The Fono
The Fono is a Pacific health and social services provider based in Auckland delivering a Pacific family violence crisis intervention service and a community mobilisation ‘stop family violence’ programme.
The purpose is to:
- Deliver a tailored Pacific crisis intervention service to stop repeat incidents of family violence
- Provide ‘wrap-around’ support services for families with a focus on children and youth
- Develop and deliver a community mobilisation programme to prevent family violence
The Fono Family Violence Service - An Overview
The crisis intervention service is based on immediately engaging with families following an incident of family violence. Families then complete a needs assessment with a qualified social worker who, together with the family, develops a family plan and refers them to wraparound support services within a three-month crisis period. Wrap-around services may be within The Fono, such as Family Start for children under-5 or enrolment in the health clinic, or external, such as referral to an alcohol or drugs specialist programme or a mental health support service, depending on needs of the family.
The Fono is involved in the Family Violence Interagency Response System (FVIARS), where agencies, specialist providers and community representatives meet twice-weekly to review cases, assess suitability with services and refer families experiencing family violence to the most appropriate family violence services.
Alongside the crisis intervention service The Fono runs a broader family violence education programme delivered through The Fono’s own community network. The aim of the community mobilisation programme is to increase awareness of family violence and enable communities to support each other to make the changes required to build healthier and safer communities. They are also made aware of the crisis intervention service which they can access or refer community to, if needed.
“The programme helped a lot in terms of teaching me how to control my anger and how to lessen stress. I was taught ways to bring up the children and shown different ways of parenting that I hadn’t heard of before. It put things into perspective. Things have turned around, the kids listen and do their homework and we do things together.” - Mother
The development, delivery (engagement, facilitation, administration) and monitoring (evaluation and follow-up) of the Crisis Intervention programme is managed by The Fono and enabled through MSD Investment. The Community Mobilisation Programme is enabled through District Health Board Funding.