Body Image Campaign

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:28): Supplementary question: when I asked questions in relation to this program on 28 October, I specifically questioned the evidence base for the teen body image program. The minister took on notice three questions: could she give details of the US study, who had provided advice on the South Australian strategy, and thirdly, who will be undertaking the South Australian valuation? Considering I asked that on 28 October, I was wondering if the minister might give us those answers now.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:28): I thought I had actually written to someone about that.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: No, I haven't got an answer.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Well, I have certainly signed off on one, so that must still be in the pipeline. As we said, body image dissatisfaction is something that is a key element of this particular campaign. We know, as I have reported in this place before, that this particular campaign was inspired by a campaign run in New York called the NYC Girls Project, which featured a public education campaign aimed at girls aged seven to 12 appearing on buses and trains and phone boxes, etc., showing a diverse range of girls performing activities like reading and playing sport.

Associated with that were words like: 'I'm a girl, I'm smart, I'm a leader, I'm adventurous, I'm friendly, I'm funny, I'm beautiful the way I am'—so reinforcing words. The NYC Girls Project is a widely regarded program and distinctive in tackling the issues with a city-wide focus. The appeal of this wider focus is that it reaches more girls than traditional programs. It is also unique in targeting girls aged seven to 12 in recognition that many of the social attitudes about women's bodies and body image are embedded in a woman's psyche at a very early age. An evaluation of the girls' self-esteem curriculum produced as part of the NYC Girls Project, 'Full of Ourselves' campaign, found that participants showed sustained positive changes in body image, body satisfaction and body esteem.

The Office for Women through the Women's Information Service has partnered with the YWCA in the development and delivery of a digital media campaign. The campaign will be delivered through the Women's Information Service digital media presence on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and suchlike. Three workshops to support the creation of content by the young women have already been held. These provided the content creators and mentors with information about body image and the factors that contribute to positive body esteem in order to provide a context for the creation of campaign content.

The women were then partnered with mentors with relevant professional skills in a variety of digital content areas in order to workshop their ideas and create a plan for completing their content that will deliver a strong message that a girl's value comes from their character, skills and attributes, not their weight and size. The content creators were asked to reflect on being aged seven to 12 and they talked about messages, and peer education approaches have been successful in a number of contexts, apparently around smoking, preventing substance abuse, HIV, etc. So it is a technique that is incorporated in those sorts of areas.

In terms of the YWCA, the Office for Women is very pleased to have the YWCA Adelaide as a key partner in the Body Image Campaign. The YWCA of Adelaide has a long history of successful projects and campaigns for young women and girls, and they run a successful Go Girls! group, a mentoring program for young people aged 11 to 14. Workers from the YWCA who are experienced in the delivery of body image content will be providing information to volunteers about body image, body esteem and suchlike.

The Office for Women will undertake an internal evaluation at various phases of the campaign. Evaluation will be undertaken by the Office for Women once the project is finalised. I will obviously be happy to report those outcomes once I have received them. Workers from the Centacare PACE program who deliver body image workshops as well as peer workers who have a lived experience of recovering from eating disorders attended the January workshops, and discussions are currently taking place as to the potential for PACE workers to facilitate further workshops in regional areas of South Australia in support of that campaign. I will follow up where my written response is and make sure that honourable members receive that as soon as possible.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wade has a supplementary question.