What’s the plan for 2017?

The 2017 campaign is progressing well. Our 2016 campaign research findings showed the need for further focus on the following areas:

• Respectful relationships between men and women
• ‘Consent’ as a necessary requirement of all sexual relationships
•  Men challenging the attitudes and behaviours of other men
• Empowering fathers (and other male influencers) to develop their son’s (young boys/men’s) respectful behaviour through the use of on-line toolboxes.

To make this happen, we will be hosting workshops with a prominent White Ribbon co-founder, Michael Kaufman and producing a short film that will increase awareness and encourage discussions about ‘respectful relationships’ and creating a range of resouces to help ensure men (and all caregivers) have the confidence to talk about ‘respectful relationships’ and ‘respectful sexual relationships’ with their sons (and all children).

The 2017 White Ribbon Ride preparation is underway with revised routes in both the North and South Islands. We aim to further empower communities to come together and support each other to promote the campaign. These communities will see volunteers, Ambassadors and community groups working as a united front to help increase our year-long presence.

We also aim to increase the number of workplace accreditations for NZ businesses. This is an important step in enabling businesses and organisations to effectively integrate violence prevention into their business practices and talk to their customers.