Down in the Southern Hemisphere, New Zealand’s launching a program dedicated to helping teens navigate the sour parts of love.
According to a statement from the the NZ government, the Love Better campaign was recently established to “support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt.” To achieve this, Love Better will receive the equivalent of about $4M USD over the next three years.
Regarding the decision to launch the program, Priyanca Radhakrishnan—New Zealand’s Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment—shared that citizens expressed the need for “support to deal with early experiences of love and hurt.”
“Over 1,200 young kiwis told us they need support to deal with early experiences of love and hurt, and break-ups were identified as a common challenge.”
Radhakrishnan added, “We know that break-ups hurt. We want to support our young people to deal with the hurt and know that there is a way through.”
By providing New Zealanders with this program, officials hope to ultimately “positively impact how they approach future relationships.”
In a promotional video, a narrator proclaims that “break-ups suck” before noting that the Love Better campaign is centered on having “a community of the freshly broken up helping the freshly broken up to help a little hurt from becoming a lot of hurt.”
Additionally, we should also add that the central message of the program is to “own the feels.”
Radhakrishnan notes that Love Better “is a primary prevention campaign” featuring “young people sharing real stories to help their peers.”
As a result, she calls it “an authentic way to inspire others to build their own strength, self-worth, and resilience.”
What do you think about New Zealand implementing this new program, and would you like to see the United States take similar action?
