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Newsletter
October 2008

In this campaign update: newspaper campaign a big success; Community Action Funding tops $2m; projects win top awards; backing from basketball; Vic takes the campaign message to prison; Nelson's violence- free month, Tainui talks, a busy schedule for campaign speakers and feedback from the frontline.

Newspaper campaign a big success

A two week campaign by the Wanganui Chronicle about family violence was a big success and the type of work that could be repeated in newspapers across the country.

The newspaper ran a full page of stories every day and sometimes two or three pages. They covered a range of issues, worked with the local people involved in family violence prevention work and used It's not OK campaign branding and messaging.

A senior reporter at the paper said the campaign generated more interest and feedback than any other campaign they have organised and that it was the most rewarding campaign he had worked on.

The paper not only received good feedback from readers but calls from people who are still in abusive relationships and people who have broken away from such relationships. They received calls from people from all walks of life and of all ages - one call was from a 90 year old woman. About a dozen people contacted the newspaper wanting to tell their story and the Chronicle says they will definitely revisit the topic.

CAF funding tops $2m

A further 35 projects have received funding from the Community Action Fund, taking the total spending to over $2m in the three rounds of funding announced so far.

The latest work to receive funding includes 11 new projects and 24 initiatives receiving funding for a second time. The campaign is currently supporting 55 projects throughout New Zealand. A new funding round will open in February, 2009.

Award winning CAF projects

Two Community Action Fund projects have received community awards in recognition of their work. A campaign to prevent family violence on the West Coast of the South Island won the prevention category in the inaugural West Coast DHB Community Health Awards. The second award winning project is the Tauranga Blow the Whistle on Violence campaign which received first prize at the New Zealand Community Safety and Injury Prevention awards. The campaign took classic rugby terminology and motifs and applied them to images and messages promoting healthy attitudes towards women, children and families. The campaign ran to coincide with the Rugby World Cup.

The Tauranga team will use their prize money as part of their next project a, family violence resource toolkit for employers."

Violence - free month in Nelson

The campaign team was involved in the launch of a Violence Free August campaign in Nelson. Street flags were displayed in the city throughout the month, promoting a violence free city. Vic Tamati from the campaign TV ads was one of the guest speakesr at the launch of the campaign.

Tainui Talks

The campaign team is working with Tainui Waikato who are developing an iwi strategy around family violence. We have provided them with information to support them in aligning their work to the national campaign and activities of the Maori Reference Group of the Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families.

Media training in big demand

Our media training and advocacy programme continues to be in big demand. Following a session with a group of Police family violence coordinators in Wellington, regional superintendents throughout New Zealand were told about the training and we are receiving many requests to repeat the programme in different police district.

The media training package has also been delivered to community spokespeople in Taupo, Rodney, Feilding/Kapiti, Wanganui, Dunedin and Rotorua. We have also provided the workshop to Age Concern in Auckland and to journalism students at the Aoraki Journalism School.

Ask Vic and Jude

Ask Vic, a section on our campaign website where Vic answers emails from people with questions about family violence is proving very popular. A new section will be added shortly where Jude Simpson will also answer emails. Jude a family violence advocate for Presbyterian Support Northern and a survivor of family violence speaks at many events around New Zealand and participates in training for the police.

Vic to prison

The four men who feature in our TV advertisements are in great demand. Vic Tamati recently spoke to inmates at Rimutaka prison about how he changed his life and was guest speaker at a number of events in Taupo, Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty last week, including a wellbeing expo in Rotorua.

Alfred on TV's Good Morning

Alfred Ngaro will appear on Good Morning TV shortly in a series of interviews about parenting. Alfred will talk about the ‘me and my dad' weekends he runs, dads and daughters, expectations around being a parent and dating. The first interview appears on 1 October.

Father's Day promotion

Alfred was involved in a Father's Day promotion with the Warehouse with Warehouse stores across New Zealand using Father's Day to promote a set of posters and booklets developed in partnership with the SKIP (Strategies for Kids; Information for Parents) team to celebrate what it means to be a Dad. SKIP worked with more than fifty dads who work at the Warehouse North Island Distribution Centre in South Auckland to produce the booklet which is based on real life stories, ideas and photos celebrating dads. The booklets were developed in conjunction with the campaign team and carried ‘It is OK to ask for help' branding.

Ad break

The campaign TV ads are off air now until December 14 when the It's not OK series will run again in the build up to Christmas, traditionally a stressful time in families.

Feedback

Relationship Services

We continue to get - and encourage - feedback about our campaign from frontline organisations working to prevent family violence. This came recently from Relationship Services. "One man talked about the impact of the ads saying: ‘I felt it was me up there on the screen. What they used to do, that is what I do. The kids would look at me and then the ad. I feel like a monster, the effects on them. The ads say ‘we can help you' so I wrote the number down. The ads bring tears to my eyes. If they can change, I can too."

Preventing Violence in the Home

Jane Drumm from PVH says they are seeing an enormous change in the way people are thinking about family violence and how they are responding to it. She said: We are getting a lot more ‘real' volunteers turning up for our Stopping Violence programme. These are guys that re coming along of their own volition rather than being told to attend by court or other people. One man said: ‘I saw those It's not OK ads and I was thinking about it ...I don't want my kids to be scared of me, so here I am."

Research

Reach and Retention

A third survey has been carried out to test the reach and retention of our TV ads. Previous surveys have shown that 89% of people surveyed are aware of the campaign and that about one in five people (19%) have taken some action as a result of the campaign. Results of the latest survey will be available next month.

Face to face survey

Our research team has now completed gathering data for a national face to face survey involving 2500 interviews. The survey explores violence towards women, inter-partner violence and child abuse. The data will be used to measure the attitudes of new Zealanders towards family violence and will allow for changes in attitudes to be measure over time at a national level and for specific groups of interest. Results from the survey will be available later in the year.

Community Study

Meanwhile, our community study is continuing and will provide an in depth analysis of the impact of the campaign from communities that represent different aspects of New Zealand society including ethnicity; socio-economic factors; urbanity and the level of social service. The study is being carried out in Porirua, Christchurch, Gisborne, Waitakere and Whangarei.

Your Feedback

We welcome feedback about the campaign and would like to receive your comments and information about any events or projects we may not know about. Please drop us a line via the campaign website at www.areyouok.org.nz.

 

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