Your responses will to some extent be context specific but many of the principles discussed here will translate into many environments.

Previous learners on the course have stressed the need to build trust which has involved needing to consult with communities and hear their priorities. Sometimes these were not aligned with organisational priorities, but they needed to be heard and taken forward.

It was also suggested that the community group needed some autonomy and the mechanisms to challenge staff and management.

It is vital that good representation of characteristics such as gender and age is ensured to try and avoid the marginalisation of the views of these groups of people.

NARRATOR: The work we do is often messy. It involves many different people and processes. When we work with different groups of people, there are many moments when they come into contact with what we do. So how can we make sure that each one of these moments is the best it can be? It is important to understand how the people we’re working for perceive what we’re doing. Understanding their experiences can highlight problems and opportunities that are often overlooked in your everyday work. The Experience Map helps you reflect on how you engage with people right from the time they first become aware of your work.

It is a simple tool to make sense of complex information and put it into a clear journey that will help you to take your work further. Michael is a manager at an educational publisher in South Africa. His company publishes e-books to provide better learning experiences for young people. But schools in rural areas don’t have internet or devices to access the e-books. Michael wants to change this by bringing the equipment and technology to schools. He partners with an organisation that specialises in converting old shipping containers for community use.

They plan to roll out digital centres that are located in school libraries and supplied with tablet devices and laptops loaded with educational resources Michael wants to make sure that the experience of using these centres is positive. He realises that there are many different moments where children will come into contact with his work. He uses the Experience Map to document the experience of a group of schoolchildren, what they do, and what they feel. He begins by noting down how one of these children first became aware of the digital centre.

He then tries to capture her activities and feelings when she visits and uses the equipment in the digital centre.

He makes a note of the outcome of her experience the moment she finishes using the equipment, and what she has said about her experience when she leaves the centre. Michael notes down what he has learnt from what he saw and heard.

Michael continues to collect more Experience Maps based on accounts from other children. He’s able to make comparisons across this set of individual journeys to find common issues. Using the tool helped Michael to test and improve the service. The digital centres are now being rolled out in primary schools in three provinces. Young people across the region are now able to access e-books and interact with other online learning resources.

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NARRATOR: The safeguarding community-based visual toolkit is a series of visuals and accompanying messages that can be used within humanitarian or development settings.

They explain the key principles of protection from sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, otherwise known as PSEAH or safeguarding to community members. The goal of this toolkit is to support communities in understanding their rights in relation to sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, and to promote a speak-up culture where abuses are addressed. It offers a set of eleven key messages derived from the IASC six core principles relating to sexual exploitation and abuse, accompanied by correlating visuals that take into account cultural and gender considerations. The visuals are available with and without the key messages that are being translated into different languages.

It is important to note that these visuals were not designed to be used as a standalone resource, but rather as a resource accompanying wider training and awareness raising efforts within communities around safeguarding. It should ideally be incorporated alongside other safeguarding training resources such as Interaction’s No Excuse for Abuse video and embedded within community-based feedback mechanisms to allow for maximum effectiveness.

The toolkit has been designed so that the visuals can be customised to each agency’s or contextual needs, with both the final visuals and all major design elements provided. These features allow customization, such as framed versions of the posters with designated space to insert relevant reporting mechanisms, the ability to insert messaging translated into local languages, and the full set of interchangeable background elements to tailor to localised needs.

Here are some different ways that you could use this toolkit. Use to support communication to communities around safeguarding matters. For example, embedding within community leader discussions or community meetings. Use the materials as part of your communication to communities on what safeguarding behavioural expectations apply to staff and representatives from your organisation. Create posters that can be hung on a project site, communicating reporting mechanisms and behavioural expectations of representatives and staff. Use the visuals as a component of safeguarding training for staff and associated personnel. Use a single visual or combined visuals to highlight key risks.

The community-based safeguarding visual toolkit offers visuals and messaging to inform and communicate with communities receiving aid with the goal of protection against sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. It is an open source, editable, free resource, and can be accessed through Interaction’s website. There is also an accompanying user guide which outlines in more detail how the visuals were designed, the methodology, limitations, and a helpful technical guide, alongside a frequently asked questions section.

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Many learners have found this toolkit useful because visual tools such as the posters can be used as part of training in the community. The fact that there is minimal linguistic comprehension was also found to be great for cross-language training. These materials are also adaptable to context to show faces/scenes that resonate with the audience. Hopefully you were able to think of other ways in which you could use this, or similar material. Remember we do need to think about making such material accessible, for example, to people with visual impairments.