Children's Day 2017 - Tools for preventing school, dating and youth violence

Children’s Day – Te Rā O Te Tamariki will be celebrated on 5 March 2017 (first Sunday of March). Children’s Day has been running since the early 2000s and includes events around the country.

To mark Children's Day – Te Rā O Te Tamariki, we have highlighted some recent resources on preventing dating violence, youth violence and bullying.

Te Puni Kōkiri and Te Rau Matatini are developing a series of video messages for rangatahi youth focused on preventing youth suicide. The recent #TechTikanga video encourages youth to think about the images and messages they share online and through apps. See the Radio NZ story for more information.

In 2016, the national Māori and Pasifika suicide prevention programme Waka Hourua Leadership Group published Cybersafety for an Indigenous Youth Population. For further information and assistance in relation to cyberbulling and other forms of digital and online harm, visit NetSafe.

UN Women published the Global Guidance on Addressing School-Related Gender-Based Violence (2016). The guidance is designed for governments, policy-makers, teachers, practitioners and community to take action against school-related gender-based violence. It provides a background, practical actions, tools, resources and examples. It covers six areas of different actions:

• Leadership: laws, policies and education reform
• Environment: ensuring schools are safe and supportive
• Prevention: curriculum, teaching and learning
• Responses: in and around schools
• Partnerships: collaborating with and engaging key stakeholders
• Evidence: monitoring and evaluation

VAWnet updated their Special Collection Preventing and Responding to Teen Dating Violence in January 2017. The collection of resources includes "emphasizes collaborative and multilevel approaches to the prevention of and response to teen dating violence. Recent updates include additional resources for teachers and school-based professionals and a new section to support the efforts of pregnancy prevention advocates and adolescent sexual health practitioners in addressing adolescent relationship abuse."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also recently launched the online Dating Matters: Interactive Guide on Informing Policy. The guide provides a framework for evaluating Teen Dating Violence (TDV) and TDV-related policies and synthesising information to inform organisational and public policy. The guide includes an overview of teen dating violence and policy, what to think about before developing policy and the steps involved in developing policy. Throughout the guide are videos, links to resources and downloadable files and templates.

The CDC also recently updated their online youth violence prevention tool: STRYVE - Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere. Earlier the CDC published A comprehensive technical package for the prevention of youth violence and associated risk behaviors (2016).

More resources and information

For related information on youth violence see the following quick topics in the library: Bullying, Sibling violence and Violence towards parents.

See the previous NZFVC stories on National study reports on students' experiences of unwanted sexual contact; related resources and Sexual violence, social media, students and schools - court decision, IPCA statement, media.

The New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse has also previously compiled resources on promoting healthy relationships for young people including resources on teen dating violence, consent and promoting healthy relationships.

Related news

Youth Minister Nikki Kaye announced that nominations are open for the 2017 New Zealand Youth Awards.