Empowering mental health support with Digital Transformation

Helping Charlie Waller Trust modernise their digital presence, enhancing accessibility and engagement

Two women facing each other on swings

The brief

The Charlie Waller Trust is a leading UK mental health charity focused on supporting young people, parents, and educators. They needed a more robust, accessible, and flexible digital platform to reflect their expanded training, guidance, and resources. Our goal was to create a scalable and user-focused website experience that could adapt to evolving needs and provide a stronger foundation for growth and engagement.

The challenge

The existing website no longer supported the charity’s ambitions or user needs. Key challenges included:

  • A confusing site structure that made resources difficult to find.

  • Inconsistent user journeys across core audiences (young people, parents, teachers).

  • An outdated CMS that hindered content creation and publishing workflows.

  • Limited accessibility and mobile performance.

  • No integration with third-party platforms like Salesforce or their Shopify-based shop.

The trust needed a complete digital overhaul, one that retained their values but enabled a better experience for users and the internal team.

What the client said

Carrie Green

Charlie Waller Trust

"Digital Wonderlab just get the world of charity, and how we work. Money is difficult to raise, it is very time consuming and it needs to be invested wisely as many people are involved. I always felt that the team had our back and provided a safe pair of hands throughout the process. They brought in the necessary partners we needed to complete the first stage of our digital journey"

Tracey Gurr

Charlie Waller Trust

"Our objective was clear: we needed to find a way to encapsulate 23 years of history, borne out of tragedy, and transform this into a charity suited to the needs of the 21st century. We have achieved exactly that working with the team at Digital Wonderlab."

The solution

We partnered closely with the Charlie Waller Trust team to deliver a scalable and insight-driven digital transformation:

  • UX and Content Strategy: Conducted audits, stakeholder workshops, and co-creation sessions to define a more intuitive site architecture and user journey.

  • Bespoke Web Design: Delivered a clean, emotionally sensitive design aligned with the charity’s mission and user groups.

  • Umbraco CMS Development: Built a flexible, easy-to-manage backend to support content updates, resource management, and events.

  • Salesforce Integration: Connected their CRM for smoother internal processes and data-driven decision-making.

  • Ecommerce Integration: Seamlessly connected their Shopify store for training and resource access.

  • Accessibility & Performance: Focused on AA-level accessibility and mobile responsiveness.

Charlie Waller website screenshots mobile and desktop
C-MET self evaluation tool screenshots desktop and mobile

The result

The charity has truly developed and embraced a strong culture of digital collaboration during this transformative process. A wide range of operational and efficiency benefits have been felt by the organisation, through access to cloud-based security for all, productivity apps to support internal and external users and a CRM that aids the charity’s fundraising and training capabilities.

The new website, combined with the refreshed brand identity, strongly positions the Charlie Waller Trust within the UK’s vibrant mental health charity arena.

C-MET serves as a valuable opportunity for both Charlie Waller and the AoC to better understand current needs for mental health training and support within the marketplace and to guide mental health training accordingly. This highly-accessible mental health assessment toolkit, launched with Public Health England, has been positively received within the market and has now been made widely available and adopted by colleges across the UK - with plans to extend its reach to schools and workplaces in the near future.