| The following story comes from one of Christchurch’s Kaupapa MÄori Service Providers who accessed the Flexi-Fund to support a victim and her tamariki:
Through the ISR Flexi-Fund application process we were able to help obtain finance for our client and her tamariki to enact the final part of her safety plan by assisting her to fully relocate from Christchurch to Auckland.
L and her tamariki were able to move closer to whÄnau prior to her ex partner’s release from prison. L’s mum had recently passed and she had been her primary support. The violence L suffered was chronic, with honeymoon periods post each release from prison followed by episodes of violence. A cycle from which, until now, she could not escape.
Her mum’s whÄnau live in the North Island and respite care had been funded during Christmas to reconnect L with her whÄnau, marae and supports following her mum’s passing.
WINZ was able to finance the travel for L and the children to Auckland but were unable to fund the moving truck costs for their belongings. Under the ISR Flexi-Fund we were able to meet this cost. L and her tamariki have now settled in Auckland and she has secured work.
L and the children have provided feedback to the NGO provider on the ISR multi-agency support they received. These are L’s words (edited): “we are so, so happy as we were thinking we would have had to sell our belongings to be able to move … please tell the ISR thank you guys so much, you don’t know how much this means to me and the kids. For so long I have been trying to get employment and I cannot believe everything is falling into place. We are very much looking forward to moving and having a fresh start near whÄnau.â€
The following story comes from Waikato and demonstrates real time opportunities to support families.
We have a high-risk couple who were recently discussed in the Intensive Case Management (ICM) meeting (late April).
This couple have been together for 5 years with the offender presenting as unstable due to mental health and drug history. The offender is extremely controlling of the victim and IVS have had difficulty trying to engage with the victim without the presence of the offender.
The IVS allocated has previously attempted a home visit and was chased down the street by the offender. There are no orders preventing the couple from being in contact, however IVS was adamant that if given the chance, she would be able to engage with the victim without the offender being there.
One afternoon (a day after the ICM meeting), both parties had a verbal and physical altercation outside our ISR office. Our Police Family Harm team ran outside to investigate and found both parties. Police identified the offender’s controlling behaviour and separated both parties. The offender has become aggressive which led to his arrest. The victim left the scene and contacted IVS straight away.
IVS picked the victim up, assisted her with buying clothing and a new cell phone and took her to her father’s address.
The location of our ISR office, the co-location of the Police Family Harm Team, and the persistence of the IVS worker shows what can be done when everything aligns. The original plan was for the Police Family Harm Team to visit – the plan played out, just not in the order we thought. Great work by everyone involved so far, however ongoing and intensive work still needs to be done.
The following feedback was provided to Waikato ISR from Lauren Cowgill, Network Coordinator, Hauraki Family Violence Intervention Network
I just wanted to put in writing the feedback I had about ISR from members of the community. To give context, I work with volunteers in the community on Family Violence Primary Prevention campaigns and following a question around what happens to people after the police have been called, I have started incorporating a description of the ISR process into the training I provide. On multiple occasions people have fed back to me that having knowledge of the ISR system would increase the likelihood of them calling the police, or would increase their confidence and reduce any guilt around calling the police if they were to see or hear a family violence episode occurring. There seems to be a real appreciation for the fact that this system provides a mechanism whereby a call to the police triggers more meaningful support for the family involved that they would otherwise have expected.
I meant to say yesterday that I really appreciated the opportunity to attend the Operational Management Group meeting, again it was really useful to hear the discussions that are happening at that level and moving forward to be able to represent our collective in the future. |
