Case story: Whanganui Family Violence Intervention Network

A breakthrough came after the Whanganui Family Violence Intervention Network unveiled a new billboard in a prominent shopping area on 23 April 2008.

The billboard's message was very clear: family violence is never ok in Whanganui.  The exact wording is “Police attended [number] family violence callouts in Whanganui in [month]”.  We wanted to be clear that family violence is a local and national issue so we had combined local statistics with national branding from the ‘Its Not Ok’ campaign.  The widely recognised national campaign helps in discussions around the local issues.

United behind the billboard on the day of the launch were the majority of Violence Intervention Network members. It's a message that has just kept spreading.

“We stood in public, all together, as a network of 38 agencies with a united message. We wanted to be loud about saying that family violence is happening in Whanganui and it is unacceptable,” said Vanessa Bell, the network's project manager.

“By raising the profile of the issue of family violence, the local media realised we were serious about discussing this topic. The media were inspired to ask how they can work in closer partnership with us. 

Media interest is amplifying the message of local organisations working to prevent family violence. It's also shown how far the message is reaching. The Wanganui Chronicle, the daily newspaper of Whanganui, was inspired to put all its journalist staff through a family violence training workshop in preparation for their generous sponsorship of a free campaign where the newspaper devoted a whole page daily for two weeks to the local network to portray issues, services available, success stories etc. The surprising result was the huge response from the Whanganui community. The editor was inundated with responses to the articles.

“The readers hadn’t realised they need to be involved once they become aware of family violence occurring. Some thought it would be humiliating to approach a victim, when instead it may be freeing to have the acknowledgement of what was seen or heard and an offer of support. It seemed from the responses to this campaign that for many people, to step past the shame and realise they had more than permission, they had a responsibility to get involved, was a new thing,” Vanessa said.

The messages continue to ripple through the community, with the Network doing a lot of work to raise awareness. As part of a five-year long strategy and action plan to achieve zero tolerance of family violence, agreed in 2006, the Te Rito Project Management team are co-ordinating and sponsoring lots of activities in Whanganui.

In 2008 the Violence Intervention Network members reached out to the public through over 10 events. A youth workshop, a presence at Gamble Free Day, public forums and street surveys are some of the things that were organised.

While some activities focused on the community, attention is also given to building up the capacity of the agencies involved. A media workshop was run in August to prepare network members for greater interaction with the media. Also a two-day training workshop for professionals and community workers on recognising and responding appropriately to disclosure by clients of family violence.

Vanessa said the ongoing success of the Violence Intervention Network is due to the commitment of members to work together on their common goals.  The 38 member agencies of this network are diverse in their primary foci and responsibilities but they all agree that family violence is a topic that intersects all fields and needs a united effort to break the cycle. Agencies need to challenge the institutional, community and personal beliefs and actions consistently on all fronts like the anti-drink driving and anti-smoking campaigns.

Vanessa talked about other important factors.

Communication is essential. Vanessa stated that making sure different groups are kept informed about what each other is doing is important. With the Te Rito strategy in Whanganui three bodies have a role in implementing the five-year plan, so keeping everyone up-to-date is essential. As a key link between people, project manager Vanessa puts a lot of effort into communication, even if it is sometimes only by email.

Doing things together, like creating events for the community, helps achieve broader goals than the event itself. Network members have been growing in understanding about what services are offered by different agencies and discovering specific skills of members, by running events together, and over time people involved have become better at running high profile public events and targeting these to community needs.

“As we had the common goal of creating events to meet the community’s needs, the communication between people and the personal relationships strengthened as we learned what everyone could offer and their huge levels of commitment,” Vanessa explained.

Events need to be targeted and carefully planned for specific groups, allowing time for input from everyone with something to contribute.

Planning for a White Ribbon day event later in 2009 is a good example. As the event provides an opportunity for men to stand up against violence towards women, organising a suitable event is being led by male members of Violence Intervention Network. The men in the network are considered the best people to decide what is appropriate.

FACS is working alongside Family Works Whanganui, which hosts the project manager and another new advocacy role, to support the Violence Intervention Network. As well as funding, FACS offers training and brokers relationships where possible.

Maree O'Leary, the local FACS funding advisor, believes Family Works really understands what it takes to host what is essentially a community position.

Discussions in 2006 about what it takes for organisations to collaborate was at heart of planning for the local Te Rito strategy. The groundwork is not only helping organisations achieve real outcomes, but it also provides a bulwark against any differences that may arise.

“When the project was getting started Child, Youth and Family shared a table about how you went from just networking through the steps to collaboration. It was important that a community recognised the differences, otherwise we would have just stayed in the networking,” Maree said.

As the Violence Intervention Network continues to confront the challenge of eliminating family violence in the River City, they are finding strength in unity.

Lessons to share

• Do practical things together – learn each other's skills and build relationships
• With lots of staff involved in agencies, offer training to ensure everyone is confident with dealing with family violence disclosure is worthwhile
• Work with your community to find out what they want to see about family violence education – ask people on the street, agency workers, anyone keen to offer an opinion. Then work together as a wider group from your community to design events that fit your community.