Good AttaDUDES; His and Hers Heroes Under Construction
What makes a real hero? In the era of media sex and violence on demand, violent video games and action movies all available online, and with chilling accounts of real-life violence every day in the news, this is a question that needs to be asked. “Good AttaDUDES; His and Hers Heroes Under Construction” is a project that takes this on.
This ground breaking project is working with grade 8 youth (of both genders) in the lower mainland and other parts of BC to develop both an understanding of the root causes of violence against women and girls, and a “new-media literacy.” Participants will not only gain a critical understanding of the negative messages that flood youth culture in all media, but also how to create their own positive messages in a way that will be meaningful to their peers. The end goal of the project is for the youth team to help the messages they create “go viral,” using the web as a way to reach many more youth where they already are.
Using video and multi-media tools and training as part of a workshop process, grade 8 age youth of both genders are drawn into engaging with the issues in a way that is meaningful to them. Through exploring how to create a real “hero” youth learn, in a playful way, how to deconstruct stereotypical attitudes that may lead to violence while also gaining a “multi-media literacy” around how these messages are constructed in mainstream media.
Out of these workshops, and with their new awareness, they will create positive messages for their peers. During the second phase ideas that have come out of the larger workshop will be developed further, professionally supported in their production. In the third phase a core group of youth will be trained as media spokespeople and to use the internet to distribute their campaign. The project will be evaluated on multiple levels, to measure attitude shifts in the youth directly impacted, and how far their message has spread online.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Focus of activity
Education
Year the initiative began
2007
Position your initiative on the mosaic of solutions
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Aggressive Models Of Masculinity
Which of the insights is the primary focus of your work?
Create Paths to Prevention or Remediation
If you believe some other barrier or insight should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic
Name Your Project
Good AttaDUDES; His and Hers Heroes Under Construction
Describe Your Idea
What makes a real hero? In the era of media sex and violence on demand, violent video games and action movies all available online, and with chilling accounts of real-life violence every day in the news, this is a question that needs to be asked. “Good AttaDUDES; His and Hers Heroes Under Construction” is a project that takes this on.
This ground breaking project is working with grade 8 youth (of both genders) in the lower mainland and other parts of BC to develop both an understanding of the root causes of violence against women and girls, and a “new-media literacy.” Participants will not only gain a critical understanding of the negative messages that flood youth culture in all media, but also how to create their own positive messages in a way that will be meaningful to their peers. The end goal of the project is for the youth team to help the messages they create “go viral,” using the web as a way to reach many more youth where they already are.
Using video and multi-media tools and training as part of a workshop process, grade 8 age youth of both genders are drawn into engaging with the issues in a way that is meaningful to them. Through exploring how to create a real “hero” youth learn, in a playful way, how to deconstruct stereotypical attitudes that may lead to violence while also gaining a “multi-media literacy” around how these messages are constructed in mainstream media.
Out of these workshops, and with their new awareness, they will create positive messages for their peers. During the second phase ideas that have come out of the larger workshop will be developed further, professionally supported in their production. In the third phase a core group of youth will be trained as media spokespeople and to use the internet to distribute their campaign. The project will be evaluated on multiple levels, to measure attitude shifts in the youth directly impacted, and how far their message has spread online.
Innovation
Description of Initiative
What makes a real hero? In the era of media sex and violence on demand, violent video games and action movies all available online, and with chilling accounts of real-life violence every day in the news, this is a question that needs to be asked. “Good AttaDUDES; His and Hers Heroes Under Construction” is a project that takes this on.
This ground breaking project is working with grade 8 youth (of both genders) in the lower mainland and other parts of BC to develop both an understanding of the root causes of violence against women and girls, and a “new-media literacy.” Participants will not only gain a critical understanding of the negative messages that flood youth culture in all media, but also how to create their own positive messages in a way that will be meaningful to their peers. The end goal of the project is for the youth team to help the messages they create “go viral,” using the web as a way to reach many more youth where they already are.
Using video and multi-media tools and training as part of a workshop process, grade 8 age youth of both genders are drawn into engaging with the issues in a way that is meaningful to them. Through exploring how to create a real “hero” youth learn, in a playful way, how to deconstruct stereotypical attitudes that may lead to violence while also gaining a “multi-media literacy” around how these messages are constructed in mainstream media.
Out of these workshops, and with their new awareness, they will create positive messages for their peers. During the second phase ideas that have come out of the larger workshop will be developed further, professionally supported in their production. In the third phase a core group of youth will be trained as media spokespeople and to use the internet to distribute their campaign. The project will be evaluated on multiple levels, to measure attitude shifts in the youth directly impacted, and how far their message has spread online.
Innovation
This project builds a new model to integrate much needed critical thinking skills, with message making and distribution.
The integration of education in the issues, with hands-on skills building in multi-media, supported by professionals, is what makes this project highly innovative. Ours is a commitment to a process model that treats youth as experts of their own experience, while re-presenting them as heroes to their peers, fully supported by the best video, graphic design, music and effects that can be professionally supplied to bring their ideas to life.
In addition we will have the youth involved learn how to focus test their ideas and in so doing they will they will learn not only how to make effective messages, but how to know when and why these messages work, or why not. They will have moved beyond self-awareness to an understanding of how their own friends form their attitudes, and why. This is particularly effective when dealing with the impasse (created and supported by mainstream society) between how young women and young men think, feel, and behave.
The delivery model itself is also groundbreaking, as we will make use of all the tools that the “web 2.0” has to offer to make our positive messages “go viral.” This will be combined with outreach to mainstream media, and good old fashioned offline networking and partnerships.
Delivery Model
This project will use the web to reach youth where they already are, and youth themselves will educate us on how to reach them. Through a network of linking and track-back mechanisms, we will unleash our messages on YouTube, MySpace, HelloCoolWorld and elsewhere in cyberspace. Key messages will all be branded with an overarching project “message brand” that will also lead to a central portal page where links and key content can be updated. However, the goal will be to disperse the branding not contain it, as that is how a project goes “viral”.
We will also create a project launch offline, celebrating youth culture, and allowing for the kind of offline community building that helps feed the momentum and excitement. We will use this as an opportunity to spread our key messages and branding offline, in the form of items like stickers and temporary tattoos.
Key Operational Partnerships
The project is a partnership between WAVAW and Good Company Communications. WAVAW brings over 25 years of work in dealing with the root cause analysis of violence against women to the process. Their feminist anti-oppression models will be refined to focus on this project’s main target audience (grade 8 youth of both genders) and to dovetail with new media experts Good Company Communications’ multi-media production and distribution model. Both partners are “networks of networks” and intend to use this notion of networking to further the reach and effectiveness of the project.
Good Company Communications (most famous for their work on Canada’s top documentary The Corporation) has been using new media as a teaching tool as well as an end product, with an emphasis on using the web to distribute innovative and persuasive content since they formed in 2001. With hands-on youth projects like Planetahead.ca (Vancouver Coastal Health) the workshop series “Star in Your Own Stories” (Chee Mamuk, BC CDC), also entered in this contest, and the recent launch of the Won’t Get Weird viral campaign (bc.wontgetweird.com, Options For Sexual Health) they are poised to be one of the most innovative social marketing companies in Canada. www.HelloCoolWorld.com.
WAVAW (Women Against Violence Against Women) Rape Crisis Centre is a non-profit organization that has been providing sexual assault support services to women and youth in the Greater Vancouver area since 1982.
Impact
Financial Model
This program is provided free-of-charge to participants.
What percentage, if any, of the total operating costs does earned income (from products, services, or other fees) represent?
0
How is the initiative financed? Is it financially self-sustainable or profitable? How much do beneficiaries contribute?
We received provincial government funding through a partners in Prevention Grant from the Ministry of Community Services for $150,000. The remainder of the budget of close to $200,000 is being provided in-kind by the partners, who are also exploring other funding options. In this pilot stage, the workshops will be provided free of charge to the youth/communities. However, the educational component of the model may be exportable, for a fee, in future as a way of sustaining the project. In addition, the use of the creative concepts may be licensed to other like-minded organizations for use in offline print, or television campaigns.
Effectiveness
This project is in the development stage.
How many people have benefited from your program over the last year? Which element of the program proved itself most effective?
We have not yet finished the pilot project, but based on our experiences with other projects we can reach out exponentially through a launch of the project to the 30 youth, their friends, families and communities. This could easily amount to 1000 people directly affected.
Once the viral campaign is launched, this could grow to a much, much larger number. We are developing evaluation criteria to set up success indictors and to track the impacts of the project.
Scaling up Strategy
Good Company Communications and WAVAW have an interest in making this model available for other groups to use, and/or offering licensing of the creative to other groups for far less than the cost of hiring an ad agency to do the work. In addition, Good Company is building a business model based on providing a social marketing “best-practices” approach to projects such as this. Their multi-media process model can be adapted to other issues, although they have a track record and a keen interest in anti-violence projects, and bring a gendered root cause analysis to all their projects. There are few groups who can combine the savvy of an ad agency with the collaborative approach with both clients and the target markets. This process could be marketed.
Stage of the Initiative
0
Origin of the Initiative
This initiative originated in response to a grant offered to projects that adressed violence prevention with men and boys. Too often we let peer pressure and violence in the media be the excuses for not shifting the stereotypes. No more! Through this project youth will demonstrate that they have the peer power to join forces in attacking the stereotypes instead of each other.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate?
We heard of this contest through our partners on the 'Stand True- Star in our own Stories' project, who have also applied. Our main incentive to participate is to be involved in the open source sharing of project ideas.
Main Obstacles to Scaling Up
Our main obstacle is mainting funding for operations costs in a project-based model.
Main Financial Challenges
Our main financial challenge is to adequately fund our operations while sustaining our projects.
Main Partnership Challenges
Our main partnership challenge is distributing funding across a partnership in a way to sustain operations for all partners.
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