Everyone has the right to live a life free from violence and abuse in all its forms. This principle lies at the heart of the work undertaken by Respect, a community organisation based in Takapuna, Auckland. Respect’s purpose is to facilitate respectful relationships, and the organisation achieves this by offering support and education programmes both for victims and perpetrators of violence, as well as children who are impacted by violence.
Respect has been operating for more than 30 years and was previously known as North Harbour Living Without Violence. In 2018 the organisation underwent a rebrand to better reflect what they want to be and what they want to bring to people’s lives, as well as what they want to work towards. Hence the name Respect.
During its 30-year history Respect has continued to grow and extend its services. About 1000 people access its services each year and there are about 30 staff on the team at any one time. This includes 11 full-time employees, 10 contractors, and nine trainee counsellors who are generally placement students.
Respect’s General Manager Bridget Gundy says they currently have trainees working with them from several tertiary institutes including psychotherapy students from AUT, Laidlaw College and MIT. “We have a very strong relationship with the tertiary sector and student placements with Respect offer opportunities for growth. Many students choose to stay and work with us permanently after their placement has finished.”
One of the courses Respect offers is the Strengthening Women’s Group, a support programme for women experiencing family violence. The women come from all backgrounds and the full spectrum of ages from 18 years up. Some of the women are still with abusive partners and others have left theirs. The women are dealing with a complex range of issues, says Keryn Grogan, Funding Coordinator and Facilitator with Respect.
“We offer a psycho-educational programme in a supportive environment that facilitates growth in confidence. Most women choose to participate face to face in the programme, but we also offer access via zoom. Topics covered during the two-hour sessions include understanding emotions and understanding power and control and the dynamics of that.”
The sessions are discussion-led with a trained facilitator, and with women staying in the programme as long as they feel the need. “This means we have a great mix of people in the group, some new to Respect and others with more tenure who approach things in a different way and are able to offer support,” Keryn says.
“Often women in violent relationships also suffer isolation, and our sessions and the connection they provide help to lessen that sense and make them feel stronger. It can be a very powerful and empowering process.”
Both Keryn and Bridget acknowledge the complexity of the work they do in terms of co-occurring conditions in people living with family violence. People on their courses, men and women, will often also have symptoms of PTSD, addiction and neurodiversity challenges, and these needs are growing in complexity. Providing appropriate support within a learning environment requires highly specialised facilitators who understand the complexities of family violence.
For the team at Respect this means continually upskilling and providing the right training for the team to help them assist with appropriate support. Respect has recently completed a series of professional development (PD) sessions for facilitators and counsellors to ensure they are well equipped for their learning environment and to build capacity. It was important for Respect that each session contributed to its priority areas of learners at the centre, barrier-free access and quality teaching and leadership, as well as improving the quality of adult learning services and reducing barriers to access for ACE learners.
Fourteen separate training sessions were held over the year for educators and facilitators, including research-informed Family Violence training, De-escalation/Whakatara Hei Oranga, ADHD and Neurodiversity, and Understanding Pasifika.
“The training in some areas has completely changed the way we work,” Bridget says. “For example, the Pasifika training encouraged us to take a more relationship focus to our work. We are now taking greater time to connect with individuals before moving straight to the assessment questionnaire. While the session on neurodiversity has helped me to understand an individual’s responses and subsequent actions better. I can now better tailor my approach.
She says they always have challenges getting counsellors and facilitators together for PD. While they have fortnightly peer supervision and best-practice workshops, the more intense and time-consuming PD is difficult to manage and deliver. However feedback has been that this has been time well spent.
The training has provided unintended bonuses as it has enabled facilitators to identify a leaning towards a preferred practice, such as neurodiverse specialisation, and to develop subsequent layers of complexity in specialised areas. This means other team members can lean into their expertise.
“At the end of the day our comprehensive PD sessions mean that our teams are better equipped, so our learners are better supported. The flow-on impact of this is that they then go home with a greater range of tools to help and support their whānau. Let’s face it, that’s what our work is all about really,” concludes Bridget.