Shine with Family Works - partnership in action
Details have been changed to protect clients’ identities.
Last year, Shine announced a new partnership with Family Works. The first initiative of this partnership was a successful joint funding application for a social worker to help Shine's clients transition from Shine's crisis intervention service to longer term social work and counselling support from Family Works.
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Caroline Cottrell, formerly on the Family Works Northern social work team, was appointed to this position and began her new role in November 2011. Caroline gets all of her referrals from Shine’s Adult Crisis Team. These clients generally no longer need Shine’s help to stay safe, but may need counselling to help them recover and move on from the abuse, or social work support to help with problems that have resulted from the abuse. |
Caroline has worked for Family Works for nearly six years. She has a Bachelor of Social Practice degree as well as a postgraduate Diploma in Counselling from Unitec, so she is well-qualified to address both the counselling and social work needs of her clients. As her clients are often isolated, without transportation, and most have children, Caroline usually visits them at home, and provides phone follow up as needed between visits. She generally sees clients as often and as long as they need her support.
Here’s how Caroline helped two clients in recent weeks.
Helping Mere move on…
A Shine Advocate had visited Mere shortly after Police had arrested her partner for assaulting her. Mere had just found out that he was having an affair. When she confronted him, he assaulted her. Mere had already decided she was leaving him and had organised a place to move to. The Shine Advocate referred her to a lawyer so she could apply for a Protection Order. She then told the Advocate that she didn’t need any further help with her safety, but wanted a referral to a counsellor to help her move on emotionally. At that point the Advocate referred Mere to Caroline.
When Caroline visited, Mere had just received a letter from the District Court and was too scared to open it. At Mere’s request, Caroline opened the letter – it was an invitation from the Court’s Victim Advisers offering to support her through the court process. Caroline rang the Advisers to introduce Mere, and a Victim Adviser then talked to her about writing a letter to the court describing the impact of her partner’s violence on her and what she wanted to see happen. Mere wrote a very long letter, and on Caroline’s next visit, Mere asked for her help to edit it.
Caroline continued to see Mere every week. During one session she asked if Mere liked to draw, and if she were to draw a picture what would it be of? Mere replied that she loved drawing and that her picture would be of ‘him’. Mere then drew a picture of what her partner used to be like – a big man with a big heart and light shining all around him. Next she drew a picture of how she now sees her partner – a small and spindly man with huge fists and no head. Mere talked about how she’d been thinking about getting back together with him, but that drawing these pictures helped her see that this was not what she wanted.
Supporting an isolated mother of two…
Just after Nira’s husband was arrested for assaulting her again, a Shine Advocate helped her get a lawyer to organise a Protection Order and a Parenting Order, and put in place some other support to help Nira and her children stay safe. The Advocate then referred Nira to Caroline for social work support. Nira was from Egypt, and was feeling quite isolated living alone with her two children. Caroline connected her with the Umma Trust so she could participate in their Muslim women-only activities. She also referred Nira to the Auckland Regional Migrant Services which provides a range of support for migrants.
Nira was living in a tiny house adjacent to another house where a man and his adult son lived. Caroline found out that Nira’s husband, who had previously threatened to kill her, had moved two streets away after he was arrested and served with a Protection Order. But with her husband gone, Nira felt threatened by her male neighbours, who had begun hanging around Nira’s window and front door. Nira told Caroline she found them scary and creepy. She wanted to move, but couldn’t afford the costs of moving to another private rental. Caroline then worked with Shine to support an application for Nira and her children to move into a Housing New Zealand house, because of the risk to them of staying in her private rental.
Caroline will continue to stay in touch with Nira until her husband’s hearing and then assess whether she needs further support.