Nacro: annual review

Working with the people charities support

“Putting the annual review together has helped me realise I have something to give back to society.”

These are the words of Nacro ‘service user’ Jacqui who I travelled around England and Wales with to hear the real life stories of the people the crime reduction charity supports.

Just two and a half years before that, Jacqui was homeless and addicted to crack cocaine and heroin. Now she’s clean, is about to get her own council house and is working towards getting a job with young people.

“I love the annual review, it’s brilliant,” she says. “It’s essential that service users work with charity communication teams.

“I’m never going back to where I’ve been.”

Working with Jacqui, who I am still in touch with, meant we could engage with service users, who ranged from at risk 10-year-olds to ex offenders, on a completely new level. I worked with communications staff at Nacro to find case studies, then interviewed them face to face and wrote up their stories into compelling copy. The idea was to emphasise service user engagement, the diversity of Nacro’s work and the effectiveness of its interventions.

And it worked. The annual review raised a record amount of money for the charity.

Download the annual review here.