Using case studies

Where to find stories and photos  

• Shelter staff can find case study stories and photos on Story House  

• You don’t need to request a login – just click on the red Shelter staff login button on the homepage and it will take you straight through

Photos of case studies  

• Images of case studies should be used with their own story, and not paired with new or different stories or quotes  

• If there are no photos of a case study to go with their story, please use a model image instead and include the disclaimer: ‘This is a real story, but models have been used to protect the privacy of our clients’ 

• For digital, if text and space are limited, consider using a footnote for the disclaimer. If this isn’t possible, then it's fine to leave it out in this context  

• You can use an image of a case study in a general non-specific way, as long as there are no restrictions on the image. For example, a case study photo could be the hero image on a webpage about fighting homelessness, even if the case study's story isn't mentioned specifically on that page 

• For more information about using case study photos, look at the Marketing team’s rules for using photography   

Videos of case studies

For case study videos to be effective, they need to follow a set of principles, for filmmaking and for our brand. Be sure to read our video style notes.

Quoting case studies  

• You don’t need to quote case studies word for word all the time  

• As long as the meaning and tone remain the same, it is fine to: 

  • paraphrase  

  • shorten a quote  

  • make it easier to understand 

  • join two quotes together  

  • change a word, if the wrong one has been used 

• A quote should never be rewritten to include Shelter buzzwords. For example, ‘We need to end the housing emergency’.

Permissions  

• Before using case study stories, please check with the Stories team (Bill Rashleigh and Susan Prichard) by emailing stories@shelter.org.uk

Read our other content guides

Learn the lingo

For a range of definitions of digital terms and roles, visit our digital glossary

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