It’s Not OK Update
The Community Action Fund (CAF) is a key part of the Government's Campaign for Action on Family Violence and has funded 97 community projects since it began.
CAF is intended to support locally developed initiatives to prevent family violence and change community attitudes towards family violence. Projects range from media campaigns to street flags to community wide strategies. A few of the funded projects are described below.
Igniting Change, funded in the first CAF round, is a local campaign in the Canterbury region which aims to show people the affects of family violence and what they can do to prevent it. This campaign is long term and multi faceted with components that include a survey of community attitudes, raising visibility with billboards on buses, wristbands and displays, as well as developing strategies with the local business community.
Ngati Kahungunu, one of the largest iwi according to the 2006 Census, was funded to develop Whakamoe Patu, a project which supports rangatahi (young people) in developing performances based on experiences of family violence. Rangatahi participate in workshops and wananga (discussions) leading up to the production, raising their awareness around all forms of violence and the impact that violence has on the lives of those affected. This initiative comes out of the Ngati Kahungunu Violence Iwi Strategy.
Their original drama Whakamoe Moe Patu - Lay Your Arms to Rest toured the lower half of the North Island to widespread acclaim.
Projects focusing on creating violence-free environments in neighbourhoods,
sports clubs, marae and businesses have been funded in a number of places.
The next round of CAF applications is open now and runs through 31 March 2009. Projects which focus on making protecting children and older people everyone's business will be prioritised.
For more information go to www.areyouok.org.nz
If you are thinking of applying please call CAF before you start writing your application to discuss your project ideas.
Contact Cristy Trewartha on 04 916 3922 or Sally Rye-Dunn on 04 9784190.
Reach and retention
A tracking survey which measures the reach and retention of the TV advertisements from the first two phases of the mass media campaign for Action on Family Violence tell us that people are getting the message.
The data was collected through a telephone survey; overall 889 persons aged 18 to 49 years were included in the survey. Recall of the Campaign was high; 95% of the total sample recalled something from September 2008. These results are from the third tracking survey and this was an increase from 87% in the first tracking survey in November 2007 and 89% in the second tracking survey in April 2008.
Over one in five people (22%) who have seen the TV advertisements reported taking some action as a result. The most common actions reported by those who recalled the advertisements were:
- talked to family or friends about violence (14%)
- obtained information about family violence (8%)
- contacted some other organisation, professional or community leader to talk about violence they were worried about (5%).
For more information, go to www.nzfvc.org.nz/Initiatives.aspx
