Membership
Thank you for your interest in joining Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Patunga / National Network of Family Violence Services.
We are a network of specialist family violence organisations across Aotearoa/New Zealand. Our members are as diverse as the communities they serve but what brings them together is a shared:
- analysis – of family violence and its causes
- belief – that while everyone has a role to play in addressing family violence, specialist organisations, practitioners and responses are vital to increasing safety and decreasing risk
- commitment – to the three guiding pou and the values of Te Kupenga
- dedication – to best practice in the delivery of family violence services.
We offer two levels of membership or affiliation.
- Full membership is reserved for specialist family violence organisations, regardless of whether the organisation is government funded or funded in other ways. Admission to membership involves processes of whanaungatanga and relationship building as well as a written application. It is important to us that not only are you a good fit for membership but that we are a good fit for your organisation and its needs as a specialist family violence organisation.
- Affiliate supporters include organisations which may not fit the category of being a specialist family violence organisation (for example, broader social service organisations without a specialist family violence team or or organisations not involved in the delivery of family violence services directly to their communities) as well as individuals, other networks or allied service providers (for example, restorative justice practitioners). Affiliate supporters gain many of the benefits enjoyed by our members but without the ability to vote at annual and special general meetings.
If you are keen to find out more about full membership or supporter affiliation with us, please contact our Kaitohutohu/Strengths Advisor, Celia via email at kaitohutohu@nnfvs.org.nz and we will send you an information package.
BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP
WHAT'S SPECIAL ABOUT SPECIALISATION?
What is a family violence specialist?
A person with extensive training and experience working with family violence, working in an organisation which holds expert knowledge of family violence practice embedded at all levels of the organisation (from the Family Violence Entry to Expert Capability Framework) A specialist family violence practitioner should meet all of the relevant knowledge and skill attributes of, at least, the Enhanced level of the Family Violence Entry to Expert Capability Framework.
What is a specialist family violence organisation?
Te Kupenga defines a specialist family violence organisation as one which is:
- working directly with people impacted by or perpetrating family violence AND
- has a singular or primary focus on working to address, prevent and eliminate family violence AND
- is committed to ensuring its personnel (kaimahi/staff, management and governance) have the specialist knowledge, experience and skills identified in the Entry to Expert Capability Framework to undertake their roles safely and effectively.
A specialist team (2+ specialists) in a broader organisation may be considered by Te Kupenga as be eligible for membership as a specialist family violence organisation, provided it can demonstrate the ways in which expert knowledge of family violence is embedded at all levels across the entire organisation.
Why is specialisation important?
Specialists carry considerable responsibility as dedicated organisations and clinicians working with people impacted by, and people perpetrating, family violence. They:
- Work at the most extreme levels of risk
- Are required to have relevant cultural and cross-cultural expertise
- Have specific insights into both structural and interpersonal violence, including nuanced insights into the different types of violence, the dynamics which inform those types and the ways in which those dynamics will differ, and therefore require different responses depending upon intersectional factors including disability, gender. sexuality, culture, ethnicity, residency status, faith and age
- Recognise and know how to respond to and address both social and systemic entrapment
- Work in both a trauma informed and a violence informed manner
- Are expected to undertake leadership and system improvement roles in partnership and collaboration with all other parts of the family violence intervention and prevention systems
- Are immersed in daily family violence service delivery practice and are exposed to the latest research and analysis, practice frameworks and best practice ideas and expectations
- Know, and are supported by organisational structures which ensure the safety of victim-survivors is at the centre of their work, regardless of who they work for or are working with.
Why is family violence specialisation worth protecting?
We don’t go to a GP when we need a heart bypass. We see a specialist, someone focused on hearts and who is daily immersed in the latest heart care practices. Our local GP has an important role, they can identify there is a problem but they won’t claim to have the expertise to fix it. They know that’s a specialist area of knowledge and skill. They know that it’s dangerous to think that, because they want to help or just make money, they can perform a heart bypass.
We’d be outraged if the local after-school programme got funding to provide elder abuse advocacy, the local church op-shop got health funding to deliver drug and alcohol counselling, St John health shuttle got MSD funding to offer budgeting services, or a public servant working in the housing policy field started making policies about treating eating disorders. Why? Because we recognise there are skills and knowledge in supporting vulnerable older people or someone with addiction issues or helping to build a person’s financial capability or working with a person with an eating disorder.
And of course, we’d be deeply concerned if security guards got taxpayer funding to undertake the role of NZ Police in our cities and towns. We know that policing is a highly specialised field requiring more than a three day training course.
But there is a reluctance in recognising that supporting a victim-survivor of family violence requires significant skill and experience or helping a violent person to change their behaviours and attitudes is a highly specialist undertaking. And getting it wrong because someone is well-intentioned but unskilled, or dabbling in the specialist space because there’s funding available, can be as serious as a GP wanting to help but having no idea about how to safely perform that heart bypass. Or a security guard acting as a police officer. Someone could end up dead.