Scaling an intervention that’s hard to fundraise for

How Protect Children scaled a breakthrough, early-intervention program to prevent childhood sexual violence

Lean Testing | Scale Strategy | Protection against child sexual violence | Finland

Protect Children is a non-profit organisation based in Finland, dedicated to ending all forms of sexual violence against children. Their work focuses on research driven interventions, education, support for victims and families, and advocacy.

Part of this work is the ReDirection Program – an anonymous, online self-help resource that supports behaviour change in individuals at risk of offending, in order to prevent sexual violence against children.

Challenge

Research by Protect Children highlighted the clear need for a low-touch, completely anonymous intervention to support behaviour change, which led them to create the Redirection Program. Early evaluations demonstrated positive outcomes, and they wanted to ensure as many potential offenders as possible could access and use this resource.

However, they were presented with a number of obstacles. In particular, as a small team of passionate individuals, Protect Children is working with limited capacity, competing priorities, and within a highly competitive grant funding environment.

On top of that, their work is addressing an area of childhood sexual violence prevention that not all stakeholders are convinced of, limiting the access to resources.

IMPACT

2 pathways

for scale tested and validated in the real-world

5 languages

the programme is now publicly available in

12 languages

the programme is translated in, ready to roll out

4 non-profit

partnerships secured to embed the programme

OUR APPROACH

To maximise the reach and effectiveness of the Redirection Program, our work focused on three key areas:

Designing a scalable model – We designed a model that had broad reach through open access, combined with paid NGO partnerships to embed the program in local contexts for deep impact.
Ensuring resources are invested in the right areas – This meant engaging directly with partners to test the viability of new ideas, ensuring Protect Children invests organisational resources in approaches that have been validated.
Enabling the management of multiple partners – This involved designing scalable ways of working so that Protect Children could manage multiple partnerships efficiently, for example, developing systemised training, partner support structures, and streamlined processes.

“”Spring Impact has provided valuable insights into scalable concepts, methods, and the crucial aspect of sustainable growth, as well as invaluable support in refining and strengthening our overall organisational strategy.”

— Anna Ovaska, Deputy Director, Protect Children

OUTCOMES

Clear vision & strategy – Clarity on scale ambitions to guide strategic decisions

Designed for the real-world – A costed, flexible scale model that retains responsiveness to emerging learning and opportunities

A replicable process – A scale strategy process that the team is confidently applying to expand the impact of other interventions

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