Everyday Communities Expand To Auckland, Whanganui

29 April 2002

Everyday Communities Expands To Auckland And Whanganui

The award-winning Everyday Communities educational programme to improve child well-being and prevent abuse is being expanded today into Whanganui and to Pacific communities in Auckland.

“The theme of Everyday Communities is that all New Zealanders have a part to play in preventing child abuse and caring for our children,” says Child, Youth and Family’s chief executive Jackie Pivac.

“New Zealanders are no longer prepared to tolerate child abuse and Everyday Communities helps local people develop local solutions to local issues.”

The expansion of the programme follows the very successful Everyday Communities pilot launched by Child, Youth and Family and its community partners in Whakatane last year. The pilot won the Communication Agencies Association best use of radio award.

Everyday Communities involves Government agencies, community groups and the public in an educational programme that uses local radio to promote messages by local people, programmes to encourage well-being and community activities.

In Auckland, seven separate Pacific communities will all be involved in promoting messages on radio, hosting talkback shows and providing interview panels for radio, as well as taking part in a range of community-based activities.

Whanganui’s Everyday Communities programme has adopted a Martin Luther King theme with a “We have a dream” slogan, reflecting the idea that communities, families, whanau and individuals can all work towards a vision of what they want in terms of the well-being of children.

Radio messages by local people, a weekly radio programme on promoting well-being and preventing abuse, and community activities will be features of the Whanganui programme.

“The overall aim of the Everyday Communities programme has been to encourage local communities to discuss solutions to the particular child welfare issues that are relevant to their area,” says CYF’s public education team leader Marlane Welsh-Morris.
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“Whakatane’s Everyday Communities programme has led to a significant uptake in people accessing self-help resources, such as videos and books, on parenting. Local agencies have also been working together even better on child welfare issues. We are confident of repeating that success in Auckland and Whanganui, and in other centres we will eventually take the programme to,” says Ms Welsh-Morris.

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