Principle 3: The welfare and wellbeing of people using and providing SVPP and SVP services is paramount

Rationale

There are risks associated with unsafe or unsustainable interventions with survivors/victims and with people with harmful sexual behaviour. The impact of a SVPP or SVP workers’ actions must be understood in every instance. There must be clear, agreed upon and sustainable pathways to support survivors/victims, perpetrators and workers. Each community in Aotearoa-New Zealand has its own unique support systems. And workers must be familiar with them.

 Working in the SVPP and SVP sector can affect workers in many ways. Supporting with people who have experienced trauma, and dealing with rape culture and rape myths, can lead to vicarious trauma and emotional fatigue. This must be recognised and addressed.

Principle 3 in Action

Wherever they’re positioned on the spectrum of prevention services, all workers and their organisations need to understand and respect the welfare and wellbeing of survivors/victims and perpetrators. Strategies may include:

  • learning how to address factors such as racism, colonisation, heterosexism, ableism, transphobia etc. as part of working towards a world without violence, including sexual violence,

  • creating environments of consultation and learning that are empowering and participatory, not re-victimising or recreating damaging dynamics of power and control

  • modelling consent by ensuring informed choice, shared control, safety, dignity, and physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing in community-based prevention activities

  • recognising that monocultural stories, values and beliefs do not create cultural safety for all, and must include sensitivity in the way we talk about gender and sexuality

  • using a trauma informed, sex positive and age appropriate way of talking about sensitive topics like sexual assault, child sexual abuse, sexual offending/harmful sexual behaviours, gender, sexuality, sexual health and relationships

    • making workers aware of (and develop a direct relationship with) organisations offering specialist services before starting any prevention activity[1]*

    • recognising where professional boundaries are an issue, especially in the context of disclosures

    • ensuring that the organisation’s disclosure policy is up to date and gives clear guidance to workers on how to support someone that discloses any form of harm or emotional distress[2]

 * People working in the SVPP and SVP sector must know what services are available in the community where their work is being undertaken, and be able to point out significant gaps in specialist secondary and tertiary sexual violence services (including crisis and long-term recovery[3] for both survivors/victims and those with HSB, as well as specialist Kaupapa Māori services and services that are culturally specific).

[1] Relationship in this context is to enable safe and effective referrals.

[2] This includes a clear organizational process for recording and filing documents connected to disclosures

[3] Long term recovery could mean counselling, social work support and other therapeutic support to support recovery.

practice examples

  • Many specialist agencies[1] have increased safety by developing a group kawa or treaty at the beginning of a SVPP or SVP activity.

  • Having co-facilitators during a programme or activity means that participants who need extra support can get it without interrupting the work at hand.

  • Some organisations make sure that staff receive training in dealing with disclosures. In the case of the Sexual Abuse Prevention Network, it’s the first training staff receive when they’re hired. They also include self-care conversations with groups of young people.

  • Facilitators place a phone call to their local Sexual Abuse Support Service as part of their CAPS Hauraki Inc’s school sessions, so students can ask the helpline staff questions and will know what to expect if they ever need to seek support.

 

[1] Respect Ed, Rape Prevention Education, Sexual Abuse Support and Healing (SASH-Nelson) Inc, Rape Crisis National Collective

Tools and Recommendations for further development

We encourage SVPP and SVP organisations to feed into this framework on:

  • Building relationships with services from other areas and supporting each other in developing safe practices and filling service-gaps.

  • Coordinating training on supporting survivors/victims of sexual violence, those with harmful sexual behaviour and trauma-informed care.

  • Engaging with their communities to assess what services they would like to see. Then creating strategies to raise the need at local and national government level.

  • Developing a facilitation model and teaching model for adolescents and adults that is both participatory and trauma-informed, and age appropriate for the participants.

This work must include further development around cultural safety and responsiveness. This section of the framework could also include a community resilience model. Further consultation and research are required.