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WordPress Website Development: Beyond Surviving

Let me take you behind the scenes of a bespoke WordPress website I created for a charity; Beyond Surviving.

Beyond Surviving is a charity created to connect and support survivors of domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence and abuse (DSGBVA). Founded by Ciara, Beyond Surviving champions survivors as they navigate their healing journeys, personal growth, and wellbeing.

I was introduced to Ciara and her amazing charity by Kaye of Kaye Does Logos, who I have worked with previously on numerous website projects, including Resumeology and Choucre. I always feel so grateful when I receive an enquiry from a web designer I have worked with previously, knowing they trust me to bring their visions to life!

As soon as I spoke to Ciara and found out more about what she wanted to create with Beyond Surviving, I knew I wanted to help. Ciara should be so incredibly proud of what she has created with Beyond Surviving, and it was an honour to be a part of this project.

Beyond Surviving didn’t have an existing website so we were started from the ground up. I developed a fully-custom WordPress theme using Kaye’s designs and setup all the functionality required to make Beyond Surviving the supportive community Ciara envisioned.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the key features and functionality of the Beyond Surviving website:

The “Your Healing” page

The “Your Healing” page on the Beyond Surviving website features insights and experiences from survivors of domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence and abuse (DSGBVA). It is a safe space where stories are published anonymously with the aims of cultivate curiosity, support, insight, & hope.

The stories are displayed in a masonry-style grid with inspirational quotes scattered in-between. Users can click “Read Journey” to read the story in full.

This page is powered by a custom post type in WordPress, allowing the moderators and administrators of the website to easily manage the stories that are shared. For example, moderators of the website can highlight stories that contain triggers, and these stories will display a relevant trigger warning.

Moderators can also group stories into wellbeing categories to help other survivors find stories that are relevant to them. This is powered by a custom taxonomy and there are links to the individual category pages at the top of the “Your Healing” page.

The “Share your journey” functionality

Survivors are able to anonymously submit their insights and experiences to the Beyond Surviving website for others to read and leave messages of support.

After a user fills out the “Share your journey” form, their story is held for moderation. The moderators of the website will receive a notification via email to let them know that a story is ready for them to review, and they are happy with the contents of this story, they can publish it on the website.

“The Survivor’s Hub” and events

The Survivors Hub is a page full of helpful resources and information for survivors. It includes an events section which we built using a custom post type in WordPress. Events are automatically displayed in date order, starting with the next upcoming event. Once an event has passed, it will automatically be removed from this page.

“Quick exit” button

Ciara needed the website to have a “quick exit” button so that users could remove themselves from the website as quickly as possible if they felt the need to.

The “quick exit” button is in a prominent place on the website and it’s always visible as it sticks to the side of the page as you scroll down. When the button is clicked, the user is taken to a different website.

Here are some kind words from Ciara about our time working together…

Holly is an amazing web developer and an absolute joy to work with. She’s very professional and proficient in what she does. I know I’ve had a few special requests throughout our work together, and I appreciate how kind, helpful and accommodating Holly has been. I couldn’t love how the website turned out anymore! Thank you Holly for bringing my charity organisation to life. If you’re looking for a web developer, Holly’s the one!

Are you ready to outsource your website development?

If you’re a web designer who loves creating beautiful websites but hates the coding side of things, I can help!

I specialise in turning designs into fully-functioning WordPress websites that not only look beautiful but that are also functional, strategic and fast.