Community Spotlight – Taranaki Safe Families Trust

Every year we are amazed at the fantastic work community groups around the country are doing to spread the White Ribbon kaupapa. This month we wanted to highlight one of organisations leading this vital work within their region.

Established in 2008, Taranaki Safe Families Trust (TSFT) is a collaborative of 26 government and non-government agencies leading the family violence prevention campaign in Taranaki.  They aim to promote awareness, encourage the utilisation of local services and advocate for long term cultural change in their community.  TSFT has established project groups which contribute to the campaign including family violence workplace training, professional development and an extreme risk case management process. The overall vision of TSFT is for Taranaki whānau to be safe and free of violence.

TSFT supports the White Ribbon Campaign and its focus on preventing men’s violence towards women, and delivers key messages to support White Ribbon throughout the year. We are delighted to have TSFT co-ordinator Dane Haskell as a White Ribbon Ambassador.

During November TSFT install large White Ribbons around the Taranaki region, submit columns in the local community newspapers and promote the White Ribbon kaupapa on various radio shows.

TSFT are proud co-organisers of the Waitara White Ribbon Poker Bike Run, which had more than 50 riders enter this year. They also had an expo event in Hāwera before finishing the campaign in New Plymouth with the annual White Ribbon Fun Relay – where 25 teams of local businesses and organisations compete in a community event to bring awareness to this important social issue. It has been running for seven years now and gets tremendous community support.

We are extremely grateful to Taranaki Safe Families Trust for the incredible work they have been doing for over a decade to make their community safer and their ongoing commitment to supporting White Ribbon.

If your organisation is working to spread the kaupapa please let us know so we can profile you in a future newsletter. If you would like to nominate someone to become a White Ribbon Ambassador download the nomination forms here.