FRIDAY 5 FEB 2016 3:58 PM

COMMUNICATING FOR KIDS

Launching a meaningful, heartfelt and galvanising campaign is, for a charity, an integral way to ensure a message is communicated to its widest possible audience. This is particularly true when the campaign in question involves raising awareness of child abuse.

Creating a campaign with the central aim of lobbying the British government, specifically health secretary Jeremy Hunt MP, to improve provision of support services for abused children, is no mean feat.

This is what children’s charity the NSPCC, aided and supported by political public affairs agency Portland Communications, has set out to do.

Buoyed by the the central aim of generating better funding and therapeutic support for victims of child abuse, the NSPCC has launched a new campaign video to highlight the dangers posed to victims of child abuse if adequate support is not offered quickly enough.

With a record number of children experiencing abuse, it is vital that relevant, striking yet informative campaigns are developed to ensure knowledge of the issue spreads.

While Portland Communications are behind the implementation of the campaign video, NSPCC stakeholders at different levels have participated to ensure that the message portrayed is as authentic as possible. Victims of abuse who had to wait a lengthy amount of time for therapy also contributed ideas and feelings to the campaign. Named A Force For Change, their ideas are the main content inspiration for both the diary and video which make up the campaign.

'It’s Time…’, the final campaign, focuses on the alternative paths an abused child takes depending on whether they have been offered sufficient support.

Tessa Herbert, NSPCC head of marketing and campaigns, says, “Abuse can destroy childhood– but with the right support children can be helped to overcome the trauma of their abuse and rebuild their lives. The chronic lack of therapeutic support to help children who have been abused is a key concern for NSPCC and we will continue to campaign on this issue until there is real and lasting change.”