Teenagers from the Connexions’ Young Peoples Committee have transformed window displays of four local Boots pharmacies on the Island as part of a challenge to make them ‘young people friendly’.

The groups were set the challenge to design their own window displays at Boots in Ryde, Ventnor, Newport and Shanklin which communicates the messages around Chlamydia in a clear and informative way and promotes the services and support available at the pharmacies.

Pharmacies across the Island now offer free and confidential Chlamydia Screening for people aged 24 years and under, with many offering free treatment.

Joanne Howe, Chlamydia Screening Project Worker for the Island’s NHS said: :

“The idea to transform the displays came from young people involved in a recent mystery shopper event. The feedback was that some of the displays in pharmacy shop windows were not ‘young people friendly’ so we decided to set the young people of Connexions the challenge of making the displays more interesting and accessible to young people.”

The winning window was Boots in Shanklin which was created by a team of 3 girls – Nat, Becca and Chloe.

Tina Parsonage, Deputy Manager at Boots, Shanklin said:

“We are very surprised and pleased to have won the best display, thanks to the girls from Connexions.  A lot of interest has been shown by the old and the young which is great and it really has broken down some barriers in getting young people to discuss issues such as Chlamydia which they may have not wanted to discuss in the past.”

The Majortones, winners of Battle of the Bands, were tasked with judging the competitors efforts and presented the winning team with much sought after tickets to this year’s Bestival. The winners will also have their display on show for a period of 4 weeks.

Commenting on the success of the project, Kevin Noble, NHS Isle of Wight Community Pharmacy Lead said:

The Community Pharmacies are really pleased to be working with the Chlamydia Screening Public Health Team. This has been an excellent example of partnership working and has helped to raise awareness of the many services available from local pharmacies on the Island.”