Family violence services face uncertain future

The new Family-Centred Services Fund is an opportunity to step up the community response to family violence according to the Chief Executives of three of Waitakere’s key social service agencies. Tariana Turia , Associate Minister for Social Development, announced the new fund on 1 April. The fund consists of $8.535 million that has been rechanneled from existing funding for family violence prevention work.

The Chief Executives of Waitakere Abuse and Trauma Counselling Service, Man Alive Charitable Trust and Western Refuge Society have been working on a whanau based approach to family violence prevention for some time. Man Alive Chief Executive Chris Davidson stated that the three organisations began working on the collaborative partnership in 2009 through ‘recognising that working in isolation isn’t effective. The men, women and children each of our agencies work with are a part of families, and we must work with those families holistically.’

Michelle Clayton is the Chief Executive of Waitakere Abuse and Trauma Counselling Service. Her agency has been hardest hit by the changes announced by Minister Turia. ‘Our family violence service was almost entirely supported by the funds that have been rechanneled. We are excited about the opportunity to bring forward our plans to move to a whanau centred intervention. However, we are concerned that should we not be successful with the new fund this will leave Waitakere with almost no specialised support for victims of family violence.’ These concerns are shared by Poto Williams, Chief Executive of Western Refuge Society. ‘We receive over 2,000 referrals every year. We are heavily reliant on an effective service for victims of family violence and are surprised with the decision to cut these services in our community. Like Michelle, we are hopeful that the new service we have been planning for some time will receive funding and fill this gap.’

Chris Davidson commented that many of the services offered by the agencies have been recently evaluated and proven effective, in some cases exceeding international standards. ‘Waitakere has world-class services. We are well connected into our communities and the services we have been planning will take us to a new level again. It is critical the government supports evidence based essential front-line services.’

Funding for Waitakere’s current family violence victims services runs out on 30 June 2011. Applications for the new fund close on 29 April, and successful applicants will be notified in June. ends

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