Another Step Towards a Violence Free Community
Part two of a 25-year plan to, hopefully, help our people live free from violence in Aotearoa has been launched.
The Te Aorerekura Action Plan was initially released three years ago under the previous government.
This follow-up, described by Karen Chhour, the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, as an "important milestone" will build on the progress of the first Action Plan to focus agencies' collective efforts on practical improvements to keep people safe.
Chhour says as well as improving services, the plan will provide improvements to protect children and young people, strengthen workforces and expand primary protection.
"These focus areas require deeper collaboration across government to deliver change. Ministers want to see agencies working more closely together," she says.
This is crucial as family violence and sexual violence (FVSV) is at a crisis point in New Zealand. It is believed that 56 percent of women experience intimate partner violence, crimes Chhour says are "devastating for individuals, their whanau and their communities". They also carry intergenerational consequences for health, education, and economic and social wellbeing.
Chhour says having spoken to many of the organisations doing good work in the prevention of FVSV, she is clear that the solution to the problem is to be found in our communities.
Pasefika Proud is to the forefront of the government's campaign in acknowledging the power of cultural values and strength in preventing family violence and supporting Pacific peoples to thrive. It supports communities being able to develop and lead their own solutions for addressing violence and improving wellbeing.
Part of the reasoning for this is that, as reported in the 36-page action plan, is that Pacific people disproportionately experience material hardships, which can lead to some forms of violence.
And, frighteningly, Pacific children are almost five times more likely to die from child abuse and neglect than children of other ethnicities.
Over the next few years Pasifika Proud will play its part in helping the government focus on seven areas to improve safety, support and to enable people to thrive, those areas are;
- Investing in what works and meets the needs of people, being strategic about what, where and how funding should be used and stopping things that are not effective
- Making sure agencies work better together with communities to keep people safe
- Stopping violence and holding people accountable and responsible for their behaviour, and supporting them to change
- Using prevention and effective early intervention to safeguard children and young people
- Making sure we have trained, skilled and sustainable FVSV workforces that can safely recognise, refer, and respond to violence
- Increasing understanding of FVSV to promote positive behaviour and also change social norms and empower people to recognise and prevent harm
- Stop sexual violence from happening, help those who have been affected and create a safe environment for everyone.
Among the work done by Pasifika Proud is building workforce capability and cultural responsiveness through its delivery of the Nga Vaka o Kaiga Tapu training programme in Auckland and Waikato.
It also worked with Te Puna Aonui and Pacific practitioners to deliver six regional fono across the country to help workers connect and build a shared understanding of the aims of Te Aorerekura and discuss ways to embed Pacific frameworks in the practices.
Pasefika Proud continue to support community led initiatives, many of which are shared as stories on our website.
DOWNLOAD | Second Te-Aorerekura Action Plan 2025-2030
PASEFIKA PROUD – Our Families, Our People, Our Responsibility
Introduced in 2011, Pasefika Proud, funded by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), was designed and developed in partnership with the Pacific community across the motu. It has been shaped by the voice of our Pacific people coming together to share community knowledge and practices relevant and appropriate to Pacific achieving meaningful change to prevent family violence. It is a platform that provides an opportunity for Pacific peoples to highlight clear aspirations and what is required to effect positive change based on cultural values and principles.
In 2019, Pathways for Change was developed and launched to set the five-year direction of Pasefika Proud. It has a strong alignment with the government’s key priorities and targets i.e., employment, reduced violent crime, reduced child and youth offending, and education.
The vision is for ‘Pacific families and communities are safe, resilient and enjoy wellbeing” and it is founded by a clear theory of change that is based around Pacific cultural values, principles, and concepts. It reaffirms the focus and effort towards the importance of community leading solutions at all facets to effect positive change, and to inform government on how and what support required. The approach continues to be:
- Community led
- Strengths based
- Focus on Pacific diversity
Key to the delivery of Pathways for Change was the development of ethnic specific Pacific Community Plans which are community-led and owned. MSD through Pasefika Proud, work alongside and support eight ethnic specific communities in the development and implementation of their respective Pacific Community Plans.
The plans acknowledge and reflect all the contributing factors that impacted Pacific families’ safety, resilience, and improved quality of life and preventing violence requires a holistic, multilayered, and national approach from individual attitudes and behaviours, social norms, cultures and practices, policies, and the system.
PACIFIC COMMUNITY PLANS
Pasefika Proud are committed to continued support of Pacific communities in Aotearoa New Zealand to determine their unique community aspirations and implement community-led solutions to achieve them.
The Pacific community plans are a key mechanism for this – our journey began with the Maneaba Strategic Action Plan for Kiribati communities in New Zealand in 2016, Te Olaga Ola Filemu the Tuvalu Family Violence Prevention Plan in 2019, the Kāiga Tokelau Wellbeing National Strategic Plan and Lalawa Ni Tiko Vinaka the National Fijian Wellbeing Plan in 2022, and most recently, Moui Olaola the National Niue Strategic Wellbeing Plan in 2023.
Pacific community plans in process for 2025 include Samoa, Tonga, and Cook Island.
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