Over the past few months from February to April, I had the privilege of coordinating a 3-part workshop series on Advocacy and Campaigning for our network of child helplines.
Aimed at serving the needs of our members, this training aimed to equip child helpline staff with essential skills and knowledge on how to:
- Create creative narrative and issue framing and consider essential ingredients for a successful campaign.
- Identify the most influential target audiences (through stakeholder mapping and power analysis) as well as the best-suited advocacy and campaigning approaches.
- Create compelling campaigning products and calls to action.
Held online, this 3-part workshop series brought together dedicated professionals from various regions.
The training was led by expert speaker Bina Emanvel, Advocacy Lead at Child Helpline International.
Background
This workshop series serves as an exclusive resource brought to our member child helplines as part of Child Helpline International’s Learning Strategy. This Strategy serves to further enhance and support quality of services provided by child helplines, and also contribute to our network’s strength, coherence and positioning by improving the use of existing knowledge and enabling the co-creation of new knowledge. With this structured approach to learning, we aim to strengthen collaboration and create a more interconnected community of child helplines, ultimately leading to an elevated quality of services, which can enhance the impact and effectiveness of our network collectively.
Highlights
Learning Style
This interactive workshop included several hands-on and knowledge exchange activities designed to reinforce the theory behind advocacy and campaigning, and how to put it together in an implementation plan.
One notable activity was learning about our members’ approaches to advocacy, for example the formats they use (such as cinema screenings) and the opportunities they make use of (such as national holidays). We also analysed the roles and power that certain stakeholders had in different contexts, and also the creative ways you could influence them, for example via tailored conferences. Finally, the group discussed different ways in which they measure impact of their campaigns, some looking at changes in contact data.
These exercises were instrumental in fostering culture of exchange between members and helped us to consider some new techniques to put in practice.
Attendees
The attendees were the heart of this training. In total, we were joined by 79 individuals, representing child helplines from various regions.
Concluding Thoughts
Coordinating this workshop series was an immensely fulfilling experience as a kick-off to our learning activities for our members. I am grateful to Bina, our expert speaker, and the dedicated participants for making this training a success.
For any child helpline staff considering this training, you can find the materials on our eLearning platform.
Laura Holliday
Learning Coordinator
