Child Advocates to Support Children in Women’s Refuge - Budget 2023

Supporting children impacted by family violence to articulate their own needs for support and healing - Wellbeing Budget 2023.

This initiative will continue to provide specialist, child-focused support to children who have experienced family violence.

The Government is investing $5.997 million over four years to continue funding the Child Advocates programme, which supports children in eight Women’s Refuge sites across Aotearoa New Zealand.

• Children have significant exposure to family violence, causing lifelong impacts into adulthood and across generations.
• Women’s Refuge, Aotearoa’s largest family violence response service, offers a real opportunity to provide early intervention for children, which can help to disrupt the intergenerational cycle of violence.
• This initiative ensures that the eight existing Women’s Refuge sites with Child Advocates can continue to deliver the programme, with evaluation in the first two years to determine its effectiveness.
• This initiative is part of a whole-of-government Te Puna Aonui package of $73.480 million over four years to fill key gaps and improve outcomes for family violence and sexual violence services.
• This initiative supports the delivery of the following Te Aorerekura actions:
  • Action 14: Build the specialist workforces for children
  • Action 29: Develop a plan to fill the service gaps for family violence.
• The outcomes for children accessing the Child Advocates programme include:
  • timely specialist support in response to family violence related trauma
  • increased levels of personal and community safety
  • a positive experience of seeking family violence support, increasing the chances of seeking help if required in the future.