Funding for family violence focuses on frontline services

The Government has decided to reorganise a portion of its current funding for family violence into five initiatives to strengthen support for families.

Making the announcement today, Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment, Tariana Turia, said $11.035 million of the $62.4 million Government currently invests each year in contracted family violence services will be re-channelled into the following five initiatives:

• $8.535 million for the Family-Centred Services Fund for direct services to families and whānau where family violence has occurred, to restore their safety and wellbeing and help to create longer-term changes to prevent family violence from reoccurring. It will also encourage providers to work together to reduce duplications and gaps in services to their community – and to enable more innovative and integrated frontline services that respond to local needs
• $0.5 million for ongoing funding of the It’s not OK campaign focusing on the message “It’s OK to ask for help”
• $0.5 million for the E Tu Whānau! campaign which encourages whānau to take ownership and action for the safety of their whānau, building on whānau strengths and capabilities within the context of te Ao Maori
• $0.5 million to address violence within Pacific families though a Pasifika Campaign that builds on the strengths of Pacific cultures to prevent violence from occurring
• $1.0 million to develop and implement a training programme for Pacific providers that builds their capability to provide culturally appropriate interventions to victims of family violence, perpetrators and their families.

“The Family-Centred Services Fund expands on the previous $ 2.0 million Family Violence Whānau Ora Fund, and is open to all family violence providers and clusters of related community-based services,” said Mrs Turia. This makes the total ongoing value of the new Fund $10.535 million.
“The aim of the new Fund is to enable providers and provider collectives to work more flexibly and to prioritise funding to areas where the need is greatest.

“In the current climate, funding is limited and we have to make sure every taxpayer dollar is invested where it will have the most impact for New Zealand families,” she said. “The new fund means that, while the overall level of funding for family violence remains the same, it is tightly focussed to achieve tangible change for our most vulnerable families.”

“We are channelling funding to services at the frontline so that families in crisis are kept safe and are supported to be resilient and strong so the whole family can return to a state of wellbeing,” said Minister Turia.

“This package today also reflects our continued support for family violence responses that have succeeded in changing social attitudes and behaviours. This is why we will continue to fund the campaigns that have created positive social change over the last few years.

“We have also allocated $2.8 million to funding innovative and joined up approaches to the coordination of responses to family violence, such as community networks and case collaboration, for a period of one year. During this time the Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families will complete its review on how best to achieve good coordination of family violence services and initiatives across New Zealand communities.”

Applications for the Fund are now open and will close on Friday 29 April 2011.

More information about the Fund can be found on www.familyservices.govt.nz