— Shine client
Shine advocates can help
In Auckland Central and North Shore, our Shine Advocates may be able to support you and your children with helping to meet your safety and wellbeing needs, and advocating on your behalf. We will work with you in a way that honours your dignity, values, beliefs, and choices. We will also honour, your resistance to the violence and controlling behaviour of your (ex) partner (or the person abusing you).
We will support you whether you wish to stay in a relationship with your partner or leave the relationship, and whether you want to stay in your home, go into refuge or relocate. We know that your choices are difficult and sometimes it’s a choice between what will make you and your children safer now versus in the long-term.
We will advocate to help enable more real choices for you that will help you and your children be safe.
Our Advocates can help you to understand your level of risk, and they can help to create and action a safety plan for you and their children. We honour your choices and go at your pace.
Our support may include assisting you to apply for a Protection Order, go into a refuge, upgrade your home security, talk to your children’s school, or whatever will work best in your circumstances to keep you and your children safe.
How we work with other agencies
Our Advocates prioritise support for people who are at the highest risk of being seriously injured or killed. Advocates work closely with Police, Oranga Tamariki, Courts (especially the Victim Advisers), family lawyers, and other social service agencies to coordinate services and advocate on your behalf when you need it.
Since 1995, Auckland police and Auckland hospitals have referred people experiencing domestic violence to our advocacy service. These are mostly women with young children, but sometimes men and sometimes an adult without children – everyone referred receives the same level of support, depending on our capacity at that time and the person’s level of risk.
In Auckland, Police and Hospitals make urgent referrals to Shine via a confidential phone line which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Advocates respond as quickly as possible, meeting with clients in their own homes, at the hospital, local Police stations, or other safe venue.
Shine has Advocates based at two Police Stations with Auckland Central and North Shore Police Family Violence Teams, at several Auckland Oranga Tamariki offices, and at Auckland Hospital.
Advocates provide extended, intensive support for clients at high risk of serious harm. Our Advocates routinely attend meetings with Police, Oranga Tamariki, Community Probation, and other agencies to share information about and collaborate on responding to high risk situations, with the goals of safety for people experiencing domestic violence and accountability for those perpetrating the violence. This model has been used in the United Kingdom and recommended frequently in NZ child death reviews as a way of reducing risk of further harm to adults and children.
Adult Safety Programmes
Shine provides group (for women only) and individual Safety Programmes that can help by:
- providing a safe and supportive environment to work through your experiences
- increasing support from other services
- increasing social supports and reconnection to people and places that matter to you
- removing barriers that are preventing you and your children from living a safe and good life
We provide these programmes for people in Auckland with a protection order or who are a victim of a criminal court charge, and we can sometimes provide programmes for people beyond this criteria.
Read about our Child Safety Programmes here.