Tautoko Mai was proud to support David Mandel's recent visit to NZ, co-hosting his Safe and Together workshop with Oranga Tamariki, Corrections, TMAPs and Social Link. David spoke to over 200 people who work in child protection about his Safe and Together approach in Te Puke on February 18 2020. Removing children from their families can have long term devastating impacts. David’s approach is about keeping children safe and together with the non-abusive parent by working with domestic violence survivors and intervening effectively with perpetrators. The model challenges the idea that women who are victims of domestic violence fail to protect their children and should have them removed from their care.
"Children are being removed unnecessarily, mothers are fearful to reach out for assistance for fear of being blamed and perpetrators as parents are all but ignored by systems and are able to take advantage of that to increase their power over their partner and children,” he said.
David has more than 30 years’ experience in the field of domestic violence and child protection, focusing on improving the response to domestic violence when children are involved. His approach is used worldwide, including the United Kingdom, Australia and North America. Systems that have used this approach have reported improvement in outcomes for families, greater worker satisfaction and cost savings.