'It's OK to help' wins Prime Minister's Award
Thu 04 Jul 2013
The Ministry of Social Development's ‘It’s OK to Help’ campaign has won the 2013 Prime Minister's Award for Public Sector Excellence. The ...
The Ministry of Social Development's ‘It’s OK to Help’ campaign has won the 2013 Prime Minister's Award for Public Sector Excellence. The Award recognises an initiative that has demonstrated excellence in both what it has achieved and how it has achieved it. The campaign also won the Excellence Award for Public Sector Communications.
Institute of Public Administration New Zealand (IPANZ) President John Larkindale said, "This initiative was based on ground-breaking research and collaboration with many agencies, local communities and those working in the field of family violence prevention."
"It demonstrated outstanding innovation and vision in its approach and achieved excellent results for all involved."
The Ministry of Social Development team developed the multi-media campaign to give family and whānau, friends and informal networks, the language, confidence and support to challenge violent behaviour.
Campaign Manager Trish Green said, "We commissioned ground breaking research into what type of help actually works for victims and perpetrators of family violence. This was really important as we know that only about 20% of New Zealanders seek help from services - most turn to family and friends first."
It's not OK reported that the number of people taking action as a result increased: of the 677 people interviewed, 307 had taken action around family violence in their home or community; and nearly two thirds of those who raised the issue of family violence with others said family or friends were seeking help as a result.
The It's not OK campaign also won the Prime Minister's Award in 2010.
Image: It's not OK campaign