October 2007

Bigger, better website launched

Partnership for Children’s website has been expanded and completely re-designed, with the aim of providing more information more quickly to parents and teachers of young children.

Among the features of the new site are:

  • Separate sections for parents and teachers
  • An exclusive interview with best-selling children’s author Jacqueline Wilson
  • A 15-minute introductory video about Zippy’s Friends
  • More links to other agencies and helpful websites
  • Information for parents on helping children to cope with tough times
  • Individual pages on each of the 11 countries where Zippy’s Friends is running
  • The story of how one family recovered from the tragedy of 9/11 to offer new hope for children

Director Chris Bale said: ‘For a small international charity like ours, a website is invaluable, because it allows us to reach so many people quickly and cheaply. For instance, a lot of people come to know about our Zippy’s Friends programme because they read about it on the website, and we’ve had enquiries from all over the world, places that we would never be able to reach otherwise.’Helen White

The new site was designed by Partnership for Children’s Administrator Helen White, who is a graphic designer, with technical support from www.millipedia.co.uk.

‘We started with two aims,’ said Helen, ‘to make the site look modern but at the same time to keep it simple, so that people can get to the information they want quickly and simply. Some sites look great, but fancy graphics make them very slow and people get frustrated.

‘We’ve created separate sections for parents and teachers, which should help people to find what they want. We’ve used one colour scheme for the parents’ section, another for the teachers’ and Zippy’s Friends section, and a third for information about our organisation.’

Friends logoAnother priority in redesigning the site was to make it easier for people to give money, and, in particular, to join the Friends scheme. Friends are people who commit to give a certain amount to Partnership for Children monthly, quarterly or annually, and the scheme’s logo – a large sun drawn by seven year old Simon White – appears on many pages.

Funding for the new site has come from two sponsors, both based in London – the HSBC Education Trust and The Mercers Company.

‘Their support has been invaluable,’ said Chris. ‘Putting the site together has been a bit like doing a giant jigsaw, and it has taken hours and hours to ensure that everything fits together properly. It’s a very fiddly process, and we couldn’t have done it without our sponsors’ support.

‘We’re pleased with the result, but of course the acid test comes when people start to use the site. Does it work for you? The great thing about a website is that it’s a work in progress and we can keep on improving and expanding it, so we’ll welcome all comments, criticisms or suggestions. Let us know what you think.’