New Zealand Invests $4M to Help Brokenhearted Teens

The country's 'Love Better' campaign wants young people to 'own the feels'
By Steve Huff,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 25, 2023 6:30 AM CDT
New Zealand Budgets $4M to Help Lovelorn Teens
   (Getty Images / Kehan Chen)

New Zealand's "Love Better" campaign is ready to help teenagers struggling with a breakup move on in a healthy way, and it's spending $4 million ($6.4 million in NZ currency) to do it. Via its affiliate RNZ, CNN reports that this is a youth-led campaign. In a statement, Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan said that more than 1,200 young people indicated a need for help in dealing with the emotional pain of breakups, or as the campaign's tagline says, "own the feels." The Guardian notes that a promotional video released on Gen Z-friendly social platforms says Love Better consists "of the freshly broken-up helping the freshly broken-up," with a goal of preventing the pain from becoming too much to handle.

As Quartz reports, the campaign is part of Te Aorerekura, New Zealand's first National Strategy to Eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence. According to charitable organization Good Shepherd NZ, New Zealand has one of the Western world's highest rates of reported sexual and domestic violence. The campaign seeks to play a role in boosting awareness and prevention of abuse, getting ahead of negative behaviors before they form a pattern that continues into adulthood. According to Quartz, New Zealand's own government statistics indicate that out of 1,200 Kiwis between ages 16 and 24, up to 68% said they'd experienced severe emotional distress after breakups, leading to consequences such as self-harm, depression, and substance abuse.
(More New Zealand stories.)

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