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Whanaungatanga/ Collective: building and using connections, working together to end violence
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Mauri tū/ Action-Oriented: taking action to respond to, end and prevent interpersonal violence
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Rangatiratanga/ community based: organised and carried out by friends, whānau, neighbours, co-workers, team-mates, community members working to end violence—controlled by the people most involved, not by social services, the police, welfare or other outside institutions
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Kotahitanga/ Co-ordinated: people and actions working in a co-ordinated way towards a set of goals
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Manaakitanga/ Holistic: considering the good of everyone involved, including those harmed, those who have caused harm, and community members affected by violence. Everyone involved in a situation of violence, even the person who has caused harm, can potentially help to stop violence.
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Pūkengatanga/ Centres on those most affected by violence to create change: building on the understanding and skills of people affected by violence to make themselves safer
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Wairuatanga/ Supports the sometimes complex pathway to change and transformation: Finding solutions takes time. Repairing the damage caused by violence takes time. Real change takes time.
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the tools aim to help with responding to, stopping and preventing violence, without blaming you for your choices, and supporting your own needs and wants.
the tools aim to help you to recognise, end and be responsible for your violence (what we also call accountability), without giving you excuses, and without denying your humanity (without demonising).
the tools aim to help you with understanding, responding to, stopping and preventing violence. It may include supporting the person harmed in the way that they want, and supporting the person causing harm to stop and take accountability for their violence.
It helps if someone can act as a facilitator to guide you through the tools. You can have more than one facilitator, or share the role among group members. They don’t need to be an expert on violence intervention. They do need to be someone who can think clearly, agree to the values and guidelines of the group, and who has some distance from the centre of violence (there is more about this role in Who can help and the Facilitators section). If you don’t have a facilitator, the website may help you through your process.
The website uses a community-based approach. By community, we mean any group you are part of—friends, co-workers, whānau, a sports club, etc (see FAQ). You might have heard of community accountability or transformative justice. Violence is never one person’s problem, it comes out of communities and affects whole communities. We believe in using connections and caring to create strong responses, building support, breaking isolation and creating solutions. It makes sense to work with people who are most affected by violence—people who have been harmed, their friends, whānau and community. Even the person who caused harm can help stop that harm and change attitudes and behaviours about violence.
If this sounds unrealistic, remember, this is how people have always kept themselves safe. When someone needs help, the first people they usually go to are friends, family and community members. The more information and resources we have, the better our responses will be.
There is a lot of information and tools to help you on this website.
There are sections on this website for:
There are stories from people who have responded to violence using community intervention.
There are information sections to answer questions about interpersonal violence and how to respond.
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About has history and background information about this website
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FAQs answers some frequently asked questions
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Basics gives information about the resources on this website, interpersonal violence, and how to end it
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Resources & links has a list of resources and links that might help.
This website will not tell you what to do or give you a process to follow. The tools are intended to support you to work out how to respond to, end or prevent violence in ways most likely to be safe and successful.