Improving attitudes and behaviours towards disabled people
Disabled people say that people's attitudes and behaviours can be as big a barrier to participating in society as physical barriers can be. Promoting greater understanding of disability, and disabled people's desire to live a life on an equal basis with others, is a key action in the New Zealand Disability Strategy and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
What we are doing
Budget 2010, invested $3 million dollars over three years for a campaign to improve attitudes and behaviours towards disabled people. The focus of the campaign is to address the constraints of a disabling society. There needs to be a widespread attitudinal change before there will be a change in behaviour.
The campaign will fund community-driven social change, strengthen existing initiatives and support new approaches to changing attitudes.
There are two primary funding channels:
- a national strategic partnership with organisations to develop and implement projects that will increase access to employment, education, and goods and services
- the Making a Difference fund for local, community-based initiatives that are collaborative and have support from across the community.
National social change partners
Ten organisations have been funded to promote attitude and behaviour change with a national focus:
- Be.Accessible
- Deaf Aotearoa
- Māori and Pacific Island Disabled People’s Leadership Programme
- Diversity New Zealand
- Dance Aotearoa New Zealand
- Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA)
- Te Roopu Waiora
- Employers Disability Network
- Autism New Zealand
- Asian Network.
Year in review 2010-2011
Read about what we achieved in the year July 2010 to June 2011, and find out about the national partnerships and Making a Difference Fund local projects we funded.
Making a Difference Fund
The fund supports local communities to implement projects to change the attitudes and behaviour that limit opportunities for disabled people. The Making a Difference Fund gives priority to projects that are collaborative, have support from across the community and have a well-thought-out plan to effect local change. The Making a Difference fund is part of a campaign to change the attitudes and behaviour that limit opportunities for disabled people. The campaign is led by Family and Community Services (FACS) in partnership with the Office for Disability Issues.
Two rounds of funding were provided in 2011, which supported 22 community initiatives around the country.
Second round of funding - September 2011
A national panel recommended that 15 projects receive funding in the second round of Making a Difference funding. This is twice the number that were funded in the first round.
First round of funding - April 2011
Seven projects were supported through the first round of funding. A national panel made recommendations for successful projects, with seven receiving funding in the first round. Some projects were deemed to be national rather than local initiatives and the Campaign has followed up with those applicants, providing support for many of them.
Background
In December 2010 a paper was released. This paper outlines the overarching vision and key objectives of the campaign, and explores the common themes that have emerged through conversations with people from the disability sector who have been working in the social change area. By July 2013 we want to be able to look back and say “That’s what we contributed. That’s how we helped make a difference!” Also presented in the paper are some general key principles derived from successful social change initiatives, and guiding principles for engaging with disabled people throughout the campaign as well as a description of how this engagement will happen. Finally, we identify our potential campaign partners and the initial steps of the campaign.
Budget 2010 funding for improving attitudes towards disabled people - May 2010
Budget 2010 provided funding of $3 million over three years to promote positive attitudes and behaviours towards disabled people. This initiative will work with existing programmes that promote attitude change on disability and support community-level initiatives that make a difference. It will also build on the social change experiences of the Ministry of Social Development's "It's not ok" family violence prevention campaign and SKIP positive parenting initiative and the Ministry of health’s Like Minds, Like mine campaign.