academy supplementary school. From 2013 until around 2016, MEaP focused on changing the BME social exclusion through supplementary education and other after-school provisions. This operational focus required a low-maintenance, low- to no-cost digital presence. The consortium found such a solution in the free at wordpress.com. The https://meapsite.wordpress.com and https://critracemmu.wordpress.com/ (for MEaP’s research branch, MaCTRI – this now redirects to an equally branded MaCTRI site) websites were born.

The need for a new, real website c. 2016-2018

The wordpress website was free but had other costs: brand, professionalism, structure, control. A strategic review highlighted the need for a new website, a significant shift towards establishing its online presence and “virtual community education hub”:

To solidify MEaP brand identity: being on wordpress.com dilutes the professionalism of the brand. wordpress.com is a blog marketplace and all sites under it appear to be just that. MEaP needed to reclaim its place as a CIC organisation with a domain name that reflects this
To regain control of the brand narrative and the way that it was expressed from layout to web application and structure
To showcase itself as what it then was, a consortium of supplementary schools

The strategy behind the new MEaP website 2026

Since then, MEaP has undergone a significant growth that has revealed that its educational focus stretchs beyond supplementary education. Following multiple MEaP Board meetings and the draft and approval of several digital strategy actions, a new MEaP website was developed, as aligned with the strategic direction recommendations.

As referenced in the summarised MEaP Strategic Plan (June 2025) and the 3E Web Media Report (May 2025), the enhancement of MEaP’s digital presence is a critical component to:

Strengthen brand consistency across the consortium
Improve visibility of MEaP’s projects, partnerships, and impact
Enhance engagement with stakeholders, funders, and the wider community
Support the implementation of centralised knowledge-sharing and impact measurement

The new strategic MEaP website 2026 has a more strategic structure

One of the primordial requirements was to have the structure aligned to MEaP’s 10 strategic focus areas although for clarity these were reorganised into a manageable 5. Another requirement was to highlight and integrate the impact reporting and make MEaP projects visible to showcase the stories that MEaP creates, but also as evidence of the data provided in the impact report. The data is also a pathway to introduce data visualisation aligned to MEaP’s KPIs once approved. Another aspect of the strategic structure is the centralised data capture with form functionalities that allow cross-referencing.

Our audience is also central in the new website. They are immediately invited to look at their own page where all that we offer is tailored to them: a young people’s page, a partner page and a community and adults page including parents and guardians. There is also a space dedicated to partners and member organisation profiles and links so that they may access relevant information.

Showcasing our impact on the new strategic MEaP website 2026

Showcasing our impact is fundamental in making sure that our story and legacy is shared with our audience, from funders to community young people and adults.

The impact includes 4 main achievements in each of our focus areas, from the 30+ countries from which the audience we serve comes from to the 1000+ computing devices that we have distributed, the impact page showcase the tremendous amount of work that Making Education a Priority (MEaP) takes every single day. It also showcase the success of the MEaP model which by spanning focus areas allows each of them to contribute positively to the other.

We are thankful to all who made the new strategic MEaP website 2026 possible

The board of directors for confirming the new strategic direction, providing early feedback on the website mockup and sharing organisational data. It is also the previous work from Dr Ornette D Clennon from the board that made it possible to source some of the data.
Our interns and volunteers along the years for reviewing the previous website and providing extensive constructive criticism: Aimee and Lyba (2024), Janna and Ella (2025), Olusegun (2026), Jiaying S, Kaiqi W, Dillon R, Chengwei Y, and Yan T (2026).
Our 2025 apprentices Reeba and Jonathan for their review and suggestions, especially Reeba’s assistance with the Youth page!
The professional advice from our partners including Youth Foundations Future communication adviser and the needs highlighted by our projects, project funders and project participants.
Mr Henry Ngawoofah and Christina N from MEaP for sourcing additional content and for the additional thorough review and suggestions
Manuella Essaka of 3E Web Media for the website development, structure, and integration, content creation and revision, data consolidation, validation and visualisation.

Editor’s notes

As part of this same strategy, the MEaP Twilight Academy website has now moved to its own website to separate two different strands. On the one hand, the MEaP website is the strategic digital hub that provides all adults and young people in the community with support through our 10 focus areas. On the other hand, there is the specifically online supplementary school MEaP Twilight Academy that serves students and their parents: students receive academic support A-levels and GCSEs support and parents are informed and included in the positive transformation that affords a holistic support and academic success to their child. The research branch of MEaP also has its own website which is currently being revamped.