Flunking the government doesn’t sit easy with specialist violence prevention service Hohou Te Rongo Kahukura.

“But we didn’t really have a choice,” says project lead Sandra Dickson. “The reality is, there’s just one social work role responding to family and sexual violence in the whole country for Takataapui and Rainbow communities.”

After two weeks, their caseload – only in the Waikato – was full. “We’d like to see many, many more roles around the country, because if you look at the government’s own research, we have some of the worst rates of violence,” says Dickson. “Whether that’s within families, relationships, or being targeted for hate-based violence.”

The Hohou Te Rongo Kahukura report card looks at how well the government is doing when it comes to violence and Takataapui and Rainbow communities. It’s based on the seven recommendations they made to government back in 2016.

“It’s Queer History month in July, which made us look back at our first piece of research eight years ago. Lots has changed, both for the better and for the worse. Now we’re included in Te Aorerekura, the national strategy, and they count us in the national crime survey. There are many more Rainbow community groups, especially in the regions, and for Takataapui, Pacific and ethnic Rainbow people. But on the flip-side, victim-survivors in our communities still can’t get help, as our recent police research with the Backbone Collective showed only too clearly.”

Takataapui lead Hamie agrees. “These grades reflect our focus on safety for victims and survivors. My mahi is with whaanau, and I am constantly educating services about our diverse communities needs and how to build safety, it is slow progress – it’s much, much harder to find even safe emergency housing when whaanau need it. The mamae of violence sits heavily in our communities, and we desperately need kaimahi with the appropriate skillsets and knowledge to be able to walk alongside and support in a way that works for our communities.”

Hamie says training for specialist violence services works well, but Rainbow 101 is not enough to ensure healing and growth for our communities to thrive. “Most of the kaimahi I’ve met want to do a great job with our whaanau, and they have questions about violence we can answer. We’ve trained more than 40 agencies this year to be safer services and places for our whaanau to ask for help, should they need.”

The report card offers the government ideas for what needs to change. “This isn’t a one government issue,” says Dickson. “We need every political party to care about violence towards Takatāpui and Rainbow communities – and start funding proper services.”

When Building Rainbow communities free of partner and sexual violence was released in 2016, it was covered in mainstream media and Rainbow media online outlets. News coverage focused on the gaps in services for Takatāpui and Rainbow people needing help after violence. The seven recommendations were based on responses from 407 survey participants and 18 community hui around the country.

From the New Zealand Crime and Victimisation Survey: LGBT+ people are more than three times as likely to be targeted for interpersonal violence as non-LGBT+ people, and more than six times as likely to be targeted for sexual assault as non-LGBT+ people.

In the words of Te Puea Herangi "Mahia ngā mahi, he painga mo te Iwi" we have all have a responsibility to our communities to ensure we are working to creating a society where our Takataapui and Rainbow whaanau are healthy, safe and thriving from structural, institutional, and interpersonal, including sexual and partner violence.

For more information and resources from specialist violence prevention and response organisation Hohou Te Rongo Kahukura, visit their website. (https://www.kahukura.co.nz)

The report card is available here. (https://kahukura.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Hohou-Te-Rongo-Kahukura-marks-the-government-2024.pdf)

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