Waitakere Anti Violence Essential Services


News

Winter 2010
New on-line resources 
A legal education presentation from the Waitakere Community Law Servcie is available in our Resources 

Most sexual assault survivors missing out on treatment
Since the Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) Sensitive Claims Unit introduced a new ‘Clinical Pathway’ changing access processes to sexual abuse counselling, almost 90% of claims for counselling have been either turned down or held for more information. The new pathway requires a psychiatric
diagnosis (a DSM IV) for a survivor to be eligible for treatment, whereas the law only requires a clinically significant dysfunction. The Auckland Women's Centre winter 2010 newslettter titled "Gossip" says: "It beggars belief that people who have had a crime such as rape committed on them are being treated appallingly by a Government agency and denied treatment. Health practitioners have lost trust and confidence that ACC will work with providers in a sensitive way and many have decided not to work with the ACC Sensitive Claims Unit while the new Clinical pathway remains."The Auckland Women's Centre also quotes psychotherapist, Robyn Bigelow, who says “I am not prepared to be complicit with an abusive system.”
The Government established a review panel to report back to ACC Minister, Nick Smith on the new system by 31 July 2010. The system is now such an abject failure that it seems inevitable that the review will acknowledge this. The Women's Centre are asking for the Government to implement The Ministry of Women’s Affairs findings of their two year research into adult sexual assault. The report, Restoring Soul - Effective Interventions for Adult Survivors, found that:
1. The impacts of sexual violence are huge, long lasting and wide ranging.
2. Counselling helps greatly - being listened to, validated and rebuilding safety and trust with the right counsellor
is the most important support.
3. Support workers need to have specialist knowledge about sexual violence.Autumn 2010

Autumn 2010
Farewell and welcome
David Mamea our Administrator left us in March 2010. Ann Ross who was job sharing with David took on the Administrator roll full time. Ann comes from working as Senior Accounts Administrator at CCS Disability Action Auckland.
Jo Richdale has joined us as a consultant with particular emphasis on children and migrant communities.

Summer 2010
Farewell and welcome
Mark O’Conner, had been the police representative on the WAVES Board, for several years. As Mark is now based in a role outside of Waitakere, he has chosen to resign from the Board. The WAVES team and the Board wish to thank Mark for his time and
commitment to the organisation and for the many benefits that he has brought to the Waitakere community. We wish him well in his current role.
In Mark’s place, we are delighted to announce that Gary Davey, the new Waitakere Area Commander has accepted an invitation from the Chair to be a trustee on the Board. Gary has a strong commitment to reducing family violence and keeping victims safe. We welcome Gary to the Board and look forward to his ongoing involvement.
A very warm welcome also to Ann Ross who is sharing the role of administrator with David Mamea. Ann will be working for WAVES on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays whilst David works Wednesdays and Fridays. Ann is a wonderful addition to our team and her arrival means that WAVES finally has fulltime
administration cover and is also an example of how our work is increasing.

White Ribbon Day
White Ribbon day was a great success. The day was warm and clear and the organisation was superb! Thank you everyone.  A lot of people turned up. Estimates of participant numbers range from 200 – 600. I think it depends where you were in the crowd and what perspective you were looking from. Anyway – the march filled up Henderson main street with banners and noise and colour – a celebration of the anti-violence message. In Falls Park the enthusiasm continued with the welcome and wonderful entertainment.

Christmas cheer
WAVES, Waitakere Enterprises and Family Violence Child advocate Michelle Hazeldine hosted a Christmas party at Chipmunks for 50 children who have been affected by family violence. Thanks to the generosity of Waitakere Enterprises, who raised funds through the business community, each child received a gift. WAVES board members helped wrap presents so that Santa (a well known policeman in the network) could deliver them. Thank you to everyone who helped and enabled the children to participate.

Spring 2009

The Hub
Finally we have arrived in the Hub and nearly all systems are go. WAVES and Violence Free Waitakere are sharing the main house. The Project has the cottage at the back. Please come and visit us.
We have a number of community resources here.

  • A wonderful meeting/training room upstairs with a kitchen attached.
  • A resource library. There are a range of resources that are classified and organised and available to anyone doing research about any aspect of family violence and related issues. We have resources that are about violence, the health effects of violence, housing related to domestic violence, legislation and many other things.We recently received a brand new copy of the World Report on Violence and Health from the World Health Organisation. It’s worth coming in just to see this resource!
  • A number of pamphlets and booklets for use in your agency.

Referendum
Well – we’ve had the thirteen million dollar referendum and as expected, most people who bothered to vote, voted no. Fortunately the government isn’t immediately changing the bill, although they have left the possibility open, and could do it, if it becomes politically expedient.

Let's not fool ourselves – the people who initiated this referendum – and who campaigned vigorously during the lead up to the vote, will not go away. For whatever reason (and it is difficult to understand) they have a strong commitment to beating children without legal sanction.

This should be a wake up call for the family. Only a handful of organisations in Waitakere participated in the campaign to encourage a yes vote. I found this disappointing. It was not enough to rely on the belief that the government would ignore the results of the referendum. Unless we actively campaign for the safety and rights of children the legislation is always vulnerable. The ‘other side’, those who want the right to beat children, aren’t going to stop.They will continue their campaign of lies and fear and will build up again as we get near the elections. If the National/Act government feels that there is a risk of losing the next election they may well reintroduce a bill to define reasonable force.

Our work should not just be treating those who are harmed by family. We should put our energy, knowledge and expertise into preventing it from happening – by research, practice and political action.

I hope that next time there is a threat to good practice and healthy legislation, the Waitakere family violence community will be seen to lead the fight to prevent violence.

Viviana review
Viviana have just undergone an extensive review of their services and structure, including the refuge. The review aimed to provide a clear path forward for the medium term and covered all aspects of the organisation – strategic direction, services, governance, management, operations and evaluation.  The reviewers talked to a wide range of people in the community and the organisation.

There were a number of recommendations from the review. Most importantly, the review confirmed that the strategic direction of the organisation remains effective family violence crisis intervention and prevention.

Recommendations for strengthening the work of the service include a much stronger emphasis on children and families, partnering and referral, face to face work and research based practice and evaluation.

Proposed core services are a revised refuge service, strongly focused on education and prevention, family violence court work and the outreach service.  There is also a suggestion for a one-stop shop, integrated with the existing service.

A number of other recommendations have been made.  These primarily support the existing staff and the work that they are doing and also allow for the recommended extensions of service.

Viviana have appointed a new Chief Executive, Poto Williams, who will take up the position on October 5th.  She will work with the staff and board to implement the recommendations from the review.


Winter 2009

2009 Referendum Crimes (Substituted section 59) Amendment Act
This year is the year that there is both a review of the repeal of Section59 of the Crimes Act and a citizen’s initiated referendum to try to force the government to repeal the repeal! All organisations that work to prevent violence must ensure that:
  1. There is a no change vote in the referendum
  2. That the review occurs
  3. All agencies have an opportunity to participate and highlight the benefitsof the new legislation for children’s safety and health. 
This is an issue that requires a city wide collaborative initiative if we are to be effective and successful. At the WAVES network meetings we will discuss how we ensure the anti-violence voice is heard in the lead up to the referendum and in the review process.
To start you thinking about what needs to be done, please follow this link and look at the information provided by Barnardos.  It is written to help all of us to consider the issues and to counter the myths and the pro-smacking rhetoric.

Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill
Public submissions are now being invited on the Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill.
The closing date for submissions is Friday, 27 February 2009.
The bill amends the Domestic Violence Act 1995, the Sentencing Act 2002 and the Bail Act 2000. The key enforcement initiative is the introduction of an “on the spot” order issued by the Police for the purpose of protecting victims of domestic violence.
This is an important bill for organisations who seek to protect women and children from violence. A complete version of the proposed reform can be found here.

Information on making submissions to select committee can be found here.

Remember, making a submission isn’t difficult – you just write down:
  • The name of the bill you are referring to
  • The name of the person to send it to
  • Your name and contact details
  • What you want to say.
That’s a submission.  It’s not something that you have to have any special skills for.  So…try it!
WAVES and the Waitakere Community Law Centre will hold a seminar about this Bill on February 18th, 2.30 - 4.30 pm at Community Waitakere, 8 RatanuiStreet, Henderson.