The HEART Movement aims to promote positive, healthy relationships and prevent family violence – emphasizing a strengths based approach. The movement promotes a different way of working, that encourages everyone within the community to get involved. One key focus of the movement is to build on their activities as they learn with the community.
The HEART Movement works to promote healthy relationships through growing loving, safe and supportive relationships in the Tamaki area.
In 2011, HEART wanted to learn more on community mobilisation around preventing family violence and what measurement tools could be used so approached The University of Auckland. Cristy Trewartha completed a literature review to inform HEART on tools to measure change in community and effective national and international initiatives within her dissertation “It is OK to help: effective community mobilisation to prevent family violence” (Trewartha, 2010). This dissertation was the launchpad for utilising the Community Readiness Model to assess the level of readiness of Glen Innes and Point England in terms of preventing family violence and promoting healthy relationships.
Tara Moala was contracted to complete two research assessments simultaneously – investigating two different issues with two different sets of respondents. The two issues – Healthy Relationships and Family Violence were chosen to compare the responses from a positive (Healthy Relationships) and a negative (Family Violence) perspective in the community.
The research enquired how the way we frame the discussion of intimate relationships alters how people perceive the level of efforts made in the community and access to support.
- How ready is the community to address family violence as opposed to healthy relationships?
- Are they more prepared to act on one issue than the other?
- Does the level of readiness vary across the dimensions assessed for each issue?
The HEART Movement hoped to gain answers to these questions to inform the development of actions within the community.
A total of 24 participants partook in the research, half completing interviews focused on Healthy Relationships, and half completing interviews focused on Family Violence. Using The Community Readiness Model to identify the questions, and score responses, Tara analysed the results and completed a report for The HEART Movement. That report can be accessed in full here.
Cristy Trewartha continues to document the progress of The HEART Movement and has conducted two further research projects in 2014 and again in 2016 using The Community Readiness Model. Tara re-joined the 2014 project as an interviewer, however was too heavily involved in The HEART Movement in 2016 to be able to join the third project.
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