Canterbury schools pilot family violence tool kit
Christchurch Advocates for Children Witnessing Family Violence are working with schools to educate teachers about how to respond to children and young people who witness violence.
Matt Williams, one the Christchurch Advocates, has developed a tool kit to pilot with 12 Canterbury schools.
Matthew works at Christchurch Methodist Mission and used his previous experience as a primary school teacher to help develop the toolkit.
The toolkit focuses on staff training, and alignment of policy and curriculum with best practice in responding to children and young people who witness family violence.
It contains resources and lesson plans that can be used by teachers to educate and raise awareness in their students about family violence, its impact on them and what they can do to get support if needed.
The pilot will run for about three months. At the end of the pilot schools will take part in an evaluation survey to check the effectiveness of the toolkit.
Following the pilot and evaluation it is hoped the pilot can be extended to all Canterbury schools.
Advocates work with community organisations to ensure the needs of children and young people who witness family violence are identified and addressed and also provide advice and support for agencies working directly with children and young people affected by family violence.
ยป For more information about the Toolkit contact Matthew Williams at info@citymission.org.nz.
