Whanau Protect: Helping more families feel safer in their own homes

Papamoa Family Service practice manager Janice Belgrave says families feel safer in their own homes with Whanau Protect. Photo / Supplied

Community support providers say the more organisations that work together to help sufferers of family violence the safer victims will feel in their own homes.

These comments follow a new partnership between Papamoa Family Services, a service of Anglican Care Waiapu, and the Tauranga Women's Refuge to provide Whanau Protect.

The National Collective of Independent Women's Refuge is the contract holder for Whanau Protect, which is a service offered to high-risk victims of family violence by providing practical safety improvements to allow victims to stay in their homes.

Installing safety alarms to be monitored and responded to by the police, providing physical property improvements and developing safety blueprints with victims were some of the services offered.

Whanau Protect was not a new service to the region but Papamoa Family Services practice manager Janice Belgrave said the organisation had been working with Tauranga Women's Refuge for the past few months.

Papamoa Family Services staff and volunteers after completing the family Violence Champion training. Photo / Supplied

She said the service was all about slowing down perpetrators of domestic violence.

"We recognise that some perpetrators, regardless of what interventions are put in place to help them change their behaviour, will continue to pursue and persecute their victims."

She said the police played a crucial role in responding immediately to alarms and phone calls from high-risk victims.

Belgrave said when families knew they had a direct line to the police they got a great sense of safety.

"It's all about these families who are so often victimised and allowing them to stay in their own homes and being able to sleep at night which is so important, especially for the children," she said.

Belgrave said family violence was a "significant issue" in the area which was why Whanau Protect was so important to the community.

She said community support providers and the police "were all holding hands together" with the same outcome in mind of providing a safer community.

Tauranga Women's Refuge manager Hazel Hape said family violence was a community issue and the more organisations that worked together, the better equipped the community would be.

The Tauranga Women's Refuge covered all of Tauranga City to Katikati, and Papamoa Family Services covered Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa to Te Puke, including Pukehina.