Family Violence Summit took place in Wellington

Last week people working to address New Zealand’s high rate of family violence came together to build on the conversation of how we can work together effectively to break New Zealand’s high rate of family violence.

The Family Violence Summit, hosted by the Minister of Justice, and Minister for Social Development, gave attendees the opportunity to participate in workshops and hear from Ministers and other keynote speakers on topics including earlier intervention, supporting vulnerable population groups, helping children and their whānau live without family violence, and kaupapa Māori whanau-centred approaches.

Outcomes from the summit will feed into and inform the work of the Ministerial Group on Family Violence and Sexual Violence. There is still an opportunity to give feedback(external link) on the topics under discussion at the Summit. The survey will run until Friday the 16th June 2017.

On the day, attendees discussed the need for how we can develop a more cohesive approach to family violence that meets the needs of families and communities. As part of the process to address this, Ministers launched two new guides to support the family violence sector to provide consistent and effective help to victims and perpetrators.

The first, a  Risk Assessment and Management Framework, aims to ensure that no matter who a victim or perpetrator approaches for help, the risks they face will be consistently identified, assessed and managed. The second, a Workforce Capability Framework, is a guide outlining the capabilities needed by those in the family violence sector to successfully support victims, perpetrators and their families. Both of these frameworks have been developed with the help of the sector.

If you want to learn more about the work underway to address New Zealand's horrific rate of family and sexual violence visit our work programme(external link).

Image Caption: Keynote speakers (L-R) Sue Hobbs, Shayne Walker, and Gráinne Moss listen to Summit Chair, Sir Wira Gardiner’s address. 

← Back to the news

This page was last updated: