Growing stronger families
Hutt Valley Women’s Refuge – brand development 2020
The rates of Family violence in NZ are some of the worst in the OECD and the Hutt Valley is one of the worst in NZ. This was a daunting prospect as I started volunteering on crisis line for first-hand experience. Crisis line involves triaging urgent issues, providing phone support and physically checking women and children into the safe house out of hours. This ‘research’ provided the foundations for a brand refresh and the creation of several marketing initiatives I led for this tauiwi Refuge. I then spent 2 years on the Refuge board as marketing specialist, aiming to drive tertiary prevention.
New logo, tied into national office but with distinct local colours & tagline.
Our marketing activity initially focused on building awareness –many in the community affected didn’t actually know about the services provided. As well as getting the Refuge known we positioned it as a contemporary, warm, welcoming and relevant community partner. All the brand material was tied to the organising idea of ‘creating stronger families’. This emerged out of the concept that male partners have a strong part to play in healing and prevention. Research shows that when both partners work together to make change they are more likely to find solutions and stay together - we can build stronger families. This is the outcome that many women prefer.
New website design mock-up
During my time at the Refuge I initiated several programmes including an inaugural ‘Arty Party’ hosted at the Dowse museum. This was a successful hybrid community awareness + fundraising event that gained widespread and high profile support. We started to distribute funds across our tauiwi Refuge and our sister Māori Refuge at Kōkiri marae. We also started to develop other novel initiatives such as a couples programme to help halt the endless cycle of women coming through the Refuge. Devastating for both survivors and long serving social workers trying to make change. This mahi was strong motivation for my prevention research with teenage boys.
Arty Party invitation
