Project succeeds in raising awareness of family violence in Waihi

An evaluation of the three month 'It's not OK' family violence campaign held in Waihi last year has been released.

The evaluation focused on the effectiveness of the campaign and key lessons learnt for the development of similar future campaigns.

It showed that the project succeeded in raising awareness of the effect of family violence, especially where alcohol is involved, on children in Waihi

Key findings were:
• the campaign raised public discussions about family violence and its links with alcohol
• half of the 100 respondents in the street survey who agreed to answer the questionnaire were aware of the campaign
• the predominant messages were ‘anti-violence’ and ‘It’s not OK’, with a smaller number of respondents identifying both family violence and alcohol together as the message.
• 27 per cent of respondents were optimistic about the impact of the campaign - many of these respondents suggested that the campaign had succeeded by publicising the issues and where to go for help
• having local faces champion the campaign and localised messages worked well
• Child Youth and Family services noticed a consistently higher rate of referrals from the Waihi area in the three months following the campaign

The project was a joint venture between Hauraki District Council, Waikato DHB's Population Health, NZ Police, and the Hauraki Family Violence Intervention Network and was launched in July 2010.

The project was also the first in the country to secure the backing of two high profile national campaigns to drive home a local message - the Family Violence 'It’s not OK' campaign and the Alcohol Advisory Council 'Ease up on the drink' campaign.

Hauraki Mayor John Tregidga said "The campaign was about raising awareness and understanding that growing up around violence harms children and from the evaluation, we can see the project has gone a long way in achieving its goal.

"We can’t change behaviour overnight but if we can get people to realise the effect their behaviour is having on their children then we’ve made a good start."

Visit the Population Health page for more information.

Or http://www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/news/pageid/2145870522/Local_campaign_succeeds_in_raising_awareness