Campaigns
All VSE’s campaigns are developed on the basis of our ongoing review and analysis of needs and opportunities within the victim support community in Europe. VSE’s five-year strategic framework, approved by the membership, also guides the priorities and direction of our campaign work.
Counter@ct | PREVICT | You won’t Believe it, but …exists | One Voice – One Cause | Crime is Crime. Even Online | Making Victims’ Rights a Priority | Honouring Victims of Terrorism | Pre- and Post EU Elections Campaign | Good Human Rights Stories | In the Light and the Dark
The campaigns of VSE are conducted under two funding strands:
- Campaigns that are realised under various projects and are not led by VSE but by a consortium of project partners.
- Campaigns that are led by VSE and realised within the operating grant designed to support work with members and policy work. The majority of those campaigns utilize the ‘campaigns-in-collaboration’ model.
We provide a brief overview of VSE’s campaigns that can be used as a learning diary meant to explain our best practices in campaigning.
I. Project-Based Campaigns
Counter@ct : Counter Narrative Campaign | Preventing and Combating Online Radicalisation
Within the project ‘Counter@ct’
The describtion of the campaign
Radical messages are rapidly spreading through the Internet targeting vulnerable groups, particularly young people aged 16 to 25, posing security threats across the EU. The core objective of Counter@ct’s campaign is to promote behavioural change, dissuading such groups from adhering to radicalising/terrorist content online and/or using violence, by providing them with counter narratives. These narratives will use successful stories of disengagement by vulnerable groups from radical ideas. We expect to provide tools to address these groups via an online counter-narrative campaign and its impact assessment.
Campaign stages
– The campaign research phase started with the study of how these vulnerable groups interact online, including motivation rationales, triggers and key-influencers. The desk research allows for the definition of an effective communication strategy that will be the basis of a counter-narrative online campaign and a set of indicators to outline the impact assessment plan.
– There will be 6 awareness raising sessions (240 participants), targeting youngsters within vulnerable groups and two training courses (40 participants) to campaign managers, in PT and ES.
– A Practical Guide to Prevent and Combat Online Radicalisation and Extremism will be created (in PT/EN/ES) with chapters on: how to implement an online counter-narrative campaign and its underlying communication strategy; how to develop indicators and an impact assessment methodology; how can campaign managers deal with its impacts; how to develop awareness raising and training session; how to improve multi-stakeholder cooperation to prevent and combat online radicalisation.
– A final conference, gathering multi-stakeholder experts, will be held in PT to present the projects deliverables and results, as well as to promote a public debate on preventing and fighting radicalisation/terrorism, strengthening long-lasting cooperation.
PREVICT Information Campaign | Promoting Rights of Victims in the EU
Within the project PREVICT
Introduction
The level and quality of information that victims of crime receive varies from one Member State to another. In some States there are some good examples of how best to raise awareness of the victims themselves, their support circles, and the public in general, and how to deliver information in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Victims’ Rights Directive. In some others, information for victims is scarce or when it exists, it is not accessible to victims either because victims’ specific needs (children, persons with disabilities etc.) or are simply not well disseminated (web sites that are hard to find through web search, insufficient quantity of printed materials etc.).
Objectives
In view of such reality the present project PREVICT aims to: (1) describe (based on research) best practices in delivering information to victims; (2) identify what type of information is most pressing to be made available to victims in each participating country and develop innovative and creative information tools based on the research and target group consultations; (3) deliver an information campaign; and (4) measure its impact.
Campaign stages
(1) research of best practices in delivering information to victims;
(2) identify what type of information is most pressing to be made available to victims in each participating country and develop innovative and creative information tools based on the research and target group consultations;
(3) deliver an information campaign;
(4) measure its impact.
Campaign Partners
The partnership was carefully construed to optimise the work on the project and project results and impact.
Victim Support Europe is the leading European umbrella organisation of victim support. Since its creation, almost 30 years ago, VSE has been the leader in the development of victim-centred policies and has been a valued stakeholder during the negotiations and drafting of the Victims’ Rights Directive.
Transcendent Media Capital (TMC) is the European branch of an international media company, dedicated to creating sustainable and measurable impact through media, with whom VSE has already cooperated on a number of campaigns and with whom we have recently produced an award winning short film on the Right to be forgotten. TMC are the key partner who developed impact measurement and campaign tools, as well as support national partners in the delivery of the campaign and impact measurement.
Five remaining partners – Human Rights for Democracy Centre (AL), the Victim and Witness Support Service Croatia (HR), Fehér Gyűrű (HU), Victim Support Malta (MT) and APAV (PT) are long standing VSE members, while VILIAS (LT) is on the path of becoming one, having been VSE’s reliable partner in the past several years.
The project partnership gives a good representation of countries in which victim support has a long tradition (PT and HU), countries in which generic victim support is recent (HR and MT) as well as countries in which generic nation- wide victim support is yet to be established (AL and LT). Moreover, with a representation of ‘old’ Member States (PT and MT), ‘new’ Member States (HR, HU and LT) and an aspiring Member State (AL), we believe we achieved a balance in representing different points of view and different traditions in the implementation of EU legislation.
The project is aimed at better implementation of Article 4 of the Victims’ Rights Directive -establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime.
This priority is addressed through providing tailored information to the estimated more than 4,5 million of victims of crimes in the six project countries (AL, HR, HU, LT, MT and PT) in an informed and inclusive manner. This is ensured through a carefully designed methodology:
– responding to the actual information needs of victims in each of the project countries, which is identified through research;
– delivering information to victims, law enforcement and victim support professionals, through tailored, inclusive and accessible tools, the content of which is carefully developed by victim support professionals in each of the six countries;
– delivering the information by means of high quality information tools (videos, posters, infographics, brochures, websites) tools carefully designed and delivered by media professionals;
– launching a carefully designed media campaign, which aims to reach the maximum number of victims in project countries;
– measuring impact of the campaign, through the innovative impact measurement methodology.
The innovative aspects of the project are reflected in:
– development of information tools based on research and not just on a presumption that some forms of delivery are good or convenient;
– information tools and campaigns are developed jointly by the partnership, but are tailored specifically for each country to respond to the existing cultural, geographical, legal or political environment in the country;
– impact measurement methodology is being developed specifically to measure impact of information on victims’ access to and enjoyment of their rights;
– impact is measured through the project to inform about the actual result of the tools and the campaign;
– impact measurement methodology is replicable and will be offered to VSE members through members’ training through VSE operating activities planning in 2021 or 2022, with view on also developing a training for trainers, to ensure cascade transmission of impact measurement knowledge throughout the broader VSE’s networks.
Dissemination Strategy
The current document offers details on the dissemination activities to be executed from February 2021 until the end of the project and provides the project partners with detailed specifications on how to disseminate the project to targeted groups in their area.
This dissemination plan describes the project’s dissemination activities led by VSE at the EU level from February 2021 until the end of theproject, together with instructions and recommendations on how to prepare the national dissemination strategies for the project partners.
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II. Campaigns led by VSE within the operating grant
2021
‘You won’t believe it, but it exists…’
‘You won’t believe it, but … exists’ is a 2021 information campaign that kicks off on 22 February, the European Day for Victims of Crime, and runs until 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
It is used as an organising strategy by individuals and organisations around the EU to call for the advancement of victims’ rights and raise awareness of the existence of victim support services.
“The campaign is designed to encourage people everywhere in the EU to learn about victims’ rights and the existence of support services and to give victims a platform to speak out about issues they are going through. We are grateful to campaign partners for their spirit of collaboration in helping Victim Support Europe reach diverse audiences”, says Levent Altan, Executive Director of Victim Support Europe.
Find out more information about the campaign on the dedicated campaign webpage.
Campaign Timeline
Component 1: ‘You won’t believe it, but …exists’
Component 2: Reclaim Your Safety
(information campaign developed within PREVICT project)
2020
‘ONE VOICE – ONE CAUSE’
A Campaign for the European Day for Victims of Crime, 22 February
Research Stage
The research started long before the actual campaign. A 2-year study – project VOCIARE – surveyed more than 800 victim support professionals, law enforcement officials, members of the judiciary and other stakeholders and provided an in-depth research into the practical implementation of the Victims’ Rights Directive in the EU Member States. The reports from 26 EU countries tracked how EU Member States implement the Victims’ Rights Directive 7 years after it was established. In 2012, the EU Victims’ Rights Directive was adopted to ensure that victims across European borders enjoy their rights and have equal access to support services. Member States were required to transpose the Victims’ Directive into their national context and practically implement it to allow victims to exercise rights enshrined in it until 16 November 2015. However, till now, Member States did not fully establish the adequate procedures and mechanisms for putting the Directive into practice.
The research findings revealed toughest challenges the Members States are facing to put the Directive in practice. Ultimately, these findings stood as a basis for the ‘One Voice-One Cause” campaign-in-collaboration to inform the governments and the public at national and EU-level of how are victims’ rights being enacted (or not) and what can be done to improve their standing.
The Approach to Partnership
The partnership of the campaign was carefully construed to optimise the campaign results and impact. The collaborations were chosen to gather expertise from multi-stakeholders with important roles in (1) delivering victim support services, (2) doing policy and advocacy work on victims’ rights and (3) sharing victims’ testimonies.
The partnership was set-up to reflect the two important aspects of the ‘One Voice-One Cause’ campaign-in-collaboration: (1) European understanding of victims’ rights and EU Victims’ Rights Directive, through the coordinating role of Victim Support Europe; (2) Member State level activity and engagement with victims in the field and the state of the implementation of the EU laws in local context, through victim support organisations which provide direct support to victims of crimes.
Campaign’s Timeline and Content
PHASE 1: Action Week For European Day Of Victims Of Crime
The Action Week #onevoiceonecause lasted from 17 February to 22 February 2020. Each of the 6 days of the campaign covered a specific victims’ right to illustrate the law and how it works in practice with different types of victims in society. The campaign featured the videos in which partners explained the good practices and the most pressing victims’ rights challenges in respective states. Additionally, Victim Support Europe and 14 other EU NGOs have issued the Joint Statement.
PHASE 2: Action Months Following The Publication Of The First EU Strategy On Victims’ Rights: July-November 2020
Target Groups
To address the heterogeneous nature of populations, the info campaign have applied two marketing approaches:
I. The common approach: messaging intended to affect most audiences (all victims of crime + victim support community) by focusing on what is held in common across audiences.
The aim here is to address the multiple facets of the same problem (victims’ rights awareness + explanation of the EU strategy and call to action) by targeting:
1. primary audience: all crime victims (for individual awareness change),
2. secondary audiences: generic support and specialist services (victim support professionals who may, in turn, reach or influence primary audiences),
3. and tertiary audiences (to modify broader sociopolitical systems that ultimately influence individual behaviors):
– societal services (education, health, social services)
– private sector
– justice and law enforcement
II. Subgroups approach
This part of the campaign focuses on groups that are especially vulnerable to abuse of victims rights; groups that are structurally discriminated against like women and groups that have difficulties defending themselves and are therefore in need of special protection.
Here, the messaging is built through collaboration with our EU NGO partners. Each responsible for their specific audience.
We segmented them into 11 groups:
| 1. women and girls | Women’s Lobby |
| 2. children | Amber Alert, Missing Children EuropeChild Helpline International, Terre des hommes |
| 3. refugees | Caritas |
| 4. undocumented migrants | PICUM |
| 5. minorities (national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities) | ENARCEJI | A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe |
| 6. LGBTI+ | Ilga EuropeTransgender Europe |
| 7. Disabled persons:-persons with intellectual disabilities- persons with disabilities | Inclusion EuropeMental Health Europe European Disability Forum |
| 8. elderly people | Age Platform |
| 9. marginalised persons:- victims of trafficking- sexual workers- homeless | La Strada International Sex Workers Europe |
| 10. offenders | CEP – Confederation of European Probation |
| 11. young girls and women-victims of FGM | End FGM |
The Innovative Aspects
The innovative aspects of this campaign-in-collaboration are reflected in: (1) the development of the campaign communication strategy based on a 2-year research; (2) information tools were developed jointly by the partnership, but featured the situation specifically for each country to respond to the existing state of implementation of EU Victims’ rights Directive in each geographical environment; (3) campaign methodology is replicable and is offered to everyone on the campaign’s website.
Pyramid of Dissemination
Finally, the whole point of campaigning-in-collaboration is to reach a wider audience with less costs. The pyramid of dissemination in this case included the following levels:
1. The organisation’s channels (VSE’s website, social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube; VSE’s Newsletter, printed materials and offline events).
2. Multi-sector partners/contributors representing various fields of expertise relevant to the campaign’s objectives: private sector, media, state and public institutions, art/culture sector, civil society (in case of VSE, in average, it is over 50 organisations) and victims-survivors.
3. Member network and their channels (in case of VSE, it is 60 organisations in the EU and beyond).
4. Members of members networks (in case of VSE, in total the average number of members of members is 20000 organisations).
ADAPTING THE CAMPAIGN MATERIALS TO LOCAL CONTEXTS
For an EU-wide reach, messages in various languages are essential.
Therefore, we are sharing with our members the link to all campaign files in editable format, so that they can easily translate the materials into their local language and adapt the visuals by adding their organisation’s logo.
➡ Download campaign materials in raw (editable) format
We are encouraging you to share the campaign materials following the campaign’s editorial plan to inform the audiences on the #EUVictimsRights strategy and to call governments and the Commission for action.
We use two campaign hashtags:
#ONEVOICEONECAUSE
#EUVictimsRights
For more information visit onevoiceonecause.vse-campaign.eu
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2019
‘Crime Is Crime. Even Online’ Awareness-Raising on Online Hate
Research Stage
VSE’s annual member survey 2018 provided strong confirmation of the notion that victim support workers need more knowledge to cope with victims of cyber hate incidents. It also became clear that victims aren’t aware of their rights on the Internet and don’t know about the existence of national victim support services that provide help to victims of online hate crimes. Therefore, in 2019, Victim Support Europe (VSE) has conducted ‘Crime Is Crime. Even Online’ campaign-in-collaboration to inform netizens of their rights when subjects of online hate, and available support services in the case of victimisation.
Campaign Objectives
By using the tagline “Crime is Crime. Even Online”, the campaign relied heavily on expert videos to convey its main theme, emphasising a focus on the rights of victims’ of online hate speech. The objectives of the campaign were twofold: (1) raise awareness of victims’ rights and support services for (potential -) victims of online hate speech through an online campaign; (2) capacity building of victim support professionals concerning the rights of victims online, and their specific support, prevention and protection needs. This was achieved through training workshops conducted by VSE for its member organisations.
Over 50 partners from various sectors contributed to the campaign: social media platforms and business sector (Youtube, Google, Twitter, Facebook); law enforcement (Europol, Belgian Federal Police, Antwerp Diversity Police Unit, LGTBIpol-Spain, Osborne Clarck, In Iutitia, Unia); civil society organisations and projects (Ilga Europe, Inclusion Europe, Action Against Stalking, Hate Lab, International Network for Hate Studies, Lambda Warszawa, ISES, Words Are Stones, CEJI – A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe, Facing Facts, Call It Hate); victim support organisations (APAV-Victim Support Portugal, Victim Support Malta, Victim Support Finland, France Victimes-Victim Support France, Victim Support Scotland, Victim Support Sweden, Weisser Ring-Victim Support Germany, Victim Support Austria); art sector (EU-based poets); victims of online hate incidents.
The campaign-in-collaboration was presented at 3 offline international conferences: ‘Words Are Stones’ in Brussels, ‘Call It Hate’ in Budapest and ‘Victims’ Rights: Time to Act’ in Brussels.
Campaign content
Each of the 10 weeks of the campaign covered a specific aspect of online hate speech. Content-wise, VSE has adopted a drop-down approach: the campaign started by explaining the legal context and relative European legislation regarding online hate speech, then moving onto measures of protection, next – showcasing what is being done by social media platforms, and finishing with the realities on the frontline and victims’ testimonies.
Campaign Methodology
Through a series of videos displaying expert interviews on the different facets of online hate: (1) the laws, (2) prevention practices, (3) social media responses to online hate, (4) reporting mechanisms and (5) available victim support services), VSE and the partners raised awareness of the general public about victims’ rights online. These videos were recycled for the purpose of a capacity building workshop on the same thematic, aimed at victim support professionals.
Communication Channels
Using ‘grants for non-profits’ offered by the campaign partners: Google, Facebook and Twitter, VSE has got free access to a number of social media products and features that enhanced the campaign’s outreach. Under those grant programmes, ‘Crime Is Crime. Even Online’ got €10,000 grant of AdWords advertising to promote the campaign website on the Google Search Engine through keyword targeting and Twitter’s ‘Ads for Good’ grant of €5,000 for Promoted Tweets.
A mix of digital and traditional channels brought the campaign-in-collaboration to the following statistics:
1. VSE’s social media stats using grants for nonprofits:
‘Twitter for Good’ grant – €5k: 500k impressions a month;
‘Google for Nonprofits’ grant – €10k worth of ads per month: 600k impressions, 10k interactions;
Facebook – 150000 organic impressions;
2. partner coverage stats: 58 VSE Member organisations across the EU; over 3000 members of members; over 30 EU NGOs ; over 50 state, private, art sector and individual partners;
3. VSE’s Newsletter – 1508 subscribers;
4. offline international events – 3 partner events, 500 participants.
‘Making Victims’ Rights a Reality’: A 10-Day Social Media Campaign in Recognition of the European Day for Victims of Crime
The campaign aimed to mobilise civil society, activists and authorities
to improve the access to victim support services in member states and to encourage victims to reach out the support services.
Each of the 10 days of the campaign will cover a specific victims’ right to illustrate the law and how it works in practice with different types of victims in society.
One-Day Campaigns: 11 March, 22 March, Honouring Victims of Terrorism
– Participated and co-organised commemoration ceremonies in Brussels and Zaventem. Read the article by Brussels Times.
– Published ‘Remembering Victims of Terrorism’ – A Guidance Document and Infographic.
– Published a report by An Verelst ‘Supporting victims of terrorism’
– Got media coverage (Brussels Times, VRT, France 24, Nieuwsblad.be)
Pre- and Post EU Elections Campaign ‘Making Victims Rights a Reality’
VSE’s Members and civil society organisations across the EU have come together to jointly campaign to put what matters to victims at the heart of EU victims’ policy, and make victims’ rights an issue that got citizens to cast their votes and make a difference in the European elections held this year in May.
In those important pre- and post election periods, as part of our campaign ‘Making Victims’ Rights a Reality’, we were calling candidate commissioners and MEPs for action for the implementation of victims’ rights to significantly improve quality of life and support services for victims of crime.
We produced the VSE Manifesto for the European Parliament elections – to be held between 23 and 26 May 2019. This meant that we had 6 weeks to work around the demands contained in this ‘wish list’ for the next Parliamentary term. The manifesto was translated into dozens of EU languages by VSE Members and disseminated within national contexts.
Below, you will find campaign documentation.
2018
‘Good Human Rights Stories’
A Campaign by European External Action Service with the contribution of VSE
In 2018, the European External Action Service (EEAS) ran “Good Human Rights Stories Initiative”, a cross-regional coalition of human rights-minded countries to develop and share a new positive narrative on Human Rights. The EU story focused on the victims’ rights.
Victim Support Europe have been asked by the EEAS to showcase good news stories relevant to victims rights. Therefore, we (in collaboration with Transcendent Media Capital) have created five short videos which reflect how the EU has benefitted victims of crime.
The videos were shown at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on the 26th of September, during which the EU together with other countries (14 foreign ministers and the UN) launched the Good Human Rights Stories global initiative. The ceremony was chaired by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice President, Federica Mogherini.
‘In the Light and the Dark’
A 1-Day Social Media Campaign for the 21 August
For the first ever International day of Remembrance of and Tribute to Victims of Terrorism, VSE members from around the world gathered together and created the video-poem in honour of all those affected by terrorist attacks.
The poem “In the Light and the Dark”, written by an ambulance technician who responded to the 22nd of March 2016 attacks at Zaventem airport in Belgium, was an expression of concern for those still dealing with their experiences and a plea for the necessary preparation, recognition and support. It reflects the attentive and supportive environment she had.
She was fine, but many others continue to suffer. The poem holds true today as much as it did then.
Recovery comes at its own pace and no-one should be alone along the way.
VSE’s video-poem is dedicated to those who have suffered and lost, and to the family, friends and others who were there to support them.
