On Health Promotion on the Internet, Alana
LaPerle[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] wrote:

Hi Alana

In Barrie in partnership with Best Start Barrie, C.A.W. Local 305, The
Barrie and District Labour Council, the Georgian Bay Coalition for Social
Justice and the Barrie Action Committee for women, we undertook a myth
busting media advocacy campaign around welfare myths.

I know an abstract was written by Best Start Barrie about this, you may
want to contact them.

You may also want to contact the Ontario Social Safety Net as I seem to
recall they did a bit of work recently around this and also the National
Anti-Poverty Organization who developed a resource with a video.

Our campaign was based on 4 "myth busting" phamplets developed by Andy
Mitchell of the Metro Social Planning Council.

Hope this helps, the one thing that I would stress to ensure success is
involving poor people themselves in developing the messages (this takes
time) and also using a variety of avenues for your message so that they get
reinforced.

Also as a final comment, the use of coalitions is critical as well,

S
Barrie Action Committee for Women
> I am looking for articles, unpublished research or anecdotal accounts of
> people's perceptions of or attitudes towards people who live in poverty.
I
> plan to use this information to develop a social marketing/communication
> framework that an inner city agency can use to develop social messages.
>
> Most messages about people who live in poverty -- either in fundraising
or
> awareness/knowledge raising campaigns -- tend to use one of two appeals:
(1)
> "there but for the grace of God go I," or (2) guilt. While these appeals
> might achieve short-term objectives, such as fundraising, they do little
to
> change perceptions or
> attitudes about people who live in poverty. To affect real change, people
> need to see people who live in poverty as individuals, rather than as
"the
> poor" or as statistics.
>
> This framework will use social marketing as a basis for developing social
> messages that encourage people to think differently about those who live
in
> poverty.
>
> I would appreciate any help you can provide.
>
> Alana LaPerle
> [log in to unmask]
>


--
Sherrie Tingley
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