Our Work
The purpose of the CFVC is to provide support, connection and leadership within the local family violence sector of Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Our strength as a collaborative is in sharing and strengthening the collective knowledge, expertise and experience of the people we support and represent.
In this way we believe that we can have the most impact in helping to create communities that value respectful relationships, and in which families, whānau and individuals are violence-free.
To achieve this, we focus on:
Primary Prevention
Workforce Support
Advocacy and Communications
Primary Prevention
OUR WORK
PRIMARY PREVENTION
WORKFORCE SUPPORT
ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATIONS
Primary Prevention involves
engagement with existing community networks;
education and information sharing to help communities build capability to recognise and refer e.g. How to Help workshops
creation of and/or participation in public events e.g. White Ribbon day and Pink Shirt (anti-bullying) Day
By focussing on engaging at a community level we can:
build capability to recognise family violence;
raise awareness of where to get help;
strengthen community connections that support safer whānau.
Key to our prevention work are aroha ki te tangata (respect for people) and manaakitanga (care for each other). In practice this means that we put people at the centre of the work we do in the community by respecting existing relationships and seeking to support them, and being guided by what people tell us they want or need.
For example, we connect with local community networks, organisations and schools to offer prevention and educational workshops to businesses, community groups, social services and sports clubs.
We also organise and/or take part in events (e.g. White Ribbon, anti-bullying days, or community initiatives with other organisations, such as Kainga Ora). Visibility helps remove barriers to support-seeking, and reinforces positive messages around everyone’s ability to help address family violence.
Workforce Support
OUR WORK
PRIMARY PREVENTION
WORKFORCE SUPPORT
ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATIONS
Workforce Support
Workforce Support includes:
professional development opportunities that are open to any agency within the Collaboration
opportunities to share specialist knowledge and expertise with others, facilitated by the Collaboration
networking and connection events
surveying Collaboration partners as to needs, issues and opportunities for better support
There are many opportunities for professional development on offer. Our role is to share information about those opportunities and also to identify where there are gaps that we might fill. We also check in with our membership about what they want/need, and try to facilitate that for them.
By organising training centrally for our membership we are able to:
maximise attendance;
reduce costs;
find training partners who can tailor sessions to our members’ experiences and/or needs;
enable leaders within our sector to become trainers and mentor others;
and create cross-agency networking opportunities that don’t occur in single-agency-only training.
The training opportunities we offer are open to all, at no or minimal cost.
Advocacy and Communications
OUR WORK
PRIMARY PREVENTION
WORKFORCE SUPPORT
ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATIONS
Advocacy and Communications includes:
promotion of key messages around family violence to the public
advocacy around hot topics or concerns
convening hui for sector-side conversation and/or information gathering
resource collation and sharing via website, social media and email.
With a membership of over 70 local organisations, the CFVC can identify trends and issues, and barriers and opportunities that are relevant to the development and delivery of effective services and/or government initiatives (e.g. the Integrated Community Response, which is part of Te Aorerekura).
We use our online platforms, hui and events to promote key messages related to family and sexual violence prevention.
We undertake sector-wide surveys and facilitate conversations that continue identifying gaps in knowledge specific to the sector, emerging themes at a community and operational level, and sector needs. We advocate that these inform ongoing strategic planning by sector members and partners.
