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Advocacy

Advocacy Supporting your safety 1489735541 2125x1416

Supporting your safety and well-being needs

Our Shine Advocates, based in Auckland Central and North Shore, 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 these decisions can be 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 your 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 at the highest risk of being seriously injured or killed.

Shine Advocates work closely with the Police, Oranga Tamariki, Courts, 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 family violence to our advocacy service. These are primarily 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.

Advocates provide extended, intensive support for clients at high risk of serious harm.

Our Advocates routinely attend meetings with the 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 family violence and accountability for those perpetrating.

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Without your generous donations, we couldn’t support as many people as we do.

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