How Do You Know You Are Making a Difference?

At HCR, this question is always at the forefront of our minds. Our programs often tackle complex social policy issues that defy easy solutions. These problems are intricate, messy, and profoundly challenging, which is precisely why they remain unresolved.

 As an HCR family, we constantly seek ways to evaluate the effectiveness of our projects. This pursuit led me to embark on a small research project focused on measuring these challenging problems. This journey of learning and reflection inspired me to consider how our findings could be applied across various settings.

We trialled an innovative approach in a community alliance project in Geraldton, Western Australia, addressing family violence. This pilot project proved to be a valuable learning experience. We gained significant insights and continue to learn and grow. Eager to share our findings, we disseminated them to the health promotion community in Australia. Recognising the importance and impact of our work, it was published in their peer-reviewed journal, which you can access here.

Through this experience, we have reinforced our understanding that communication for development (change) plays a crucial role in building healthier and stronger communities. We remain committed to using our skills and knowledge to support communities around the world.

Halfway point for the Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015 a comprehensive blueprint was outlined by all United Nations member states to build a world where we could all thrive, known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). The 17 goals were an urgent call for action, centred on calling on global partnership to address these challenging goals worldwide.  This weekend marks the half-way mark for the goals at the SDG summit. While we are a small not-for-profit, we still believe in making worldwide impact so that all people can flourish. Our approach to working with communities focusses on place-based approaches to building community partnerships (with our community media expertise) so we align strongly with the SDGs. In partnership with WickedLab, we recently conducted a contribution analysis of our HCR projects in Australia and then wider with our HCR family around the world (with our global partners Amplifying Voices) to analyse what goals we are working towards collectively in all our projects.

As highlighted, we are working across majority of the goals, however, global partnerships remain key for all our projects. Working together is how we aim to help build healthier communities for all. We look forward to the re-alignment of the global goals during the upcoming summit and call on more global partnership so all can thrive around the world.

Meeka Wellbeing Stories

By Celeste Larkins

Last year, we spent some time in Meekatharra working with the community to develop local radio and video messages around what locals do to stay mentally healthy. The project was led by the Shire of Meekatharra, funded by the WA Primary Health Alliance. We met with a range of local people from Shire workers to the local dog walking group, among others. The Meekatharra Shire recently launched the videos through their social media channels and can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@theshireofmeekatharra7054

The local newspaper also did a write up on the project which you can read here!

Sam & Jo, Meekatharra locals, share how they stay mentally healthy.

Building positive culture

By Dane Waters

Over the summer break I was provided with an opportunity to participate in some extremely valuable extended governance training. One of the key learnings was the importance of good culture in organisations, which is set by leadership. As someone who works as a community development practitioner aiming to help build healthier communities with community media, building positive culture is core business, so it was encouraging to see that filter into the business world. 

Definition: culture:  the ideas, customs and social behaviours of a community

So, what happens when the cultural social norms of a community are not positive? As a practitioner who advocates for building from the grass roots up, is there a role to speak/ advocate for positive change, particularly if this is not coming directly from the grass roots level?

I am privileged with education and consider it a tool that I can help use to support communities. Sometimes this means helping directly educate and challenge harmful social norms. While it’s not a naturally comfortable role for me, we definitely have a role to play if the system is not enabling healthy communities. Community media is a wonderful tool for these important discussions on positive social norms and we will continue to help communities continue the discussions and build positive culture. #learning

Empower...

Empower: make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights.

Empowerment has often been used as a “buzz” word in the health promotion/community development sector. While there is considerable discourse (which I won’t explore extensively in this post) as to whether this is a process of giving power, or whether it’s equipping the power the person already has, the end goal is people becoming stronger and more confident to make changes or take actions to improve the own health and the health of their community. Community media is a powerful tool to make this process happen. 

I was recently training a group of community development students about how community media can be a tool to help build stronger and healthier communities. It’s always rewarding seeing new people engage with media for the first time. It usually starts with hesitancy and nervousness about being recorded, however, after support they usually agree with “I’ll give it a go, but please don’t actually use it on radio.” Once recorded we show how the content can help the community, with participants usually saying, “wow that’s a very powerful piece of audio. You can use it because I want to help my community."

This group chose to produce a radio message about mental health because they saw it as the most important issue that they want to address in their community. To me seeing that journey over just one hour reminds me how powerful community media can be and to me that’s empowerment.

We want to empower more people to use community media to build healthier communities.

Closing the Gap

By Dane Waters

In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience significant differences in health indicators when compared to non-Indigenous people. This “gap” has driven focus under the “Closing the Gap” program to ensure that all Australians experience equality in health and life expectancy by 2031. We at HCR want to see all people flourish and live long and healthy lives which is why we are so passionate about walking alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations to help close this gap. Community media can be an important tool to raise Aboriginal* voices and why we are training and supporting Aboriginal organisations to help drive positive changes to ensure all experience equality in health. The latest “report card” has shown some progress, however, clearly shows we still have a way to go to reach equality. Life expectancy is often used as a measure that people are enjoying long and healthy lives. In July 2022, nationally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are expected to live to 71.6 years for males (whereas 80.2 years for non-Indigenous males) and female 75.6 years (83.4 years for non-Indigenous females). This gap has improved since 2005-2007 when the gap was 11.4 years for males (now 8.6 years) and females were 9.6 years (now 7.8 years), however, we are not closing the gap fast enough. We are encouraged by the national dialogue about closing the gap faster and keen to continue to support positive change from the grass roots through community media. 

For more about the latest on Closing the Gap, see the annual data report:

https://www.pc.gov.au/closing-the-gap-data/annual-data-report/report/closing-the-gap-annual-data-compilation-report-july2022.pdf

*we use Aboriginal as we have been advised it is the preferred term for our local partners in the Mid West, Western Australia, but acknowledge this includes all Aboriginal and Torre Strait Islander people.

World Maternal Mental Health Day

By Celeste Larkins

With the support of the Statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Program, we have recently been working with local Geraldton parents who are expecting or who have a new baby to share their experience to help other parents, particularly at the moment as services are limited due to COVID-19. The project, which was launched on World Maternal Mental Health Day (May 4th) supported parents to record video and audio messages for broadcast on Facebook and local community Aboriginal radio station, Radio MAMA. They aim to help Geraldton parents identify self-care strategies, know where they can access help and reduce the stigma associated with mental illness as a new parent. With the support of local stakeholders, the project is continuing to include more local parents and service providers as well.  

Local Geraldton mum, Chelsea, with her 12 week old baby, who was involved in the project.

The importance of time

By Dane Waters

Community media has shown to be a powerful tool to help build communities, as it enables communities to talk, listen and then develop strategies to take action to build healthier communities. This is why we are so passionate about training communities to use community media in their own community. An important reminder though is that the underlying foundations of any community development strategy is built on relationships and trust. 

I was reminded of this recently, when a community service asked me to attend a workshop and assist with producing community media product to support a mental health project. While it had been a particularly busy time with many deadlines, I committed as we always try to say yes, and the task should have only taken 20-30 minutes. On arrival all training participants were hesitant and did not want to be involved, so instead I became involved in the workshop and spent time building relationships with those there. As the afternoon progressed all the participants felt it was a worthy project and then participated in developing community media messages to help the community with mental health. Even though it then took 2.5 hours, it was definitely worth it.

Giving time is key to building relationships which is foundational to community development. 

TV stars wanted for epic 6-day adventure

We have an exciting update! Health Communication Resources is working with the Producers of Australia’s newest travel TV series ‘Adventure All Stars’ to find cast members! We’re looking for people (living in Australia) to undertake an unforgettable journey to a secret Aussie location for a week of fun and adventure (filmed in 2022). How would you like to star in an award-winning TV show that’s broadcast in 25 countries to a viewership approaching 100 million people... andfundraise for a great cause?

BONUS: net proceeds from this TV project will support Health Communication Resources.

The trip, the TV show and all the fun in between!

Every episode in this ground-breaking television series features real-life cast members undertaking an unforgettable 6-day journey. Pre-filming all participants raise funds for Health Communication Resources, and their reward for doing so is a starring role on TV. ‘Adventure All Stars’ is the ultimate road trip where TV viewers get to experience incredible locations through the eyes of an engaging cast.

Produced by the internationally acclaimed Charity TV Global, this media format provides a platform to see the world and be socially responsible.

Watch this exciting 60-second video below for a snapshot of the life-changing adventure YOU could be in for! 

View testimonials from past TV cast here: https://vimeo.com/402060509

How do I become a TV Cast Member on Adventure All Stars?

Visit www.AdventureAllStars.tv and complete a TV Cast Member application form.

New names for old friends

To kick off a new year, we’ve changed some things around here. As of 1 January 2021, our HCR teams in the UK and Pakistan are operating as ‘Amplifying Voices’. Our Australian team will continue to be known as Health Communication Resources, and we continue to work together as an international family.

The Amplifying Voices teams have got a new name, new logo, new colours, new websites, and new stories! But why the change?

Health Communication Resources (HCR) was founded in 1996 as a health promotion organisation. The WHO defines health promotion as "the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health”. You could say, health promotion is amplifying voices - its what we've always done! The names Health Communication Resources and HCR have a well-established history among Australian public health service providers, and among the aboriginal communities in Western Australia where we work, so in Australia we will continue as Health Communication Resources or HCR.

However, the UK and Pakistan teams work in different contexts and had identified a need for a name that helps people to visualise how media projects help communities bring about changes in wellbeing, peacebuilding and resilience. The name ‘Amplifying Voices’ does paint a picture of communities being equipped to speak out and be heard in order to take the lead in their own development.

Different names, same family

Health Communication Resources (HCR) and Amplifying Voices (AmpVoices) continue to be part of the international HCR family.

HCR and Amplifying Voices continue to pursue our shared vision together as we seek to see communities live life in all its fullness, free from poverty, injustice, and conflict.  

Our vision and values remain unchanged, we continue to be a family sharing a common commitment: we’re taking the same approach in using community-centred media to further our mission.

Whether in Australia or elsewhere, our role is to come alongside communities and listen. It’s then we can empower people to find what media solutions work in their local contexts. We help train partners and community members on how to use tools and strategies to their full potential so that the communities themselves can champion positive social change. This is our approach in every community-centred media project.

Why focus on community-centred media?

A typical community-centred media project brings together community members, service providers, and media organisations to create content. The media content can be anything from a social media video talking about protecting our mental health to an informal chat where a community member shares their story. It’s designed to tackle issues that are raised by the community. This, in turn, gets people talking about their ideas and opinions and helps people hear others’ hopes and concerns. 

Our partners then use trusted communication channels to broadcast or distribute the content, to help them play a key role in mobilising inclusive, community-led initiatives. What’s important is that the community members play a key role in designing and voicing the messages and content.

Health communication happens best by amplifying community voices. Amplifying local voices is a proven, effective way to mobilise local resources for health communication.

What’s next? 

As an international family we are currently working with eight projects, where community-centred media is making a positive impact. Exciting developments are happening in each of them, and we’d love to keep you updated as part of our supporting community! You can subscribe to sign up for our monthly newsletter, or help get more people involved by clicking the share link below. Go and do the same on Amplifying Voices UK and Amplifying Voices Pakistan site.

Thanks for joining us in this new chapter of the HCR International Family.

Misinformation harms the most vulnerable

Information on the street

Working in collaboration with Stop the Child Witchcraft Accusations (SCWA) partners, we have been analysing community feedback from trusted contacts in 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Three key themes emerged:

• Misinformation about the causes of Covid-19 leads to confusion and failure to take action.

• Covid-19 restrictions have caused severe socio-economic harm to local communities’ and households’ that were already facing disadvantage.

• Fear created by the above uncertainty and insecurity is linked to increased witchcraft accusations and abuse of vulnerable children.

These themes highlight the need for communities to be able to accurately explain why life has got tougher since Covid-19, building on local conversations around reliable information.

Misinformation and confusion

Our contacts told us that there is a lot of speculation about Coronavirus in their countries and communities. Reasons given for the spread of the pandemic include Coronavirus being: ‘a punishment from God’, ‘a ruse from the devil’, ‘an outworking of biological warfare between Chinese and American superpowers’, ‘the result of 5G technology’ or ‘a highly infectious illness’. Some believe that Coronavirus doesn’t exist at all or that African people are safe from it because it cannot survive warmer climates. Blame is most frequently attributed to either the Chinese, the West or the wealthy with their international travel. Government authorities rely on media to communicate health messages to their populations. However, our partners reported that a lot of additional information is being shared on social media and that this information is frequently unreliable. This confusion causes fear and discourages people from taking action to protect themselves and their communities.

Socio-economic harm

Consistently we heard that the impact of lockdown restrictions is far more severe than the impact of the virus itself. As people have lost their livelihoods, many are starving. Food insecurity is mentioned again and again. The pandemic has done long term damage to economies and livelihoods in Sub-Saharan countries and this is putting families under significant extra pressure. We heard from Mrs G in Kananga, DR Congo:

 “My husband, who lost his job, abandoned me and our three children. I don’t know where he is. I am trying to get by now by selling leaves to meet the needs of my children. I feed the same kind of cassava leaves that I sell on their own [i.e. that is all she feeds them] to feed my children once a day. The huge anxiety that plays on my mind is that one of my children is already suffering from malnutrition. I don’t know what to do or when coronavirus is going to end.”

 Witchcraft Accusations

A rise in witchcraft accusations is noted in Nigeria, Kenya and DR Congo, and this increase often happens at times of crisis. Families are under pressure and they want explanations for their changing circumstances. Children with behavioural or physical differences to local norms become scapegoats, accused of witchcraft or of bringing a curse on their homes. They are often abandoned to live on the streets in major cities like Kinshasa. Food insecurity is particularly severe for vulnerable groups such as children living on the streets. The COVID-19 impact is compounded by lack of access to clean water and to facemasks to protect them from the virus.

Beyond confusion and fear

Many of these injustices could be avoided through local communities being equipped to develop and disseminate more accurate explanations for misfortune, and through feeling empowered to develop their own responses to the hardships.

Our partners’ feedback identifies churches and radio as highly trusted sources of information, which suggests that these are good routes to starting community conversations based on accurate information. Social dialogues are essential for identifying common local concerns, for building healthy understanding of them and for developing sustainable local responses to COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions.

Measuring value in complex situations

By Dane Waters

How do you evaluate whether you are making a difference? Working in the space of social change we are often working with complex issues with complex environments making evaluation challenging, even though it’s more important than ever. HCR’s approach is to build community media partnerships with community stakeholders (community organisations, community media and community members together) who then work for change together. A simple theory of change would suggest if we develop positive community media partnerships then these partnerships will help drive positive social change.*

However, how do we determine if these partnerships are adding value? A challenging question that we are continuing to ask. One way is if the community organisations report that the relationships with us at HCR are providing value. What could this look like? Possibly a simple comment from a partner that they value the partnership or evidence when the organisation or community member continues the partnership.

Recently we have had several positive indicators which suggest we are building these community partnerships in the Mid West, Western Australia. One of these was a community stakeholder who purchased tickets to a community event and asked us to come with them as their VIP because of all the assistance that we have provided to them with health promotion for the community. Another, was a nomination for a state wide award in recognition of our valued contribution and support for a young people’s mental health organisation.

While they don’t explicitly say we have made significant changes to complex issues, it does say we have community members and stakeholders who value our skills and knowledge when it comes to addressing complex health and social issues. Even more so, they value our proven commitment to helping tackle complex community issues.

(Dane pictured at the Youth Focus Make A Difference Awards Ceremony)

 *We acknowledge this is a simplification of a complex issue and doesn’t completely represent change for complex issues, however, it is written this way to help build understanding.

Media for the children by the children

A couple of weeks ago HCR Pakistan held a competition with boys and girls from the government primary school in a village near Charsadda. The competition got children thinking about sickness and how to prevent it – especially Covid-19.

Typically, during this time of year, children get more sickness. The community health worker told us that children suffer a lot from typhoid, diarrhea, gastro-diseases and tapeworm. Covid-19 adds to the risk, especially after the schools re-opened at the end of summer. The health worker also noticed that families and children were not following the Covid-19 health guidelines.

The community volunteers from HCR’s local partner, New Dawn, decided to revitalise families’ awareness around handwashing and hygiene. So, the created audio slots on social media and the local FM station which primarily addressed the adults. They wondered what the most effective media would be to engage children. We know from experience that media messages are most effective when community members are involved in creating them. After consultation with HCR Pakistan, New Dawn decided to hold a painting competition for primary school age children, to create pictures about the importance of handwashing, especially after using the toilet. It was community-centred media, but not as we know it!

Children in Majukay creating a hygiene poster

In a major first for this community, girls were allowed to participate in the competition alongside boys. The first prize went to one of the boys and the second prize was awarded to a class 4 girl.

A student who got the first prize said, "I did not know how important it was to wash hands for our healthy lives. From now on I will tell my family the importance of handwashing and hygiene.”

Art was previously been considered a low priority for childrens’ education but this looks set to change, as we heard from school staff members:

The school principal said:

“we did not realize how talented our children are.​ Through this painting competition, we also learned a lot. We’ve decided to start a new period in our weekly schedule to promote painting.”

Teacher #1: This was the first time we have experienced such an activity "learning in fun". our students also learned about competition.

Teacher#2: We need more such activities in the future as girls and boys loved it and learned about [Covid-19 hygiene rules].

Competition entries on display