ROUND FOR REACH 2024
The Reach Foundation
SYNOPSIS
When Jim Stynes and Paul Currie founded the Reach Foundation back in 1994, mental health wasn’t really ‘a thing’. For two young men to come into a space which was then, very much uncharted territory and encourage young people to build resilience and meaningful connections in their lives, was a complete game changer. One that paved the way for countless other organisations with a similar mission, to step into this space and play as well.
We proudly partnered with The Reach Foundation and Melbourne Football Club to produce the 2024 Round for Reach Campaign, marking the 30th year anniversary of Jim Stynes’ legacy and Reach’s biggest milestone yet.
This year’s theme, It started with Jim, it continues with you, pays tribute to a legacy like no other, while passing the baton onto the community to continue supporting Reach’s preventative mental health work for another 30 years and beyond.
PROBLEM
Young people are still being held back today by the same fears and pressures that they were in 1994 when Reach began. Body image, negative self-talk and poor self-esteem are front runners, whilst trying to juggle the extreme pressures of fitting in with the crowd, and being your own person at the same time is only amplified by things like social media.
Young people consume a barrage of unrealistic, highly edited content on a daily basis.
The make-believe world of social media and the glossy covers of magazines paint a warped picture of what an amazing life should look like, while “influencers” offer us handy tips on how to fix ourselves, emphasising all of the things we never knew we needed to fill a void we didn’t know we had. All the while slowly damaging the self esteem of impressionable young minds, swipe by swipe, click by click.
EXECUTION
We chose to address the existing barriers in community sport, through unscripted interviews that capture the lived experiences of women from different walks of life.
Through the introduction of allies in this space, we would also highlight the ripple effect these barriers are having on women and girls in the community and how some sporting clubs are tackling these issues in real time, in order to create real change and a cultural shift in community sport.
Finally, in order to break this cycle, we believed it was important to also touch on the unconscious bias exhibited by some of the adult participants who have been conditioned by old ways of thinking in community sport. This would be balanced out by the refreshing views of young children, who are yet to be affected by societal “norms” or gender stereotypes, further highlighting that gender bias is a behaviour that is learnt over time, and that we all have the power to change this narrative by breaking the cycle before it starts.
WATCH CAMPAIGN VIDEO HERE
IMPACT
Since its launch, the video has gained significant traction, with over 2 million impressions and extensive sharing across social media and sector forums, driving ongoing awareness and education about the Fair Access Policy within the Victorian Government and the Change Our Game Initiative.
