This is a post about how I made/resigned the site for The Sparrows Project / Restore Hope West Somerset.
Restore Hope West Somerset has developed the Sparrows Project to work for the release and rehabilitation of those who have been enslaved, while seeking to raise awareness of the existence of modern day slavery to such a level that its existence becomes impossible in the local area.
from https://rhws.org.uk/
Restore Hope West Somerset have been a client of mine for several years. The charity was started in 2008 by Christians in West Somerset to provide a drop-in centre providing compassion, care, comfort and companionship for homeless, disadvantaged and damaged people. This then became a separate charity which still supports members of the West Somerset Community who are homeless, have problems associated with drugs and alcohol or are lonely or disadvantaged in any way.
With The Hope Centre set-up in its own right, Restore Hope West Somerset went on to support a number of other local groups working in the community.
However, in the last couple of years it shifted its focus to primarily support those affected by Modern Day Slavery/Human Trafficking and the Sparrow Project was born.
Because of this change of focus, the website for RHWS also need to change its contents and design to reflect this.
The new project had come with some new branding, so the design of the site was changed to work with a new logo, colours and fonts.
Both versions of the RHWS site were run on WordPress (as is this site). The previous site had used a theme called ‘Standard’. I used Standard as my go to theme for a year years, several years ago. Sadly Standard is now defunct so the new site uses the GeneratePress theme.
I LOVE GeneratePress – in fact it’s also used on this site! It’s an amazing mix of simplicity but also having the versatility and power to be able to do pretty much anything you’d like design wise with it! The basic theme is free, but it’s ‘Premium’ add-on makes all the difference. You can check out GeneratePress here (this is an affiliate link, so if you purchase GP Premium using that link I get a little thank you…)
The design of the Sparrows Project site is modern and clean making the words on the site the main focus.
There’s a subtle animation on the header images, used on the pages, fading them through colour and greyscale; this is to show the difference between slavery and freedom.
If you’re not aware, West Somerset is in the South West of England. It’s pretty rural with lots of coast and moorland. It might not be the first place that would be affected by modern day slavery/human trafficking… But sadly this issue affects all parts of the country and not just foreign nationals. From the Sparrows Project site:
Today there are thought to be in excess of 40 million people in the world who are held in slavery and a recent estimate puts the number in the United Kingdom at about 130,000…
…people are recruited and moved for the purposes of exploitation. It does not require borders to be crossed, nor is it limited to a particular age group, or to foreign nationals; indeed recent reviews indicate that the majority of those trafficked are UK nationals. It is a process where often the exploitation is targeted at the most vulnerable as they seek to create a better life for themselves and their families.
So raising awareness of this issue is very important, locally and nationally! As well as raising awareness, the services which Sparrows will provide to adult survivors include:
- Providing accommodation
- Provision of support including counselling
- Assisting with access to education
- Enhancing life skills
- Supporting movement to employment
- Volunteer Training
If you’d like to find out more about this issue and/or support the work of the Sparrows Project, please visit their site…