But how do you change society’s values?

HEARTLINES is an internationally award-winning NGO with an 8-year track record of multifaceted interventions that reach millions and lead to real values-based change. It has the programming, the credibility across diverse sectors and the partnerships that place it in a unique position to address this challenge.

HEARTLINES’ programming has three complementary streams.

1. Values education, in schools, faith-based organisations, prisons, local government, and business. Read more.


2. Youth Development, with specific emphasis on developing ethical young people. Read more.


3. Building communities, particularly on the local level. Read more.

Thirdly the use of digital media to support individual change, action and community building.

Our key focus for the next 18 months will be the values that underpin active citizenship and civic engagement. In particular the values of service, compassion, courage (to stand up for what is right, integrity and responsibility. We will apply a values approach to pertinent issues of the day.

All our platforms and interventions will support this focus.

Founded in 2002, HEARTLINES has a skilled and multidisciplinary team and an active board. Its founding CEO, Dr Garth Japhet also founded and ran Soul City, Africa’s leading health communication institution.

HEARTLINES’ approach is based on best practice theory. Instead of focusing on what people are doing wrong, our first objective is to support the people and organisations that are committed to doing the right thing, especially those in positions of leadership, and to expand their efficacy and influence.

Our second objective is to growing the next generation of ethical citizens by focusing on young people.

Through this approach, our aim is to achieve a positive social tipping point that will in turn impact on priorities like job creation, violence reduction, health and education. While targeting the general population, our main target sectors are schools, both primary and secondary, faith-based organisations, NGOs and local government.

Other board members are:
Dr Garth Japhet
Mrs Esme Bowers
Ms Oya Gumede
Mr Derek Muller

1. Multiple individual examples of individual change and community transformation.


2. Reaching up to 12 million people in multiple sectors.


3. Transformed schools and communities.
   
4. Some of the most prestigious local and international awards for film and TV

1. Leaders of all major religions.


2. The Departments of Education, Social Development, Arts and Culture, the Presidency and the International Marketing Council.


3. NGOs nationally.
   
4. SABC radio and TV

The vast majority of South Africans already aspire to a set of good values which, if lived, would transform our country. HEARTLINES acknowledges God as the authority of all good values. These values form the basis of much of the teaching of our major faiths, to which over 80% of our population claims to belong. Unfortunately there is a big values-action gap. HEARTLINES aims to narrow this gap through facilitating a mass movement of ‘lived’ values to achieve a tipping point, and so transform our country.

Values are core beliefs or desires that guide or motivate attitudes and actions. They also define the things we prize and value and therefore provide the basis for ranking the things we want in a way that elevates some values over others. Thus our values determine how we behave, or in other words, they are the drivers of behaviour.

The Mass Media Project approach is based on the following:

Firstly, in order to impact on both the positive and the negative behaviours that influence South Africa’s major social problems, there is a need to impact on the drivers of this behaviour.

In recent years, a similar approach has been adopted in the field of public health, where the focus has been to deal with the underlying determinants of disease, rather than the diseases themselves. For instance, it has been found that for every year of a woman’s education, there is a 10% drop in infant mortality. Thus, while still dealing directly with issues such as measles, polio and diarrhoea, major efforts are being made to ensure that the girl child is in school.

Similarly, when dealing with social problems including HIV&AIDS, we believe that as well as focusing on positive behaviours, we should also deal with the underlying determinants of behaviour. These we would identify as values.

Positive values such as self control, respect, trust, perseverance, integrity and selflessness all contribute to the decision to abstain from or delay sex. If, when we deal with HIV&AIDS prevention, we explicitly promote these values and create debate around them, we may then also impact on other social issues that require a similar values base - like violent crime.

Secondly, since 83% of South Africans align themselves with one of the country’s four major religions, HEARTLINES uses God as the authority base for the values. According to the 2001 census, 79.8% of South Africans described themselves as Christian, 1.5% as Muslim, 1.2% as Hindu and 0.2% as Jewish.

Thirdly, while a positive value system may not necessarily give rise to positive behaviours, it is an important starting point for these behaviours. International and local behaviour change research bears testimony to this fact.

Fourthly, an intervention that is catalysed by the mass-media is a highly effective way to promote positive values. It can also move people from belief in a positive value system to implementing positive behaviours. Local and international research shows that connection is not always direct, but that it correlates with the efficacy of the mass media to stimulate debate, impact on social norms and promote community mobilisation. These are important precursors to behaviour change.

In South Africa TV is the most powerful and pervasive medium, with at least 85% of the population having access to television.

Fifthly, in order to capitalise on a the public discourse stimulated by the mass media and its supporting materials, communities and individuals need to be mobilised.

The award-winning films produced by Curious Pictures were: The Miner (acceptance), The Good Provider (responsibility), Crossroads (forgiveness), The Bet (self-control), The Good Fight (perseverance), The Piano (honesty), The Other Woman (compassion) and HEARTLINES feature film (second chances). The films were complemented with discussion on radio stations, articles in the print media and HEARTLINES materials distributed to faith-based organisations. The films were rebroadcast on SABC 2 in October 2007 and were a prelude to the next exciting phase of this innovative project.

Over an eight-week period during 2006, each episode received multiple flightings on national television (preceded in every instance by a message from former president Nelson Mandela). For the first time in history, the SABC flighted the same programme in different time slots on all three channels in the same week. The initiative was underpinned by an extensive multi-media campaign which included:

• At least 14 hours of television airtime on news, magazine and talk show programmes;
• Radio coverage (on SABC and 15 FBO stations);
• Print coverage (More than 500 articles in over 40 publications);
• A storybook for parents to read to young children (45 000 copies distributed);
• A music CD (produced by some of South Africa’s leading recording artists).

These initiatives were supported by FBOs across the country. Support was received from Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Jewish leadership.

The first phase of HEARTLINES was evaluated using scientifically rigorous evaluation methods. A baseline benchmarking survey was conducted prior to the project. The post-intervention evaluation included interviews with 3500 adults across the country supplemented by 37 in-depth interviews and nine focus groups. Key findings include: An estimated 26% of the adult population or 7,3 million adults watched one or more of the HEARTLINES films on television; The highest viewership (34%) was among the people aged between 18 and 24 years; Audience numbers doubled from the first film to the last film; Almost two-thirds of those who watched HEARTLINES discussed the films with others – resulting in an estimated 4,5million additional values-related conversations; HEARTLINES had a positive impact on decreasing stigma towards People Living with Aids in South Africa; HEARTLINES established support and credibility within FBOs that were visited and stories of far-reaching self-reflection and change attest to the impact of HEARTLINES on individual-level attitudes when used at FBOs, particularly with respect to forgiveness.

The first phase of HEARTLINES achieved excellent reach for an eight-week intervention. Noting that models of behaviour change postulate that dialogue is one of the critical ‘intermediate’ outcomes leading towards behaviour change or action, HEARTLINES’ success is underscored by its achievement of a national dialogue on values.

back to top