Accessible News

Top storiesNew ZealandPoliticsBusinessEntertainmentSportsWorld

Child advocates and cake - children tell Women's Refuge what kids need

Friday, 18 June 2021

Ana, 11, remembering the drive to Women’s Refuge with her mum and sister, and thinking
Ana, 11, remembering the drive to Women’s Refuge with her mum and sister, and thinking 'How are we going to do this?'

Children need better support and specialist child advocates at Women’s Refuge. More cake and a pillow fort would also be good.

That’s advice from the horse's mouth as 19 child ‘’special advisers’’ reveal in a report published by Women’s Refuge today .

Charlotte
Charlotte's picture of her Women's Refuge wish list.

Kids in the Middle asked what children thought about their time at Refuge and looked at how their stories could help design support specifically for children in a series of interviews with tamariki aged between five and 13.

Their advice has instigated a new year-long pilot programme being launched at seven of the 40 Women’s Refuges across Aotearoa next month .

Supported by the Ministry of Social Development, the pilot, Kōkihi ngā Rito, would develop a service that accounts for children’s specific needs as clients in their own right.

Dr Ang Jury, Women
Dr Ang Jury, Women's Refuge chief executive, says the whole world has been slow coming to the party when it comes to listening to what children are saying.

Women’s Refuge chief executive, Dr Ang Jury, said it was absolutely critical that children were consulted in the research that led to the pilot programme.

“We have seen enough in recent years to know that we have to listen to what children are telling us, that they are sentient beings who have their own thoughts, understandings and strategies for getting on in the world. Some of their ideas are pretty damn good if we would just stop and listen to them.”

Those ideas included improving the physical environment for kids at Refuges and having advocates solely focused on what the children needed.

Advocating on behalf of that child “not as an adjunct to mum, but as a little person in their own right”, was essential, Jury said.

The research emphasised the need to have the right people in place to support children after family violence, Jury said, adding that in Aotearoa and internationally, services have tended to work either with kids or with family violence, but rarely both simultaneously.

The shift to a focus on children had not come about sooner because there was a long queue of things Women’s Refuge had to consider in keeping those facing family violence safe, she said.

“The whole world has been slow coming to the party when it comes to listening to what kids are saying.”

* Not their real names.

How to get help