2021 CAMPAIGN

In 2021 please join us to

Shine a Light on Violence Prevention

It has been a tough year for many, and we wanted to take the time to bring together the work we’ve done over the past few years to make the core principles of violence prevention clear. We want to focus in on what we know works to help prevent violence, and ensure people truly understand the many facets of abuse and how to intervene to help. We are also making sure that we tailor our resources to a wider range of groups so that they are useful and relevant to all New Zealanders.

Men’s domestic and sexual violence toward women is persistent – but can be changed. Our brief is to encourage change towards a better, healthier version of men’s masculinity (where boys/men can be who they want to be and express emotions). The more men that talk about having respectful relationships and different ways of being men, the more this is behaviour can be seen as normal.

Shine a Light on violence prevention

White Ribbon has already focused on promoting aspects of healthy masculinity within our Respectful Relationships framework. Here we want to draw some of these threads together and empower the community to take action. In our 2021 campaign we aim to link together resources and information to help show the diversity of the issues, and offer ways to effect change. To do so, our focus is on educating and promoting four key behaviours:

• Healthy Masculinity
• Respectful Relationships
• Consent
• Call-in Culture

This campaign is also an opportunity to highlight the diversity of whānau/families and relationships:

• LGBTQI+
• Multi-generational families
• Elder Abuse
• The disabled and the high rates of abuse they suffer
• Relationships between young people
• Different cultures (Māori and Pacific).

The White Ribbon Ride 2021

Using the White Ribbon torches designed and created by NZDF in 2016, the three Rides traversing New Zealand will listen to people’s stories, collecting them and ensuring people’s voices and stories are heard. This will include both perpetrators and survivors. Please complete the Registration of Interest form if you would like to host the Ride. Plans are in place for operation at Level 2 or below. Ride page here. Registration of Interest Form here.

This November we will be Shining a Light on Violence Prevention

We are asking organisations to take part by:

• Lighting up one of your buildings at night on the 25^th of November
• Putting out a media release that supports the key messages of the campaign
• Sharing in your media channels a violence prevention story from one of the many organisations or individuals that undertake violence prevention
• Encouraging staff and the public to wear white ribbons this White Ribbon Day (Thursday 25^th November)
• Meeting with the White Ribbon Riders (3 Rides across NZ) as riders hear stories of change from communities
• Organising events highlighting the issue, if you would like a White Ribbon Ambassador to speak please get in touch

We are asking individuals to take part by:

• Sharing your stories with us (anonymously if you prefer) so we can help people understand that domestic violence affects people from all socio-economic groups and whether you are a survivor or former perpetrator – we can show those stuck in abusive relationships that change is possible
• Talking about respectful relationships, consent, healthy masculinity and using call-in culture tactics to connect with friends (#Unspoken Rules and Challenging the #Outdated can be an easy way into discussing these issues)
• Sharing White Ribbon posts on Facebook
• Wearing a white ribbon this White Ribbon Day (Thursday 25^th November) and telling anyone who asks about what it means
• Meeting with the White Ribbon Riders (3 Rides across NZ) as Riders hear stories of change from communities
• Encouraging local organisations to light up their spaces at night on the 25^th of November
• Attending local events to spread the kaupapa

The Shine a Light poster above is just a draft and we plan to release the campaign poster as a pdf, a flyer and infographics in early November, which can be downloaded and printed.

As we don’t have the funding to produce t-shirts this year, we have discounted the cost of our existing t-shirts to $15 for the next five weeks to encourage as many supporters as possible to wear White Ribbon t-shirts this November. We have a range of designs to choose from, so please check out our sale page. Enter this code at the checkout: WBYKRXS5M0FQ, when you enter your shipping details for the discount to be applied.

If you are organising an event, please add it to our online events list and send through any promotional material to contact@whiteribbon.org.nz so that we can help promote your event through our social media channels.

If there’s anything we can do to assist you in Shining a Light on Violence Prevention this November please get in touch at the email address above anytime. As more resources become available we will include them here so please check back next month.