Reducing Family Violence in Manukau City
In a community that deals with many incidents related to family violence, central/local government agencies and community groups are working together in a concerted effort to tackle this issue.
The Reducing Family Violence in Manukau City project is working to enhance the ways families’ access services and looking at how agencies can deliver their services more efficiently in Manukau City.
Over the past year, the project partners have worked on key priority areas, including identifying family violence programmes, analysis of the referral process, and ascertaining what support is in place for men in Manukau City.
Manu Pihama, Regional Relationship Manager for Family & Community Services, says the project is now looking at what are the barriers for clients accessing family violence services. "For example, an analysis of agencies' referral process has uncovered gaps and needs including a lack of emergency accommodation."
The project is also working on developing recommendations and strategies for Men, Maori and Pacific programmes. Manu says the strength of this project is that it is cross agency, local and engages community providers. Everyone is well informed and any new work is based on robust information and intelligence.
The project partners are Family & Community Services, and Salvation Army (co-leads), and Manukau City Council, government agencies who work with family violence clients, South Auckland Family Violence Prevention Network (SAFVPN), Te Ora o Manukau, and Pacific Island Advisory Council (PIAC).
The project was identified as a community priority through the local services mapping process facilitated by Family & Community Services. It is now included in the "Tomorrow’s Manukau, Manukau Apopo", a ten-year collaborative strategy for Manukau City.
