Baby Week 2024
I See You!
Baby Week is Back: 14-20 November 2024
Join the movement
In brief
Baby Week brings together cross-sector organisations, families and caregivers to promote the importance of women’s health and ensuring we give all our babies the best possible start in life. That means health inequalities and prevention are front and centre stage. Also connects nine Baby Week partnerships in England all concerned to promote wellbeing and enable communities to flourish.
Designed to
- Promote awareness of health creation opportunity for women and babies
- Highlight a UK gender health gap and drive a call to arms
- Increase collaborative working to give women and babies the health and wellbeing they deserve
- Bring organisations, colleagues, families and caregivers together to talk and take action.
Place based
Although, Improving Me developed and continues to lead the Baby Week campaign across Cheshire and Merseyside, it has always been about partnership and collaboration. This is underpinned by a strong focus and commitment by the campaign team to supporting ‘place based’ organisations to develop, grow and lead their own local activity through a shared commitment to addressing health inequalities, through asset-based working and crucially bringing the gender health gap out into the open. This decentralised approach enables grassroot organisations to devise and lead local activity with a dedicated week to amplify shared priorities and services https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/digital-inclusion-network .
Asset based working
Improving Me therefore makes a range of resources available to support partner engagement and participation in the campaign. Baby Week logos are FREE, email banners and Save the Date posters are all available to download to raise awareness, as well as empty belly posters to promote your own activity. The overarching campaign themes are all designed to be sufficiently broad to ensure you can tailor these to each a locality and shout about what you are doing to improve women and children’s health and wellbeing . And, even if you don’t want to run your own activity you can still spread the word and get involved by sharing publicity. Spread the Word !
Help us develop Baby Week content with your stories
The Baby Week webpages on the Improving Me website provide a central repository for anyone who wants to get involved and shout about activity. We want to showcase what people are doing across Cheshire and Merseyside to inspire others to get involved. So do get in touch if you have something to share.
Connect with wider Baby Week partnerships
The national Baby Week website is also a platform to reach more people and build connections . It provides space to promote regional activity and gather intelligence too.
FREE resources for Cheshire and Merseyside
Help yourself
Baby Week logo (two versions of the logo)-Jpeg and PNG
- Save the date and engage in the week (14-20 Nov)
- Launch event poster and links to get involved (14 Nov)
- Email signature banner to highlight your endorsement and participation in the week
- Empty belly poster for promoting your local events.
Campaign hash tags
#BabyWeek2024
#IseeYou
#HearMeRoar
Don’t forget, Baby Week is about highlighting what is already happening and why you do what you do, but of course we will heartily encourage you to run a special event or develop a new activity to draw in new partners and reach more of your public (s) during Baby Week when you can piggyback on campaign momentum.
The launch day
This year’s launch will take place on at Central Library Liverpool from 10.00am. If you are interested in joining us don’t forget to get in touch. Use the links in the launch day poster and QR codes to register your interest.
Marketplace -book early
Baby Week will be taking over central library with performances, presentations, workshops, practical activities, give aways and advice - all underpinned by a brilliant marketplace to help organisations and agencies build links with each other as well as with the public. Register your interest here if you are an organisation interested in participating in the marketplace activity. Please note there is always a high demand for space in the marketplace so we advise you complete the forms early and do share any ideas to animate the event which can help highlight key issues.
The 51%
We are delighted to announce the launch event will be providing a platform for the 51% participants, who engaged in a series of therapeutic writing workshops for women, journeying from menstruation to menopause and everything in between, to share their stories. We will also be launching a digital anthology of their work. So, make sure you don’t miss this !
The Baby Week photo shoot is back and FREE group travel adventures are too….along with much more…and there will be some Eureka moments on the 15 November! More of this soon.
In detail
We thought it would be useful to remind everyone about the history of Baby Week in Cheshire and Merseyside so we can build on this to ensure we make 2024 even better. The Improving Me webpages for last year will help here, so do have a look at what has gone before and why.
Turning up the volume
You might remember last year’s core theme was Hear Me Roar and the importance of women speaking to each other and speaking out; being heard and listened to. We place an emphasis on the supreme importance of giving women a voice so we can all hear what women have to say about their lives and health journeys. This is an essential first step to breaking down the taboos and stigma surrounding women’s health. In 2024 we will be turning up the volume and generating more diverse voices.
Digital inclusion
We want to hear what all women have to say! And to make sure this happens we are working with the Women’s Budget Group and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Digital Inclusion Team to address digital exclusion. The aim is to help women access digital channels and drive content creation too. So we are enabling access to the digital world and empowering women to drive new content and look after themselves and their families better.
Representation
I See You
Hear Me Roar continues as a core campaign theme, but for 2024 we have listened to feedback and introduced, I See You, which is all about the power of representation. Imagery and pictures matter.
Each year during Baby Week, through a collaborative call to arms, women are brought together and their participation in Baby Week is documented and captured through the Baby Week photographer in residence, Just Jaq. These photos are then shared with partners to encourage wider use of imagery that reflects the diversity of women which we serve. Some beautiful photographs have been curated to reflect the Baby Week engagement journey over the last 3 years. These will be shared through a partnership with the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with the launch of a brand-new touring exhibition, I See You, to mark Baby Week in November.
Why ?
Pictures provide an entry point to stories and messages we might want to convey. Pictures reinforce words and pictures are also more memorable than words. Good and thoughtful imagery can help us grasp complex concepts and issues. They work for us. When we need to remember a complex concept or a process, we often rely on visuals stored in our memories. When we share information for specific groups it is always more meaningful when the reader sees someone they can relate to or recognise.
This campaign element is important because:
Why ?
1. Pictures provide an entry point to stories and messages we might want to convey
2. Pictures reinforce words and pictures are also more memorable than words.
3. Good and thoughtful imagery can help us grasp complex concepts and issues.
They work for us:
4. When we need to remember a complex concept or a process, we often rely on visuals stored in our memories.
5. When we share information for specific groups it is always more meaningful when the reader sees someone they can relate to or recognise.
So, images are powerful resources and assets. That’s why Baby Week has had a focus on creating a powerful set of images from the beginning. These are shared with partners each year to help amplify the work we all do. Pictures are assets which is all too often overlooked or deemed to be out of budget for many. Baby Week brings high quality photos into reach for all participants.
Watch this space for more updates as planning progresses !