Everyday Communities - A public education programme to prevent child abuse, neglect

Author

Gwenda Rueg

Speaker

Gwenda Ruegg

Organisation

Department of Child Youth and Family Services, Whakatane, New Zealand

Children Are Our Treasure
He taonga nui a tatou tamariki
Everyday Communities is a child abuse, neglect and family violence prevention programme which uses a process of community engagement. Delivered in selected communities through a partnership between CYF and local community personnel, it includes a locally developed and delivered communications campaign and a calendar of community events.

Its overarching goal is:
All New Zealanders act to achieve safety and wellbeing for all children.

Primary objective: To redistribute the responsibility for child abuse, neglect and family violence across the community.

Approach:

focus on community strengths
acknowledge that child abuse and neglect require a community response
employ local solutions for local issues
create a vision for the future.
use radio as the key mechanism to drive a cultural change in attitudes toward child abuse,
neglect and family violence.

The challenge: To facilitate an interactive approach, and to lead individuals and the community to ownership of the prevention of child abuse, neglect and family violence.

Practice tools:

Community-sponsored media including indigenous media
Collaboration of community social service agencies
Comprehensive communications and events strategy
Targeted collateral to support the programme.

Whakatane - the first pilot community
The programme was first piloted in the provincial community of Whakatane, New Zealand. The first six-week pilot was an overwhelming success and resulted in a unanimous request from the community for continuation. The programme was then extended over 12 months and expanded to include three discreet focuses, i.e. child abuse, neglect and family violence.

Presentation brief

Overview of the programme's goal, objectives and principles
Presentation of visual aids/audio
Methodology for taking the programme into a community
The programme at work in the Whakatane community
Evaluation results and future direction.

Positive outcomes

Increased collaboration between agencies and services
Responsible reporting from the community to the government agency
Greater confidence by the general public to self-refer to community organisations
Agreement that child abuse is a community responsibility and should be a priority focus

Measured results at a glance

	Feb-Apr 2002	Dec 2002
People who do not believe that child abuse/ neglect/family violence is the community's responsibility	22%	15%
People who believed that "the wellbeing of the children and prevention of child abuse/ neglect/ family violence is the most important issue for the community to go forward".	36%	47%

Biography

My role within the Department of Child Youth and Family Services, New Zealand is Caregiver and Community Liaison Social Worker. I have worked for 9 years recruiting, training and assessing prospective Caregivers for children and young people who come to the attention of the Department. Continued support and training is maintained for all caregivers within my community.

The role of Community Liaison Social worker is that of public education and collaborative work amongst all sectors of the community in the formulation and implementation of reporting policies. Within this role, the education of the public and community in general in recognition of the signs and indicators of abuse and neglect and the reporting of family violence is a high priority. This has enabled me to work with our local Iwi, Pacific Peoples and other ethnic groups making up the geographical area of my work.

I am committed to public awareness that children should be listened to and heard when they are feeling safe to tell someone of the abuse, neglect or family violence that they believe they are suffering, and the public education programme Everyday Communities has made this possible for many of our children and young people.