Stop Children Becoming Vulnerable
in the first Place

Worldwide there has been a shift in public opinion and policy that focussing resources solely on helping vulnerable people at the bottom of the cliff is neither beneficial to those people nor cost efficient in the long term.

The new buzz word in current good practice is primary prevention. This means you give people the skills, education and resources to ensure they never fall off the top of the proverbial cliff in the first place. Kidpower has been practising these principals for many years and has now served over 31 000 people in New Zealand teaching skills people need to be safe in relationships.

Recently, Paula Bennett presented a long awaited White Paper to the Jigsaw conference in Wellington, focusing on vulnerable children. The paper seemed to be well received including information sharing to help protect vulnerable children, providing iwi-approved caregivers, a public awareness campaign for communities and how to work with serious adult offenders. Legislation to enforce the White Paper will be created through the introduction of a Vulnerable Children’s Bill.

The response from many organisations, including Unicef and Kidpower, has been to criticise the paper for being too narrow in it’s outlook and missing the big picture including addressing poverty and abuse, which are two of the biggest contributing factors to children becoming vulnerable in the first place. The paper furthermore misses primary prevention strategies the World Health Organisation recommends to effectively and efficiently stop children becoming vulnerable in the first place.

Evidence based programmes like Kidpower, Roots of Empathy, Body Safe, and parenting programmes need to be integrated into everyone’s education. Cornelia Baumgartner, the Programme Director of the Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower Trust says she sees and hears comments and stories every day that confirm the value of Kidpower training, for example: “Finally practical tools instead of telling what we’re doing wrong as parents and Whānau”, “Instant benefit”, “I can!“. She estimates, “If we use conservative figures, Kidpower prevented immeasurable heartache and trauma and saved the New Zealand economy over $42 million!”

In line with the recognition of Kidpower as a leader in the field of primary prevention, Cornelia has presented at many conferences. She will speak at the TOAH-NNEST Sexual Violence Prevention Hui 26 October and present a Bullying workshop for Skylight 13 November. Both presentations are in Wellington, however, you can contact Kidpower at 0800 KIDPOWER to arrange a workshop for your local group or school.

www.childrensactionplan.govt.nz
www.kidpower.org.nz

Ends

About Kidpower

Kidpower has been running in NZ since 1993 and has served over 31 000 people. It is a charitable trust. www.kidpower.org.nz It is part of an international not for profit organisation www.kidpower.org

Kidpower is committed to creating communities where people have the skills and knowledge needed to live a life free from fear; communities where people recognise abuse and bullying are wrong and are prepared to speak out to create a positive future; schools and workplaces where strategies are in place to recognise bullying and replace it with positive behaviour. Kidpower wants young people to move forward in to the adult world prepared for the challenges ahead and able to meet them head on because they have been given the skills they need to deal with difficult situations. Kidpower speaks up for the most vulnerable in society including those with cognitive disabilities.

Kidpower also believe access to services should not be limited by personal wealth. No one is turned away through an inability to pay. Kidpower volunteers work in all communities to ensure their work is directed where it is needed most. It works collaboratively with other organisations to ensure violence and aggression is replaced with other methods of conflict resolution.

In 2011 98.7% of adult learners reported that the programme had made them feel more confident and able to speak up and take charge. 99.5% of learners reported feeling more in control and 98.9% reported having increased ability to communicate, to learn, to take charge and to achieve.

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