Researchers use Wairarapa for family violence study
WITH insight earned the hard way, Wairarapa is now such a leader in preventing family violence that it is helping to heal wounds caused by the ‘‘self-combusting’’ Glenn inquiry.
The director and another leader of philanthropist Sir Owen Glenn’s inquiry into domestic violence and child abuse quit last year amid controversy surrounding Sir Owen’s patronage.
Now Ruth Herbert and her former operations director Jessica Trask are working on their own report into the systemic causes of family violence, and have selected Wairarapa as one of two ‘‘demonstration areas’’ that will come up with a blueprint for an integrated, community-based response.
According to Wairarapa Violence-Free Network co-ordinator Gerry Brooking, the region’s grim past has given it the tools needed for the task.
‘‘It’s largely due to our history of child abuse and domestic violence – out of those things we’ve actually had some really good stuff. At a community level we really wanted to take ownership of what was going on.
‘‘The reason they’ve chosen us is because of the level of collaboration here, the strength of relationships. We do have a lot of components that other areas don’t have.’’
She said these components, such as the 40-member network, a police family safety team – recognised as one of the country’s best – a domestic violence court, highly trained family advocates, and a specialised intervention group made up of 14 core agencies, were developed after a report by the children’s commissioner on one of Wairarapa’s darkest hours: the murders of Masterton half-sisters Saliel Aplin, 12, and Olympia Jetson, 11, in 2001.
The network’s figures show that, since 2010, while the number of fam- ily violence incidents and offences nationally has climbed, in Wairarapa it has dropped – from more than 1200 to fewer than a 1000 a year. A discussion at a workshop sparked the change, Ms Brooking said.
‘‘The Aplin report showed agencies were working in silos ... we needed to be on the same page and sharing information. But in 2010 we progressed to not just sharing information, but getting proactive, together, about the information.’’
The drop is not just in reported incidents, but also in their seriousness, and in repeat incidents: before 2010 up to 30 per cent of all police calls to domestic violence in Wairarapa were to addresses they had previously attended. Now, it’s about 10.
After the Glenn inquiry ‘‘selfcombusted’’, Ms Herbert and Ms Trask contacted the Wairarapa network, and in September their invitation was accepted.
In December, seed funding for Wairarapa’s participation in the project was granted by the Ministry of Social Development and the private ‘‘Working Together More’’ fund. Ms Brooking hoped further funding would follow for the project, expected to take three years from early 2014.
Ms Herbert praised the Wairarapa agencies’ joined-up thinking.
‘‘Wairarapa has been a leader in New Zealand for a number of years now . . . and we’re delighted to bring our evidence-based perspective together with their communitybased perspective.’’