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For most of us, child abuse is not something that usually dwells in the forefront of our minds.
For the advocates at Gulf Coast Kid’s House, though, child abuse and neglect is a daily reality they must face as they care for its victims. They know firsthand that empowering adults to recognize signs of abuse can mean the difference between life and death for a real child, right around the corner, today.
During last year’s selection process for idgroup’s 2020 Brand on Us™ initiative, Executive Director Stacey Kostevicki and her team at Gulf Coast Kid’s House presented us with jarring statistics about child abuse in Escambia County, Fla. She told us that one out of every ten children in the county suffers some form of abuse, and she wanted to change that by educating 10% of its citizens—a researched-based “tipping point” for large-scale social change.
Alarmed at the numbers and hopeful about affecting change, idgroup and Brand on Us™ partners voted unanimously to award Gulf Coast Kid’s House the 2020 grant.
The GCKH team had already developed a 30-minute, free online training course to help people in the community recognize, report and reduce child abuse. What they needed were lots of eyeballs—and at idgroup, that translates to a High Impact Campaign.
We got to work with our in-house strategists, conducting market research and facilitating internal conversations among the Gulf Coast Kid’s House staff. An organization-wide Dialogue Session with their team (a day of guided introspection and idea-shaping) helped us uncover central themes around child abuse how we could confront it. A clear goal emerged: develop an awareness campaign that would normalize conversations about child abuse, empowering adults with the knowledge and confidence they need to step in when a child is suffering.
Our research told the story of an issue that is wrapped in a range of difficult emotions and levels of understanding; so, we decided to pare the message down to a statement of facts and clear call to action, communicated in a simple, straightforward way.
We chose the name “Know Child Abuse” for the campaign, also using the name as the campaign logo with a bold, handwritten-style emphasis on the “no” inside the word “know”.
idgroup’s lead designer, Somi Choi, said, “I knew that because child abuse is such a heavy topic, I had to make the design approachable. That’s why I landed on bright, splashy visuals that make an impact right away, and are a visual extension of Gulf Coast Kid’s House existing brand, to link the campaign to the organization.”
We worked with our production partners to bring this movement to life on-screen. Local celebrities and adult survivors of child abuse provided powerful testimony in the campaign video, urging locals to “Know Child Abuse”—and take action by signing up for the online training to learn to recognize, report and reduce the mistreatment of children.
A series of print and digital ads complement the video by reinforcing the message and diving deeper into the stories of the real people featured in the video. All media is linked to an educational landing page—knowchildabuse.org—where users can learn more and take the free training course.
We’re living in unique times, especially when it comes to nonprofit giving. According to Jeannie Sager of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, a new kind of generosity emerged in 2020 as people sought to give back to their communities in more imaginative ways. In fact, almost half of charitable giving was noncash indirect giving, like supporting restaurants by ordering takeout and continuing to pay for business services they could not use.
The Know Child Abuse campaign leverages this new wave of imaginative giving by offering an avenue for contribution that is both non-financial and web based. Participation in a free online training course is a perfect opportunity for those looking to make a free but impactful contribution to their community in this financially burdened, increasingly digital age.
We are deeply grateful to the Gulf Coast Kid’s House team for trusting us to communicate their message, and we thank all of our partners, supporters and community members for helping us bring this campaign to the Escambia County community.
Please join us in protecting our children by taking the online training at knowchildabuse.org.
Brand on Us™ 2020 Partners & Contributors
