Promising Practice Programs

Women's Health Statewide & Yarrow Place Rape and Sexual Assault Service

55 King William Road
North Adelaide
SA
5063

Vanessa Swan (Director: Yarrow Place)
Ann-Marie Hayes ( Director: Women's Health Statewide)

P: (08) 8226 8777
F: (08) 8226 8778
E: swanv@mail.wch.sa.gov.au

Bus Campaign:

Introduction:
The '16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence' Campaign was a highly successful collaborative venture between government and non-government organisations to raise awareness of the prevalence of adults who have been subjected to childhood sexual abuse and the importance of listening and believing adults who have been subjected to sexual abuse during childhood when they disclose.

The importance and uniqueness of this campaign should not be underestimated. It was the first awareness-raising event in the world to focus on the experiences of adults subjected to sexual abuse during childhood. This evaluation highlights the importance of the 2002 campaign and the value of a follow on campaign in the future.

The Working Party invites decision makers to continue to work together in collaboration using health promotion principles to encourage change in the community to support adults subjected to sexual abuse during childhood.

Target Group:
The general Adelaide community was the target group. Those expected to benefit from this campaign would be women and men in the community who have been subjected to sexual abuse during childhood. With this in mind the Working Party aimed to be accountable to the general public but ultimately to the women and men it sought to support.

Aim:
The aim of the Adelaide campaign was to link with the international '16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence' Campaign to:

• Raise the consciousness of the general community about the prevalence of adults subjected to sexual abuse during childhood.
• Highlight the importance of listening to and believing adults when they disclose sexual abuse that occurred in childhood.

Slogans used are as follows:

• 1 in 3 women are survivors of childhood sexual abuse; we are your grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters, partners, cousins, friends... Listen, believe, make our journey easier...
• 1 in 6 men are survivors of childhood sexual abuse; we are your grandfather, fathers, brothers, sons, partners, cousins, friends... Listen, Believe, make our journey easier...

Objectives:

Objective 1: To develop, design and promote with key stakeholders an advertising campaign that elevates the level of consciousness in the general community about the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse using the '16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence' international campaign as a platform.

Objective 2: To build the capacity of the community to respond appropriately to disclosures made by adults subjected to sexual abuse during childhood.

Strategies for Objectives:

• Develop and design an advertisement to be displayed on Adelaide buses over the 16 Days of Activism.
• Develop and design posters to be available to organisations and others in the community.
• Create a logo or symbol to be used as a representation for adults subjected to sexual abuse during childhood.
• Hold a launch to draw the media, departmental and political decision makers to the campaign, which will include a speech by a well-known South Australian personality.
• Develop an "Avant Card" postcard to be distributed to community areas (cafes, cinemas and retail outlets).
• Develop, design and promote a pamphlet for partners, family members and friends of adults subjected to sexual abuse during childhood.

Postcard Campaign:

These postcards were developed by the UK "Truthaboutrape" campaign to make clear the truth about rape in an imaginative and thought-provoking way.
They like to use humour and shock to stimulate and challenge people's perceptions and assumptions about rape.
All postcards consist of a pair of myths followed by the strapline, for example:

"It's surprising what some people still believe". ... followed by a "Truth" or fact line of copy.

The final "Truth" line on the cards read:

• Truth: Women of all ages, backgrounds and races get raped.
• Truth: Men are responsible for whether they rape or not.
• Truth: Rape is always a crime - whether he's a relative, friend, acquaintance or stranger.
• Truth: Women are raped every day in this country.
• Truth: Men who rape lie about it. Truth: Rape is a form of control not a loss of control.

Our objective is to adapt and/or further develop postcards from the UK "Truthaboutrape" campaign to a South Australian context.

• Takes account of contemporary research and practice developments in the field of sexual assault.
• Contributes to improving systems' responses to sexual assault, and is directed at preventing sexual assault.
• Demonstrates a sensitivity towards the barriers faced by victim/survivors in disclosing and reporting sexual assault.
• Includes processes of accountability and evaluation.
• Demonstrates a capacity for replication (i.e. other services/organisations could adapt/re-model the program for their use).

The Philosophy for this program incorporates:

• A Feminist view of the rape victim's rights approach.
• An understanding of the barriers associated with disclosing sexual assault.

"It's not my shame", Holden (2002):
This research project carried out in Adelaide to explore the current service needs of adults subjected to CSA indicated that the most unhelpful responses that survivors had to deal with in the community were disbelief or minimisation of their experience.

Women's Safety Australia, Australian Bureau of Statistics (1996):
This research found that many women felt guilt and shame following rape because they blamed themselves for the assault.

Women's Health Statewide 16 days of action evaluation:
http://www.whs.sa.gov.au/pub/16_days_evaluation.pdf

Truthaboutrape website: http://www.truthaboutrape.co.uk/

Post cards can be sent online at: http://www.whs.sa.gov.au/postcards.php

There are no set criteria to evaluate this type of awareness raising activity. The criteria utilised in the full report looked at Bus Campaign outcomes:

• Demand and distribution for posters and postcards,
• Creation of an identity e.g. dandelion, and
• Anecdotal stories from workers.

An unexpected outcome which was discovered when evaluation was undertaken with survivor groups was the positive therapeutic impact on women in the groups. Feedback from workers indicated how indicate it was to be doing something about an issue they had been working with for years. See full report for detailed evaluation.