WAVES Trust's History

WAVES began in 1993, to support the victims of Family Violence to have a voice within the District Court. This led to the development of Victim Advisors in all courts throughout New Zealand. In Waitākere the role  further developed into the Independent Victim Service, where local victim agencies could take the role of Family Violence Court appointed Victim Advisors.

While WAVES retains a keen interest in the operation and issues of the Family Violence Court, over the years WAVES has undertaken various other roles, such as training for family support workers, prevention work, co-chairing FVIARS (Family Violence Inter-Agency Response System), working with the under 5’s and advocacy for the family violence sector.

Since the inception of Te Rito: The New Zealand Family Violence Prevention Strategy, WAVES has been a support agency for the network of Family Violence providers in Waitākere. Our membership includes family violence specialist providers as well as central government agencies and community organisations.

Our role these days is in advocacy, training and development for the sector, prevention, research and information, opportunities for the sector to meet and network and share best practice and ideas from New Zealand and overseas. Much of our work in recent years has been to provide opportunities for our network to comment and effect change; usually via submission processes, on legislation and policy that affects our client group.