Campaigning and advocacy
The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the UK. Its services include legal work for children and young people in custody, parliamentary work (lobbying, responding to consultations, briefing government), international work, campaigning, research and events. It was shortlisted for the 2015 UK Charity Awards for its Books for Prisoners campaign. The awards judge said that the project had ‘every aspect you could want from a campaign . . . They identified an issue, approached it in lots of innovative ways and were really successful.’ (Hawkes 2015). Have a look at its website (www. howardleague.org) and think about:
■ What campaigns is it leading and what direct and indirect strategies does it use?
■ How do these strategies differ, if at all, from the campaigns of organisations, such as Oxfam?
Feedback
Their techniques and approaches differ from the larger NGOs because they are a ‘single-issue’ charity. This means that, although their services range from legal work through to campaigning, they are all aimed at protecting the rights of people in custody. Can you think of any other single-issue charities that are effective campaigners in their field?
