Victim Support

The Challenge

Victim Support is the independent charity for victims and witnesses of crime in England and Wales. It offers support to over 1.5 million victims every year. Following a rebrand and restructure from a federation of regional organisations to a single national charity, Victim Support wanted:

• A single website that maintained a regional relevance.
• A unified look and feel.
• To make its website a main channel for helping those affected by crime.

Lots of victims and witnesses never actually report a crime. Victim Support wanted to use its website to reach out to these people. Making information on the site easy to access for users, and for content editors to create and edit, would be key to achieving this.

Victim Support also wanted to use the website to increase awareness of the organisation among volunteers and potential donors.

The Solution

Following a consultant-led analysis to find the best CMS solution, Victim Support decided to use Sitecore Content Management System (CMS).

Paul Fawcett, Head of Marketing and Communications at Victim Support, says, “We compared a number of potential partners, but liked Eduserv because of their Sitecore knowledge, public sector track record, but in particular, that Eduserv is a not-for-profit organisation which fitted with our ethos as an organisation and gave us a sense of synergy.”

The project was run on a tight deadline. We were commissioned in June and the new website went live in September. We worked closely with Victim Support to develop the basic website and then created a series of page and content templates that make it quick and easy for them to publish information. Other features included an online donation facility and a map search to help improve access to regional services.

The new site includes content migrated  from its regional offices to bring together all of the organisation’s services. We also host the Victim Support website and provide fully managed support services.

We’re now working with Victim Support on the next phase of development, with plans to provide greater interactivity, such as comment and discussion and mobile optimisation. An important new feature we’re developing is a self-service function, which people can use to access information and advice – helping to support those who don’t want to report a crime.

"Around 97 per cent of the people we help are referred to us by the police and we contact everyone via phone to provide support. Our new website, developed by Eduserv, is another option for people to learn about and access our services. It has allowed us to present many more facets to the organisation such as volunteering and fund raising,” says Fawcett.

Get in touch

We'd love to help with your next digital project. Call 01225 474300 or email us for an informal discussion.