Life during the pandemic was a difficult time for everyone, especially for our young people, with many experiencing isolation, stress and anxiety. COVID-19 exacerbated the experience of children who are at risk of ACEs or are experiencing them in the home. Lack of access to school friends, teachers, social workers and the safe space and services that schools provide meant more children were unable to have their voices heard or access support/protective factors.
Following the success of our first #TimeToBeKind campaign, we ran a behaviour change campaign.
The goal this time was to drive awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and support the young people who experienced difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic by encouraging kindness throughout the nation.
Our messaging highlighted that behind closed doors, there might be a child and family who are struggling
The campaign film was also independently evaluated by Bangor University. This evaluation sought to identify whether watching our film would increase people's intentions to act in ways that promote kindness to others and if intentions were associated with being emotionally affected by the film.
Findings showed that members of the public had positive attitudes to the #TimeToBeKind film. As a result of watching, most people reported intentions to be kinder to others, even more so for those emotionally affected (e.g. felt upset or sad) from watching it.
The evaluation findings helped to show that not only was our film impactful, but also how films can be a great public health tool to promote kindness and are useful to future public health campaigns or messages that want to promote behaviour change.