Conversations for Change – Media and Communications Strategy

Conversations for Change – Media and Communications Strategy

Lead Organisation

WA Centre for Rural Health

Partners

Community Respect and Equality, Geraldton

Region of Project

City of Greater Geraldton

Target Group

Funded by

Healthway Research Grant

Contact

Dr Sandra Thompson, Director / Professor of Rural Health, University of Western Australia

Project overview

To increase community understanding of the underlying drivers of violence against women and children, to enhance awareness of the Community Respect and Equality (CRE) initiative and organisations’ commitment to FV prevention, and to begin shifting attitudes and social norms relevant to family violence prevention in the Geraldton community through consistent and targeted messaging.

Duration of initiative

Ongoing commitment to primary prevention

Conversations for Change finishes June 2022

Evaluation

Evaluation is part of the project but we have no results available to share yet.

Project process


  1. The Conversations for Change team engaged with journalists to promote best practice reporting of family violence and related issues in Geraldton. Student projects analysing the framing of family violence in the Geraldton media produced data showing how journalists in Geraldton could improve reporting to avoid victim-blaming and the ‘erasure’ of perpetrators.

  2. Organisations signed up to the Community Respect and Equality (CRE) Plan in Geraldton nominated a representative to be part of a ‘Leading Lights’ communications action group. The group meets regularly to develop messaging that promotes gender equality and awareness of family violence that is relevant to their organisational contexts and disseminate these through various communications channels (organisational networks, traditional media, social media and community events).

  3. The Conversations for Change communications team works in partnership with the Leading Lights group, to develop community messaging and media engagement opportunities to promote primary prevention messaging to the broader community in a locally relevant and engaging way.

Project achievement and successes


  • Ongoing engagement and contribution to content development and dissemination by Leading Lights member organisations to reach different segments of the community.

  • Continued growth in facebook followers and post engagement

  • Regular uptake by mainstream media of press releases from the Conversations for Change team

  • Growth in the number of organisations involved in the CRE and Leading Lights

Issues and challenges during this project


  • Keeping focused on challenging the gendered drivers rather than generalised discussions about family violence that have a tendency to get stuck in a tertiary response rather than in the primary prevention space.

  • Ensuring all team members understand how to clearly communicate with stakeholders about challenging the gendered drivers of family violence without colluding or reinforcing.

  • Framing messaging in a manner that is compliant with communications guidelines of risk averse partner organisations and relevant to their stakeholders while maintaining a meaningful key message.

Advice for others doing this type of work

Engaging a local ‘Leading Lights’ group is a great way to bring together creative and committed individuals who are empowered to promote gender equality and challenge violence using their organisations’ various media platforms. Focus discussions with stakeholders on a particular driver and action to challenge that driver will enable the conversations to be more informative for participants and will be more likely to achieve the desired outcome.

Resources

Preventing Violence Together logo
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