Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)

Client: Home Office

Objective
In March 2021, following the horrific murder of Sarah Everard in London, the Home Office’s Call for Evidence into Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) was reopened and a further 160,000 people shared their views, compared to 18,000 that did so before Sarah’s death. A year later, in March 2022 the Home Office launched the ‘Enough’ campaign as part of its commitment to tackle VAWG.

Tackling VAWG at a societal level requires a cultural shift that can only be achieved by speaking to members of all communities and addressing specific barriers. Our role was to ensure that ethnic minority groups, especially those more likely to be victims of some types of VAWG, were reached and engaged.

Approach
Our insights revealed a multitude of barriers that impact communities in taking action against VAWG, from fear of bringing shame to their family and community; concerns about institutionalised racism, and discrimination when reporting VAWG behaviours to authorities to low awareness of the different types of abuse that make up VAWG.

We adopted a grassroots engagement approach, whilst sensitively managing the campaign messages. We deployed our experienced street ambassadors to visit local community spaces to increase visibility of the campaign and encourage conversations to raise awareness that we all have a role to play in stopping VAWG.

Working alongside community media and trusted voices, including founders of charities that support women who have experienced abuse, we delivered tailored media relations activity, including broadcast interviews discussing VAWG.

We partnered with dating sites to promote healthy dating behaviours.

We also worked with influencers who created content in support of the campaign messages and podcasters who facilitated authentic conversations on the issue, making it clear that VAWG concerns everyone, irrespective of age or gender.

Results
Albeit a relatively new campaign, we know that as a result of our work, 4 out of 5 people surveyed, agreed they had a better understanding of violence against women and girls. We also helped to normalise intervention, with 1 in 2 people agreeing to the likelihood of taking action against VAWG after seeing the campaign.