Design Challenge
#2: How might we encourage our community to support one another and look out for those who are socially isolated?
Project Description
In times of quarantine and circuit-breaker, the value of sharing the load between everyone inside the household could not be overstated. Singapore’s #ManUp! Movement seeks to normalize men’s role at home.
It will encourage, support, and celebrate Dad’s contribution in domestic roles including child-rearing, and household chores. It is a behavior communications campaign that moves men from awareness of the threat of multiple burden for their wives, and towards a behaviour resulting to true equality inside the household.
Criteria #1: Value
Multiple social role involvement is particularly stressful for women in the Asian Countries including Singapore, as the duty of balancing demands of work and family falls disproportionately on them. For example, this NUS research(http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cfpr/media/images/lhzbcolumn/2016/Oct16E.pdf) has shown that employed women still shoulder most of the burden of domestic work in providing care for children, sick, and elderly family members even though they hire domestic/household helpers.
Criteria #2: Inspiration
This behavior change communications campaign will have four phases:
Phase 1: Partner driven – Presenting a consistent message from multiple sources increases the likelihood of action. (e.g DadsForLife)
Phase 2: Trusted messengers/high-profile personalities activated – Launching the #ManUp! 30 day challenge to increase visibility and credibility of the issue.
Phase 3: Families to highlight impact – interviewing wives and children to see the impact/changes in the household dynamics after a month.
Phase 4: Sustainability plan – developing a campaign webpage to ensure availability of resources for dads to contribute, engage, and share in the campaign.
Criteria #3: Impact
In Singapore, more and more dads are becoming hands-on (https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/millennial-dads-go-hands-on) leading to better relationships with their wives and children. The movement will rally many more dads, and from different generation, to embrace and experience the level of fulfillment achieved by being hands-on.
Criteria #4: Timeliness
As this is a campaign with phased approach, it will allow us to create and launch in a relatively earlier date. The learnings as we roll out the campaign will inform the next phases.
Criteria #5: Systems Thinking
The movement will prepare materials, conduct complementary media activities, social media videos, virtual livestreams by engaging our constituencies. Dads for life is a decade national movement that seeks to inspire, mobilise and involve fathers to become good influences in their children’s lives. The movement will partner with Dads For Life to launch it as a pilot.
We will engage high-profile fathers to add their voice in the campaign. (e.g. Minister Vivian Balakrishan, Chee Soon Juan, Fandi Ahmad, Jack Neo, Minister Khaw Boon Wan).
