Business has a role preventing violence

“New Zealand Businesses are playing a significant role in supporting victims of domestic violence,” says White Ribbon Ambassador Anna Campbell, “but we need to do more.”

On Monday 1 April a new law comes into effect that allows for domestic violence leave of up to 10 working days.

“White Ribbon worked with The Warehouse to develop a business accreditation framework that ensures organisations have appropriate policy and training,” says Ms Campbell, “but we also need businesses to be involved in violence prevention.

“Our country has the highest rate of reported violence in the developed world. To change, this we need an all-of-society-approach. That is why White Ribbon supports and encourages businesses to prevent violence through education and awareness raising as part of our accreditation process.

“We’ve kept the process as simple as possible. Our team works with organisations to ensure their policies create a safe workspace. We’ve brought the best examples together so that organisations do not need to reinvent the wheel.

“We then train key staff so the organisation has the knowledge and skills to support victims and users of domestic abuse in the workplace and ultimately deliver the training themselves.

“Lastly we work with businesses to ensure they have violence prevention built into their yearly activities, and where possible, this includes both employees and to customers. This ensures that we are not just working with victims and survivors, but helping to break the cycle of family violence by supporting those who use violence to change” says Ms Campbell.

For more information about White Ribbon’s free Accreditation program contact White Ribbon contact@whiteribbon.org.nz