Canterbury consulting students help Child Helpline Trust

Canterbury consulting students help Child Helpline Trust charity

June 8, 2014

A group of University of Canterbury group students have helped the Child Helpline Trust charity in their bid to grow their service for children in need.

Students Holly Williams, Ellie Barrett, Zoe Williams, Jake Wilsea-Smith and Georgia Van Tongeren formed a team of student consultants to assist the trust whose goal is to provide professional, phone-based counselling to children aged five to 15 years old.

The students are part of the University of Canterbury Students’ Association club 180 Degrees Consulting. The 180 Degrees organisation is the world's largest student-driven consultancy, operating in 18 countries. They help charities and not-for-profit organisations achieve greater social impact. The Canterbury students are not receiving credits for the work but were all committed to community engagement.

The Child Helpline Trust is a small charity that wants to help more children in need but is under-utilised. The trust needs new sources of funding to grow and succeed and is not government funded.

The 180 Degree students looked at strategies to market different target age groups and to improve credibility of the trust’s brand. They demonstrated to the trust it could increase the number of calls from children by improving its website to increase traffic and grow on social media.

Team leader Holly Williams advised that brand changes will allow the trust to strengthen their brand, raise awareness and show sponsors there is value in supporting them. The team's suggestion is that the trust works on brand development before focussing on its marketing.

`` We looked at strategies to market different target age groups and to improve credibility of the trust’s brand. We also suggested implementing a blog on the new trust website and ways to better utilise social media. The students felt that better utilising those strategies will enhance the performance of the trust.

``After brand and marketing recommendations are taken on board, sponsorship opportunities look more credible and the Child Helpline can occupy a niche area where businesses can support them.

CHT has a bright future, and with the help of the students’ guidelines, their aims can be achieved,’’ Williams says.

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