Case Study: ‘Curtains have a job to do!’

Case Study: Curtain Call

The Curtain Call Collective used the support of the Decent Homes Community of Practice to develop a new story about the job curtains do in making a home healthy. This was a story informed by research into how to deepen public understanding of how system levers connect to social issues.

Curtain Call credit the input from the Community of Practice for strong public engagement with the campaign. ‘Social contagion’ was evident as campaign messaging was picked up in the communications of external actors and the news media.

Elements of the message were also picked up in subsequent communication across the sector, and messaging impacted on news media and policy discourse more than two years after the initial campaign.

“

We typically see more debate about why these services are needed in the first place, a lot of people discussing ‘hand-outs’ – having other members of public defend this work has been great to see…

”

Who was involved?

The Curtain Call Collective (Curtain Call) was formed by a group of organisations who run curtain banks and work to ensure healthy and energy efficient homes across New Zealand – Habitat for Humanity, Community Energy Network, Starship Foundation, Beacon Pathway and Sustainability Trust. The goal of the collective, which has been working together since 2021, is to have a stronger, more unified voice when advocating for change.

The Decent Homes Communication Community of Practice was established in early 2023 as part of the Healthy Home Communication Action Research project, led by Wellington Regional Healthy Housing Group (WRHHG) and The Workshop.

What happened?

In 2023 Curtain Call decided to run an advocacy campaign including a petition asking for effective curtains to be made mandatory in the Healthy Home Standards legislation for rental properties in New Zealand. As organisations who worked with households to help make homes healthier and more energy efficient, they noticed there was a lack of public understanding as well as policy recognition of the role of curtains in keeping a home warm and dry.

Some members of the Curtain Call collective were part of the recently established Decent Homes Communicators Community of Practice (CoP) and had completed Narrative Foundations Training with The Workshop. They requested a workshopping session with the goal of developing clear messaging that would deepen public understanding of and support for the Curtain Call Campaign. 

A process including preparatory work, a 2-hour workshopping session with narrative communication specialists from The Workshop and follow-up by the Curtain Call collective and expert advisors supported the group to:

  • identify the system change goal of the Curtain Call Campaign (to bring to the surface more helpful and evidence-based public narratives about the role of curtains in keeping homes warm and dry, and to generate a policy change that ensures curtains are given appropriate attention in healthy homes legislation)
  • clearly articulate the vision the campaign sought to realise and the widely shared values this spoke to
  • identify the (narrative/ understanding) barriers to achieving this vision
  • identify where existing high-level messages developed through the Action Research Project could be useful
  • get specialist help to bring these elements together and develop appropriate messaging and content for a petition launch and website

The work drew on the high-level messages and draft Communicators Toolkit developed through the Action Research Project. The output was messaging that led with vision and spoke to intrinsic shared values, provided a simple explanation with a few supporting facts, and made use of helpful metaphors.

The impact

1. Strengthened and unified messaging

Engagement through the Community of Practice workshopping session helped the Curtain Call Collective articulate a clear call to action that appealed to shared public values. The communication material shifted from being problem-led to vision-led, and used a simple ‘explanatory chain’. A new metaphor – ‘curtains have a job to do’ – was developed to help communicate why curtains are important.

Broad existing relationships Curtain Call organisations held with others across the sector helped ensure key campaign messages were shared widely via social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) posts with good engagement levels. A petition using the messaging gathered 607 signatories.

2. Contributed to creating champions for the work and long-term impact

People and organisations involved in the Curtain Call campaign went on to become influential champions of the work, leading to new engagement with the Community of Practice.

The process generated a new metaphor – ‘(curtains have) a job to do’ that was picked up in other sector communication later. This included the website and training resources for Home Performance Advisor Training programme (HPA Ltd), the main trainer for in-home advisors on energy efficiency and healthy homes in Aotearoa, as well as research reports and conference presentations.

Some of the Curtain Call group are part of the Ministry of Health’s Healthy Homes Initiative delivered through community-based providers throughout the country. These organisations brought in others from that network following the success of the Curtain Call campaign and were involved in subsequent related communication campaigns, growing the reach of consistent narrative messaging.

3. ‘Social contagion’ – messaging picked up by other actors and in other contexts

Messaging developed for this campaign was picked up in other communication including more than two years after the initial campaign. Curtain Call member Beacon Pathway used it in framing of a research project looking at healthy homes advice provision as a service for home loan applicants. As a result of the messaging used in the framing of the research report and in a post about this on Beacon Pathway LinkedIn profile, it appeared in an article related to the research in the construction industry facing BRANZ Build magazine, and was picked up with a small reframe in ANZ Bank LinkedIn post.

4. Contributed to deepened public understanding and support

Messaging continued to be used and over time Curtain Call practitioners noticed a shift in the general public’s way of talking – including more support for interventions and language framing this as a social good, fewer people blaming individuals and more recognition of systemic failures. For example, a comment on a HfH Northern Facebook post about home repairs in May 2025 received only one critical response, to which another commenter responded with: “not everyone is able to afford or has the ability to keep up with essential repairs around their homes.” Ella M, Communication Lead for Habitat for Humanity Northern said: “We typically see more debate about why these services are needed in the first place, a lot of people discussing ‘hand-outs’ – having other members of public defend this work has been great to see…”

This together with other examples of a shift in the way the public talks about curtains and healthy homes and government-supported interventions to help fix them, suggests a deepening public understanding of the issue.

 5. Possible link to appearance of language in policy discourse

Several Curtain Call Campaign participants provided written and in-person feedback to a government-commissioned Energy Hardship Review Expert Panel a few months after the Campaign including written submissions and meetings with the panel by the Curtain Call group, and (separately) WRHHG. A Discussion Document authored by this Panel had language in some parts that closely reflected language used in network communications material. Though we were not able to verify a definite causal link, this provided evidence of potential early shifts in policy discourse in line with the goals of our communication project.

Examples of communication material related to this case study: