Building an authentic campaign

Learning from lived experience to develop an authentic and accessible campaign

This campaign would not be the campaign it is without the working project group of Experts by Lived Experience (EbLEs). This group is made up of members of Barnwood Circle, Barnwood Trust’s membership scheme. This is a network of people who inform and guide Barnwood Trust’s work to influence and make change in Gloucestershire. This group of EbLEs supported the design of the campaign, including identifying key themes and messages for the campaign, such as flexible working, employer attitudes, and Access to Work. They have also been heavily involved in crafting the social media posts and website; informing so much of the language and reviewing the accessibility.

Hannah Bradley is Marketing and Communications Manager for Barnwood Trust. In this blog Hannah talks about the part that the group of Barnwood Circle EbLEs have played in the development of the Empowered Employers campaign.

“The involvement of this project group has been crucial since the start. They were involved at the early stages when the name was devised and identity of the campaign was designed, and helped develop the way the website and social media looks. My team was responsible for the website build. We wanted to create a site that everyone involved was proud of, that accurately reflected the work, and that people felt proud of sharing.

It was very important to us that the accessibility of the website was at the highest possible level.  During the website build, we presented the site at different stages to the working group. We sought their opinions on aspects such as colour contrast, font type and size. We made sure that the pages were formatted correctly for screen readers and all images had descriptions added using alt text. In addition to this we wanted their involvement in the messaging on the website so all of the copy for the site was carefully created, tested and checked.

Whilst we were confident that we had carefully considered all aspects of accessibility of the site that were in our control, we also added an accessibility tool bar from Recite Me. This is a fantastic resource which means that visitors to the website can customise the web page in a way that suits them. This additional support is vital to visitors to our website who have a sensory impairment, neurodiverse condition, or have English as a second language as it means that all of our content is more accessible.

Another aspect of the campaign to date that I have worked closely with the EbLE working group is the early social media messaging. The quotes below show how some of the group are involved in the campaign as well as their motivations for being part of the group. They also express in a powerful way what their experiences of employment has been and their hopes for the future of the campaign.

I believe that the involvement of this working group is what gives the Empowered Employers campaign is uniqueness and authenticity. The impact that these Experts by Lived Experience have had on the campaign should never be underestimated.”

Click here the find out more about all of the Experts by Lived Experience project group and their hopes for the campaign. 

Hannah Bradley