Sophie's Legacy

By Anna Guenther

video

PledgeMe.Project

Community,



NZ $10,145 pledged


209 people pledged


Closed


NZ $10,000 minimum target


100 100% Complete

This campaign was successful and closed on 20/09/2016 at 7:00 PM.

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About

Sophie's Legacy

Project 2016-08-11 12:07:59 +1200

The aims of the Sophie Elliott Foundation are to prevent violence against young people by raising awareness about the signs of abuse in dating relationships.

 

Why? Because 48 per cent of couples at age 21 years old reported as having been involved in physical partner violence (Dunedin Longitudinal Study, Moffitt and Caspi, 1999).

 

What is this campaign for?

The Sophie Elliott Foundation wants to update their website and create online content specifically for young people and their support networks. 

This year the New Zealand Police have either delivered, or about to deliver, the "Loves Me Not" workshops for Year 12 students into 72 secondary schools. The Sophie Elliott Foundation is a partner with police to see this programme delivered.

 

Now that “Loves Me Not” is up and running the Foundation want to create online content, and redesign their website to make safe relationships information more accessible. The estimated cost for this content and the website is $10,000 but any money pledged in excess of this will be used to create more content, fund more programmes, and help more young people. 

 

About the Sophie Elliott Foundation

The Sophie Elliott Foundation was started by Lesley Elliott, mother of Sophie, to help educate initially young women, but then all young people, on what healthy relationships look like. Alongside Foundation trustee Bill O’Brien, Lesley wrote two books and helped police develop the education programme “Loves Me Not”.  Lesley and Bill have devoted the last 5 years of their lives travelling around New Zealand talking to school students and communities on healthy (equal) relationships, and the signs to watch out for in unhealthy (controlling) ones. They are well supported by their fellow Foundation Trustees.

 

They've received a lot of support along the way, but their work is entirely unpaid, and predominantly funded by philanthropy. PledgeMe wanted to help raise money to redesign their website and create content that will be freely available for young people and their support networks online.

 

Who is Sophie?

Sophie had just completed a first class honours degree in Economics at Otago University. The day Sophie died she was packing to leave for Wellington to begin a promising career at NZ Treasury where she had secured a position as a graduate analyst. Sophie was nervous but also excited at the life that lay ahead of her.

 

In January 2008 Sophie was murdered in the safety of her own bedroom by an ex-boyfriend she had just ended a five month relationship with. The relationship had been punctuated with what we now know as typical partner abuse. It encompassed much psychological abuse and, in the end, two episodes of physical violence before Sophie’s brutal murder. She was only 22 years old.

Tens of thousands of New Zealand women could tell a story just like Sophie’s. All end with varying levels of violence, but the signs and symptoms of abuse are hauntingly similar and largely go unrecognised as abuse.

Because abusive behaviours are so common, and so similar, they can be readily identified – if you know the signs. The Sophie Elliott Foundation is committed to enabling young people to identify warning patterns and remove themselves safely from abusive relationships as early as possible.

 

Why is PledgeMe running this for the foundation?

One of our founders, Anna, had an amazing close friend at high school. Her name was Sophie Elliott. Anna still can't believe Soph is gone, and it breaks her heart that New Zealand is number one for reported rates of domestic violence in the OECD. We want to support Lesley, Bill, and their team to raise the money they need to grow their reach online. Anna will personally run this campaign, and cover the success fee so they get as much of the money pledged as possible. 

If you'd like to support this campaign, but can't afford to pledge, we'd love more rewards we could offer. Get in touch with [email protected] to support.

 

  

Comments

Updates 4

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

22/09/2016 at 10:43 AM

To all you wonderful pledgers: thank you.

It really means so much that you supported this campaign, and now the real work begins. Getting the funding to the foundation, delivering your rewards, and delivering the updated website and content. 

I'm going to be in touch with you individually over the weekend to coordinate reward delivery (if it requires coordination) and will be sending out the books that the Foundation has provided from late next week. If you are Wellington based, you are also welcome to come pick your book up from 115 Tory Street between 8:30am-5pm. Just flick me a note to let me know, and I'll have the books waiting for you. I'll even make you a coffee if I'm here.

I'm also working with the foundation to keep you updated as they work through getting their content online and into the world. We really couldn't have done it without you.

If you have any questions, feel free to ping me on [email protected]

Thank you, thank you, thank you again.

Anna

One more day

19/09/2016 at 5:38 PM

Hey Pledgers and Followers,

We've had such a surge of support over the last three days - thank you so much to everyone who has come on board and pledged, shared and offered rewards. We're over 60% funded now. 

We've had a few new rewards added in the last day, including:

  • Cookies from my sister, Jess
  • Adwords help from Ting Zhang (who was a Product Developer for Google)
  • MCing a Wellington event by improv superstar Jen O'Sullivan
  • A custom illustration by Jem Yoshioka

If you have any rewards you could offer, let me know. 


We still need to raise over $3k in the next 25 hours, but it's feeling doable, especially with you all in our crowd. 

Your support really means the world to the team behind this campaign. If you could help us out with one final share with your networks that would be immensely appreciated. 

Thanks again,

x

Anna

Thank you, thank you, thank you

08/09/2016 at 9:44 AM

Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone that has gotten on board to support Soph's Legacy. 

It means so much to me, to the Foundation, and hopefully to New Zealand. Imagine a future generation where partner violence isn't a problem. Work like this is part of the solution.  

If you have any tips / tricks / thoughts on where we can share this message further, get support around the plans, or reward ideas, let me know ([email protected]). And thank you for all the sharing you've done so far. We've got 12 more days to get there, and we're 30% of the way to our goal. 

For those of you that don't know, a while back I wrote a poem about Sophs, which I recorded last week. I think it helps explain a bit more about why I'm doing this: https://soundcloud.com/anna-liz-guenther/a-friend-of-mine-from-high-school-is-famous-now

Take care,

Anna

One week in

29/08/2016 at 4:24 PM

Thank you to everyone who has supported this campaign so far, it really means so much to all of us that are behind it.

We're almost at the 20% mark, and have three more weeks to hit our goal. 

I'd really appreciate any help you can give sharing this campaign further, and I think that one thing that might help with the "why this campaign?" would be for you to share your thoughts on what a healthy relationship is, and why it's important to have them. 

 

Photo Cred: Jakubowski Foto

 

When I first was asked what a healthy relationship was

I remember when Lesley asked me to be in a video for the Loves Me Not education programme. I thought the film maker was going to ask me about my friend Sophie, but he started asking me about what healthy relationships looked like. I was in my late 20's, engaged to a wonderful man, and honestly a bit baffled about how to respond. I'd never been asked that before. In fact, despite reading my fair share of dating self help books over the years, at first I wasn't able to articulate what a healthy relationship looked like.

The film maker started telling me the responses he was getting from others. He told me that teenagers generally had this Twighlight expectation of their relationships at their own age - volatile, passionate, edgy. But, interestingly, their expectations of a relationship that someone my age would have were pretty on point: loving, balanced, and a bit of work. 

It would be great if by creating this content we could change their expectations of what a relationship at 15 or 19 or 22 years old should look like, which hopefully will also inform how they choose partners for the rest of their lives.

So any help sharing what you think a healthy relationship should look like (or sharing what it does, in fact, look like to you) would be awesome. If you are the twittering type, you could even use this hashtag #sophieslegacy, and the link to this campaign page.

Photo cred: Joanna M Foto 

 

    Pledgers 209

    Cathi Napp
    19/09/2016 at 7:43pm
    Alison Jack
    19/09/2016 at 7:33pm
    Rebekah Roos
    19/09/2016 at 7:18pm
    James Gander
    19/09/2016 at 6:54pm
    Miriama Smith
    19/09/2016 at 6:37pm

    "You are nearly there!! Praying for you to achieve your target guys! xx"

    Anonymous pledger
    19/09/2016 at 6:31pm
    Rob England
    19/09/2016 at 6:04pm
    Helen Anderson
    19/09/2016 at 5:59pm

    "Sophie's legacy is powered by the incredible Lesley Elliot. I'm supporting her to help all young women to protect themselves. "

    Jackie Noble
    19/09/2016 at 4:34pm
    Nat
    19/09/2016 at 3:13pm

    "<3 You're doing good things."

    Michelle
    19/09/2016 at 3:10pm
    Pinky Fang
    19/09/2016 at 2:51pm

    "Wonderful idea, thanks so much for creating this initiative xx "

    Anonymous pledger
    19/09/2016 at 12:24pm
    Roger
    19/09/2016 at 11:47am
    Matt Powell
    19/09/2016 at 11:31am
    Anonymous pledger
    18/09/2016 at 9:15pm
    Anna Muir
    18/09/2016 at 8:14pm
    Samara Whitham
    18/09/2016 at 7:46pm
    Jess Young
    18/09/2016 at 6:57pm
    Ashleigh Barrett-Young
    18/09/2016 at 6:11pm
    Jennifer O'Sullivan
    18/09/2016 at 4:47pm
    Anonymous pledger
    18/09/2016 at 3:55pm
    Terry Shubkin
    18/09/2016 at 3:32pm
    Zoe Mounsey
    18/09/2016 at 2:34pm
    Anonymous pledger
    18/09/2016 at 2:00pm
    Kelly Macknight
    18/09/2016 at 1:22pm
    Kate Pearce
    18/09/2016 at 1:10pm
    Carole Michie
    18/09/2016 at 12:37pm
    Anonymous pledger
    18/09/2016 at 11:13am
    Nicola Easthope
    18/09/2016 at 8:47am

    Followers 4

    Followers of Sophie's Legacy

    Sophie's Legacy

    Project 2016-08-11 12:07:59 +1200

    The aims of the Sophie Elliott Foundation are to prevent violence against young people by raising awareness about the signs of abuse in dating relationships.

     

    Why? Because 48 per cent of couples at age 21 years old reported as having been involved in physical partner violence (Dunedin Longitudinal Study, Moffitt and Caspi, 1999).

     

    What is this campaign for?

    The Sophie Elliott Foundation wants to update their website and create online content specifically for young people and their support networks. 

    This year the New Zealand Police have either delivered, or about to deliver, the "Loves Me Not" workshops for Year 12 students into 72 secondary schools. The Sophie Elliott Foundation is a partner with police to see this programme delivered.

     

    Now that “Loves Me Not” is up and running the Foundation want to create online content, and redesign their website to make safe relationships information more accessible. The estimated cost for this content and the website is $10,000 but any money pledged in excess of this will be used to create more content, fund more programmes, and help more young people. 

     

    About the Sophie Elliott Foundation

    The Sophie Elliott Foundation was started by Lesley Elliott, mother of Sophie, to help educate initially young women, but then all young people, on what healthy relationships look like. Alongside Foundation trustee Bill O’Brien, Lesley wrote two books and helped police develop the education programme “Loves Me Not”.  Lesley and Bill have devoted the last 5 years of their lives travelling around New Zealand talking to school students and communities on healthy (equal) relationships, and the signs to watch out for in unhealthy (controlling) ones. They are well supported by their fellow Foundation Trustees.

     

    They've received a lot of support along the way, but their work is entirely unpaid, and predominantly funded by philanthropy. PledgeMe wanted to help raise money to redesign their website and create content that will be freely available for young people and their support networks online.

     

    Who is Sophie?

    Sophie had just completed a first class honours degree in Economics at Otago University. The day Sophie died she was packing to leave for Wellington to begin a promising career at NZ Treasury where she had secured a position as a graduate analyst. Sophie was nervous but also excited at the life that lay ahead of her.

     

    In January 2008 Sophie was murdered in the safety of her own bedroom by an ex-boyfriend she had just ended a five month relationship with. The relationship had been punctuated with what we now know as typical partner abuse. It encompassed much psychological abuse and, in the end, two episodes of physical violence before Sophie’s brutal murder. She was only 22 years old.

    Tens of thousands of New Zealand women could tell a story just like Sophie’s. All end with varying levels of violence, but the signs and symptoms of abuse are hauntingly similar and largely go unrecognised as abuse.

    Because abusive behaviours are so common, and so similar, they can be readily identified – if you know the signs. The Sophie Elliott Foundation is committed to enabling young people to identify warning patterns and remove themselves safely from abusive relationships as early as possible.

     

    Why is PledgeMe running this for the foundation?

    One of our founders, Anna, had an amazing close friend at high school. Her name was Sophie Elliott. Anna still can't believe Soph is gone, and it breaks her heart that New Zealand is number one for reported rates of domestic violence in the OECD. We want to support Lesley, Bill, and their team to raise the money they need to grow their reach online. Anna will personally run this campaign, and cover the success fee so they get as much of the money pledged as possible. 

    If you'd like to support this campaign, but can't afford to pledge, we'd love more rewards we could offer. Get in touch with [email protected] to support.

     

      

    Comments

    Thank you, thank you, thank you.

    22/09/2016 at 10:43 AM

    To all you wonderful pledgers: thank you.

    It really means so much that you supported this campaign, and now the real work begins. Getting the funding to the foundation, delivering your rewards, and delivering the updated website and content. 

    I'm going to be in touch with you individually over the weekend to coordinate reward delivery (if it requires coordination) and will be sending out the books that the Foundation has provided from late next week. If you are Wellington based, you are also welcome to come pick your book up from 115 Tory Street between 8:30am-5pm. Just flick me a note to let me know, and I'll have the books waiting for you. I'll even make you a coffee if I'm here.

    I'm also working with the foundation to keep you updated as they work through getting their content online and into the world. We really couldn't have done it without you.

    If you have any questions, feel free to ping me on [email protected]

    Thank you, thank you, thank you again.

    Anna

    One more day

    19/09/2016 at 5:38 PM

    Hey Pledgers and Followers,

    We've had such a surge of support over the last three days - thank you so much to everyone who has come on board and pledged, shared and offered rewards. We're over 60% funded now. 

    We've had a few new rewards added in the last day, including:

    • Cookies from my sister, Jess
    • Adwords help from Ting Zhang (who was a Product Developer for Google)
    • MCing a Wellington event by improv superstar Jen O'Sullivan
    • A custom illustration by Jem Yoshioka

    If you have any rewards you could offer, let me know. 


    We still need to raise over $3k in the next 25 hours, but it's feeling doable, especially with you all in our crowd. 

    Your support really means the world to the team behind this campaign. If you could help us out with one final share with your networks that would be immensely appreciated. 

    Thanks again,

    x

    Anna

    Thank you, thank you, thank you

    08/09/2016 at 9:44 AM

    Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone that has gotten on board to support Soph's Legacy. 

    It means so much to me, to the Foundation, and hopefully to New Zealand. Imagine a future generation where partner violence isn't a problem. Work like this is part of the solution.  

    If you have any tips / tricks / thoughts on where we can share this message further, get support around the plans, or reward ideas, let me know ([email protected]). And thank you for all the sharing you've done so far. We've got 12 more days to get there, and we're 30% of the way to our goal. 

    For those of you that don't know, a while back I wrote a poem about Sophs, which I recorded last week. I think it helps explain a bit more about why I'm doing this: https://soundcloud.com/anna-liz-guenther/a-friend-of-mine-from-high-school-is-famous-now

    Take care,

    Anna

    One week in

    29/08/2016 at 4:24 PM

    Thank you to everyone who has supported this campaign so far, it really means so much to all of us that are behind it.

    We're almost at the 20% mark, and have three more weeks to hit our goal. 

    I'd really appreciate any help you can give sharing this campaign further, and I think that one thing that might help with the "why this campaign?" would be for you to share your thoughts on what a healthy relationship is, and why it's important to have them. 

     

    Photo Cred: Jakubowski Foto

     

    When I first was asked what a healthy relationship was

    I remember when Lesley asked me to be in a video for the Loves Me Not education programme. I thought the film maker was going to ask me about my friend Sophie, but he started asking me about what healthy relationships looked like. I was in my late 20's, engaged to a wonderful man, and honestly a bit baffled about how to respond. I'd never been asked that before. In fact, despite reading my fair share of dating self help books over the years, at first I wasn't able to articulate what a healthy relationship looked like.

    The film maker started telling me the responses he was getting from others. He told me that teenagers generally had this Twighlight expectation of their relationships at their own age - volatile, passionate, edgy. But, interestingly, their expectations of a relationship that someone my age would have were pretty on point: loving, balanced, and a bit of work. 

    It would be great if by creating this content we could change their expectations of what a relationship at 15 or 19 or 22 years old should look like, which hopefully will also inform how they choose partners for the rest of their lives.

    So any help sharing what you think a healthy relationship should look like (or sharing what it does, in fact, look like to you) would be awesome. If you are the twittering type, you could even use this hashtag #sophieslegacy, and the link to this campaign page.

    Photo cred: Joanna M Foto 

     

      Cathi Napp
      19/09/2016 at 7:43pm
      Alison Jack
      19/09/2016 at 7:33pm
      Rebekah Roos
      19/09/2016 at 7:18pm
      James Gander
      19/09/2016 at 6:54pm
      Miriama Smith
      19/09/2016 at 6:37pm

      "You are nearly there!! Praying for you to achieve your target guys! xx"

      Anonymous pledger
      19/09/2016 at 6:31pm
      Rob England
      19/09/2016 at 6:04pm
      Helen Anderson
      19/09/2016 at 5:59pm

      "Sophie's legacy is powered by the incredible Lesley Elliot. I'm supporting her to help all young women to protect themselves. "

      Jackie Noble
      19/09/2016 at 4:34pm
      Nat
      19/09/2016 at 3:13pm

      "<3 You're doing good things."

      Michelle
      19/09/2016 at 3:10pm
      Pinky Fang
      19/09/2016 at 2:51pm

      "Wonderful idea, thanks so much for creating this initiative xx "

      Anonymous pledger
      19/09/2016 at 12:24pm
      Roger
      19/09/2016 at 11:47am
      Matt Powell
      19/09/2016 at 11:31am
      Anonymous pledger
      18/09/2016 at 9:15pm
      Anna Muir
      18/09/2016 at 8:14pm
      Samara Whitham
      18/09/2016 at 7:46pm
      Jess Young
      18/09/2016 at 6:57pm
      Ashleigh Barrett-Young
      18/09/2016 at 6:11pm
      Jennifer O'Sullivan
      18/09/2016 at 4:47pm
      Anonymous pledger
      18/09/2016 at 3:55pm
      Terry Shubkin
      18/09/2016 at 3:32pm
      Zoe Mounsey
      18/09/2016 at 2:34pm
      Anonymous pledger
      18/09/2016 at 2:00pm
      Kelly Macknight
      18/09/2016 at 1:22pm
      Kate Pearce
      18/09/2016 at 1:10pm
      Carole Michie
      18/09/2016 at 12:37pm
      Anonymous pledger
      18/09/2016 at 11:13am
      Nicola Easthope
      18/09/2016 at 8:47am

      Followers of Sophie's Legacy

      This campaign was successful and got its funding on 20/09/2016 at 7:00 PM.