Family Violence Focus Group

Working together to make our families and whānau safe

The cost is too high

• An average of 12 women a year are killed by their partners

• Over 30,000 people in Auckland are reportedly affected by family violence

• The fallout costs between $1 billion and $5 billion

What the evidence tells us

• Men are the perpetrators of the most severe and lethal cases of family violence

• Women and children are the majority of victims

• Māori are over represented, both as victims and perpetrators

Across the boundaries

• Family violence is not exclusive to any one group

• It crosses all boundaries of culture, class, and background

Many dimensions

Family violence includes:• abuse by men and women, lesbians and

gay men• of parents or siblings by children• abuse and neglect of the elderly

A challenge for us all

• Complex problems like family violence need more than laws and regulations

• A lot of work is done outside Government

• We need to use our combined strength

The shame of family violence

• In 2000, 52% of murders were related to family violence

• The same year, nine children were murdered

• 8,000 women and 9,000 children used Women’s Refuge services (2000/2001)

The impact

• Family violence has far-reaching, multi-dimensional effects

• The cycle continues: children who experience family violence are more likely to become violent in adolescence

What works?

• Multi-faceted, culturally relevant approaches

• Education aimed at prevention • Strong community action and

responsiveness• Crisis intervention and treatment

services

An integrated approach

• A commitment to preventing violence in families and whānau must happen across the care and protection sector

• It needs an integrated, co-ordinated, collaborative approach

Te Rito: our response

• Launched in March 2002

• Builds on past progress and sets a future pathway

• Developed with government and non-government agencies

• economic growth moderately positive• primary sector growth to continue• Service industries expanding

Te Rito’s vision

A New Zealand where families and whānau live free from violence

Te Rito’s five key goals

• Intolerance to violence• Co-ordinated response efforts• Preventive education and early intervention• Culturally relevant approaches• Consistent, ongoing commitment to

prevention

Programme for action

• Eighteen specific areas of action

• Staged over a five-year period

• All areas are interrelated: gains in one area will spark gains in another

Funding Project

• Developing shared accountability for five key agencies

• Aligning assurance and audit processes

• Building organisations’ capacity • Determining funding priorities for

regions

Screening and risk

assessment• Police-led project to enhance

screening and risk assessment

• Government/community working group guiding the project

• Gathering information to develop and promote best practice

Research and

evaluation • Family Violence Clearing

House

• Comprehensive information resource

• National and international research and evaluation

Self-referred clients

• Self-referred victims and offenders can access funded programmes

• 68 provider organisations contracted

• Funding targeted to existing programmes

Conceptual Framework

• Developed by Te Puni Kokiri

• Building the strengths of iwi, hapu and whānau

• Using Māori solutions to reduce family violence

Framework for Pacific

communities

• Developed by Ministries of Pacific Island Affairs and Social Development

• Harnessing the strengths of Pacific communities

• Focusing on leadership, knowledge, and partnerships

Care and Protection Blueprint

• Vision and plan of action for agencies and organisations

• Outcomes-driven

• Promotes shared leadership and co-operation

Education campaign

• The Government is investing $10.8 million

• The campaign promotes the benefits of positive parenting, and non-physical ways of disciplining children

A challenge for us all

Stemming a culture of abuse is a challenge for us all

Our children must be enabled to reach their potential and play a fullpart in society

After today

Let us have a renewed sense of ourachievements

Let us know the importance of ourfuture work

Let us set our hearts right