It’s not OK campaignChanging the world one community at a time

Ministry of Social Development

www.areyouok.org.nz

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”

Margaret Wheatley

Understanding family violence

Scope

Partner abuse

Child abuse & neglect

Elder abuse & neglect

Dating violence

Violence in the wider family (e.g. by siblings, aunties, cousins; towards parents)

Essential facts

Family violence effects all New Zealanders, it happens everywhere

Women and children are more often harmed, controlled and fearful, but men can experience family violence too

Most family violence is a crime

We need everybody to do something

It’s not OK Campaign

What do we want to change?

• increase knowledge and understanding of family violence

• increase peoples’ willingness and confidence to give and receive help

• encourage the involvement of family, neighbours and community members

• create a social climate that supports behaviour change

• address the social norms that promote or support the tolerance of family violence

People’s beliefs and actions are influenced by their family, the community or neighbourhood they live in, by our social norms – both positively and negatively

Changing the whole world

Our approach

Social change focus – intentionality, creating a supportive environment for change

– social marketing, 'Selling' a better life, audience focus

Partnerships – govt/NGO/public– community development / community mobilisation

Complexity– observation, research, learning as you go, flexibility

– holding the space and letting go, tight/loose

Intentionality

• problem definition

• clear attitude and behaviour change objectiveshow will they contribute to long-term goal?

• audience(s) focusoften, target audiences for behaviour change are not the ‘at risk’

population

• exchange/reciprocitywhy will people think or act differently?

• plan, measure, adapt – re-plan, measure, adapt

Audience focus

• What matters are the audience’s needs and wants

• We must respect their perceptions and their realities

• Audience research really important…(easy to make assumptions)

• What are we offering?

• Need to recognise that there is a significant cost involved (financial, social, emotional)

How can we reduce the costs/barriers of choosing what we are offering?

“Exchange/reciprocity”

It’s not OK - 2007

defining family violence and what is not OK

It is OK to ask for help - 2008

showing that change is possible and help is available

It is OK to help - 2010

encouraging people to take effective action when they know about family violence

Development of the Campaign

Activities of the campaign

Mass media

Community action

Resources and tools

Communications and media

Champions

Capacity building in communities

Research and evaluation

Community action

Recently, community mobilisation projects have taken a whole-of-community approach:

•local key messages•champions•media•training•community events•subgroups within a community

Whole of community

Towns and Neighbourhoods

Sports communities

Messaging & branding in club rooms, fields

Provide information to players, families, sponsors

Training for champions

Fair play awards

Non-violence pledges

Leadership programmes and work in schools

Club policies

CULTURE CHANGE

Businesses and workplaces

Talk to people about what family violence is

Put posters and helping resources around the workplace

Train HR and managers

Support for workers (policies and contracts)

SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENTS

Ethnic and migrant communities

What works well?

“Workforce development” for communities:

•media training

•“community change” and “social change” workshops

•project planning tools

•“how to help” workshops

•advocacy tools and resources

Increasing capacity

What works well?Increasing capacity

Champions of change

Increase knowledge and understanding

Show change is possible

Challenge cultural and social norms

The faces of a social movement – men leading change

More people are seeking help, more readily, earlier than usual

We are igniting the potential for helping that exists within families, whanau and communities. Monitoring survey shows:

– 1 in 3 people taking action (up from 1 in 5 in previous survey)

– for Maori, 45% taking action and for Pacific 50%

– big shift in the number of people who now believe they could influence someone else’s behaviour – from 57% to 81%

Impact of It is OK to help

New kind of helper, the “emerging helper”– not comfortable taking action, but doing so

anyway

Reporting to Police has doubled - 50,000 before the campaign, 100,000 now

It’s not OK has given New Zealanders a language to use

− “Are you OK?” a Mason’s handshake

Impact of It is OK to help

What we've learnt

Be positive, inspiring

Tell stories

Use champions

Be open to new partners

Flexibility

Research, constant observation

Audience focus

Let go – be led by local people

Light touch support

Go where the magic is

Thank YouAny questions?

It’s not OK campaign | www.areyouok.org.nz0800 456 450 | areyouok@msd.govt.nz

Campaign for Action on Family Violence | An initiative of the Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families