Values, attitude campaign to encourage acceptable social behaviour
GOVERNMENT has re-launched the National Values and Attitudes programme and the first phase of its campaign blitz will be featured in the media next month, with a price tag of approximately $3-million.
But in making the announcement at yesterday’s post-cabinet press briefing, Information Minister Burchell Whiteman stressed that the estimated cost of between $2-3 million was way below market value due to voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations.
The programme, which Prime Minister P J Patterson initiated in 1994, is being resuscitated this year under the theme “For a better, you, For a better me, For a better Jamaica.”
It involves print, radio and television messages, designed to encourage acceptable social behaviour.
Dr Heather Little-White, deputy convenor of the “Values & Attitudes” national steering committee, told journalists that “respect is the core value to be promoted” in the first phase of the media campaign.
“The value of respect must be promoted seriously as we are in a society where it is common to disrespect everyone and ‘dissing’ has become a part of the national culture”.
Dr Little-White is still paralysed and wheelchair-bound after being shot by a gunman’s bullet during a carjacking attempt four years ago. She explained that it was “in the spirit of forgiveness and to counter-balance being a helpless victim” that she opted to serve a programme that promotes values and attitudes for a kinder, gentler society.
“Respect”, continued Little-White, “is an attitude of honouring people and caring about their rights…it includes self-respect, knowing from whence we have come and where we want to go as a people”.
She also noted that “there are too many examples of the lack of respect for our children by persons in society who abuse them for sexual or economical gains”.
Meanwhile, Angela Patterson, chairman of the programme’s media sub-committee, outlined the “Show Respect” campaign for the 2003 phase of the programme.
She said that the dissemination of messages would include the use of a “values and attitudes” jingle developed by Fab 5. This, she said, has already been distributed to radio stations. A music video, using the jingle, is also being developed for television.
In addition, Patterson said a 15-part radio serial, written by Alvin Campbell, was also being developed to promote the core value of “respect”. She added that radio stations have been asked to air the series’ five-minute episodes, and that the committee was awaiting their response.
“In addition”, the media committee chairman said, “we will produce a series of radio docu-dramas which will highlight the experiences of popular national figures along the lines of the ‘respect’ theme”. She said these one-minute docu-dramas would be made available to radio stations for broadcast whenever their schedules permit.
Patterson said the campaign will “encompass the use of the print media, radio, television and billboards depicting different scenarios around the theme of ‘respect'”.
Mock-ups for the billboards were shown at the briefing, showing how respect counters violence, humiliation and exploitation by promoting civility, courtesy and tolerance.
According to Whiteman, the duration of the new phase will be based on its effectiveness.
In launching the national “Values & Attitudes” programme in 1994, Prime Minister Patterson described it as “a programme of action to promote attitudinal change and social renewal. This is the surest way (and perhaps the only way) to improve in the short run, and in the longer term, maintain the quality of life for all Jamaicans.”
Convenor of the programme’s national steering committee is Rev Marjorie Lewis and it includes 21 other members representing the public and private sectors, the church and non-government organisations.