Credits
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Pou Auaha / Creative Director
Eddy Royal
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Ringatoi Matua / Design Director
Kaan Hiini
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Ngā Kaimahi / Team Members
Jēru McDonald-Ness, Tayla Cook, Jasmine Day, Ashleigh Dallimore, Red Nicholson, Nicole Streeter, Suivaaia Pritchard, Sarah Wilson, Gareth Royal -
Kaitautoko / Contributors
Geoffery Matautia, TJ Buford, Young creatives in South Auckland
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Client
Unfold Partnership Group (Oranga Tamariki, New Zealand Drug Foundation, Te Hiringa Hauora, Counties Manukau Health, Ministry of Health, Auckland Council, and Sport NZ)
Description:
Unfold is a social movement; designed to support positive mental health and wellbeing, reduce alcohol and drug related harm, and lift the horizons of young people.
We know that for many young people, drugs and alcohol fuel their social lives. These substances reduce social inhibitions, promise entertainment, and enable social connection. Drugs and alcohol are also seen as a ‘coping mechanism’ – allowing them to escape challenges they face. Harmful use of alcohol and other drugs can also indicate young people are navigating other complexities in their life. Therefore, Unfold works to build the wellbeing of young people, and fulfil some of the needs they may meet with drugs and alcohol. It aims to:
Build a sense of belonging and connection
Relieve stress and pressure
Create opportunities to test limits
Enable young people to be creative
Help young people feel like they are seen and valued
Boost their ‘street cred’
Unfold is for ‘kids with a story’. Our insight gathering processes, with Māori and Pasifika rangatahi across Aotearoa, indicated these are young people who have a sense of pride in being from ‘the hood’, but tend to feel that they don’t belong in many other spaces. Life hasn’t been easy for them – many feel like they’ve had to grow up too quickly – but they have a strong desire to do more, and be more. These young people often have strong connections to family – although family isn’t always a safe or positive influence. They value expressing themselves through creative outlets such as music, dancing and art – but don’t feel they have time, space or opportunities to achieve their potential.
Our theory of change hypothesised: if we build a brand with young people – something that they could trust, relate to, and want to be a part of – then we could empower them to unlock their creative talents, feel pride in their stories, recognise their own potential and lift their aspirations. By doing this, we felt we could create new social norms to meet young people’s social and emotional needs – norms that support safe and healthy ways of being and minimise alcohol and drug related harm.
Unfold comes to life through careful curation of social media content and events that celebrate young local young people and offer opportunities to connect and create. To further elevate these experiences, our communities creativity is shared in online and outdoor media spaces; further building a sense of pride, belonging, and connection.
We anticipated it would take time to build trust and relationships with Unfold. However, our co-design approach with young people has allowed us to create something that authentically resonates and is gaining quick momentum.The unprompted feedback and sharing that young people are doing across social media indicates the positive impact that Unfold is having on them as individuals and as a community. The organic reach of our online activity also shows that the movement is building, and is authentically owned by our ‘kids with a story’.