Great youth response to anti-violence campaign
"Violence: It's not OK, but it's OK to ask for help", and "Violence-free Golden Bay - it's up to you".
Golden Bay's anti-violence co-ordinator, Emma Brazendale, is bringing these two important messages to our community. Emma's major week-long focus will culminate tomorrow on Takaka's Village Green. Emma and some helpers will be there in specially designed T-shirts, spreading the message and distributing prizes.
"I'll have a prize for anyone who comes up to me, or someone else wearing a violence-free T-shirt, who says one of the messages of the campaign," said Emma.
During the week, Emma has been visiting the Bay's schools and talking at their assemblies. She has been very pleased with the response she has been getting. "The kids at Collingwood Area School were fantastic," said Emma. "They were really on to it - both the big violence messages and the small ways that violence can happen every day."
Emma says that one of the best ways to change the way society views violence is to work with young people. "My sense is that many young people know we really can change things," said Emma. "And with young people we have a chance to break the cycle forever."
Emma says that the nationwide campaign is beginning to have measurable results. "I've only been working since June," she said. "But in places where co-ordinators have been working for a year or more the figures are quite startling. Domestic violence figures actually go up in these areas - that's because people are more likely to report incidents. Hopefully, in the next phase, the figures start to decrease because society becomes less violent."
Emma says that working alone in the field of violence prevention has its challenges. "In a small community like ours it's harder to mobilise lots of agencies to help to spread the message. I'm pretty much on my own but the Golden Bay Community Workers are amazingly supportive. They see the violence and work with the results, so they're as passionate as I am about changing things."
So how will Emma know if she has been successful? "No individual, no policy and no campaign can change the way society thinks and behaves," said Emma. "The policies and campaigns encourage people to make changes in themselves."
So, violence-free Golden Bay ... it's up to you.
Neil Wilson
