#DearTeamOfFiveMillion

White Ribbon Day

Media Conference Against Domestic Violence.

7am + 1pm, Thursday, 25th November 2021,
Press Release: She Is Not Your Rehab

Christchurch based anti-violence movement She Is Not Your Rehab and Integrated Safety Response (ISR) today launches the #DearTeamOfFiveMillion media conference in honour of White Ribbon Day.

At 1pm, a Media conference will broadcast online for every New Zealander to understand the impact and cost of the country’s high family violence statistics, in collaboration with NZ Police, Department of Corrections, Te Runanga O Ngai Tahu, Battered Women’s Trust – the largest affiliated Women’s Refuge in New Zealand, Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) and START - Sexual Violence services.

ISR is a multi-agency intervention designed to ensure the immediate safety of victims and children, and to work with perpetrators to prevent further violence. ISR takes a whole-of-family and whānau approach that puts the risk and needs of family at the centre. The operational delivery of ISR is hosted by Police as part of the broader Government work on family violence and sexual violence.

She Is Not Your Rehab, a movement co-founded in 2019 by Christchurch barber, author, anti-violence ambassador and survivor of family violence; Matt Brown alongside his wife Sarah Brown, as an invitation for men to acknowledge their own childhood trauma and to take responsibility for their healing - transforming their pain instead of transmitting it on those around them.

The idea for a collaborative media conference came about after the couple read a letter penned by Carol Penfold, an External Supervisor for Social Service Providers, in 2020 to the Editor of The Press, wondering how the team of five million would react if the same importance and financial input could be given to domestic violence that was given to Covid-19.

Prime Minister Jacinda Adern herself acknowledges that "We have to change the way we confront domestic violence – not just through our services but also through the way we seek to address domestic violence as a nation, and the way we encourage conversation and an entire culture change."

Mr Brown agreed “The generation of silence and keeping shameful things secret is finished. We must be part of a new culture - One that normalises vulnerability and having courageous conversations. If we can each do this then I know we could make a difference to the hidden pandemic of violence and abuse that has robbed us now for generations. I invite the team of five million to be part of a cultural shift that normalises conversations in every space that violence is never okay.”

Lois Herbert, Chief Executive of Battered Women’s Trust, says that in her twenty years working at refuge she had ‘seen it all’ and that there was no such thing as a stereotypical victim of domestic violence. “I have had women of all ages and ethnicities come to refuge for support, from every single kind of income bracket and neighbourhood.”

With domestic violence not only increasing this past year, but the brutality of attacks and severity of injuries becoming significantly worse with more extreme violence, sexual violence, stabbings, and strangulations, ISR Director Leanne McSkimming comments that “Apathy is not an option if we want to make significant long-lasting changes to the hidden pandemic that wastes police time, drains health resources, fills refuges and prisons, traumatises children and is responsible for 48% of all homicides in New Zealand.”

The overarching message is that while Family Violence is a crime that costs the entire team of five million, proactive and positive solutions can also be found collectively.

#DearTeamOfFiveMillion launches with media clips at 7am and 1pm from https://www.facebook.com/sheisnotyourrehab/

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