Pat had a dream...

Pat Waite, in his role as District Governor 9940 for the 2007.2008 year had a bold dream, That Rotary could do something about preventing Family Violence. That dream continues today with a Group Study Exchange team going to Denver, Colorado to look at ways of addressing family violence. Thanks Pat for making a positive difference to our communities.

Meet the Team - Judith

Meet Judith Timpany. Judith is the Chief Executive of the Whanganui Community Foundation, a grant making and community development organisation.

Judith also works as a volunteer for Women's Refuge with three roles, governance, professional development for staff and responding to the crisis line.

Meet the Team - Jessica

Meet Jessica Trask. Jessica is the outreach coordinator with the Family Violence Clearing House. Her role involves making research accessible and understandable to those wanting to find out about aspects of family violence including, social service professionals, government and politicians, journalists etc.

The other part of her role is ensuring that government and other agencies understand the needs of family violence victims and treat them in a sensitive manner

Meet the Team - Hollie

Meet Hollie McPhun. Hollie is the Family Court Coordinator at the Wanganui Court. In her role Hollie is the link between the Family Court and the community. This involves relationships with community and government organisations that have clients in the Family Court. She also helps people through the Family Court system.

Another facet of her role is to ensure that those providing professional services for the Family Court give quality services. This includes lawyers for the child, psychologists, counsellors and family violence professionals.

Meet the Team - Brenda

Meet Brenda Kelly. Brenda is a Detective Sergeant with the New Zealand Police. She works at the Lower Hutt police station in the role of Family Violence Intervention co-ordinator where she manages a specialised unit dedicated to Family Violence. Brenda's role is one of co-ordination and training of Police Officers from an operational to strategic level.

Brenda's role has brought her into contact with some extremely serious cases of family violence

Meet the Team - Annie

Meet Annie Firaza. Annie is Practice Manager with Life to the Max, a social work agency that deals with 5 to 13 year old offenders and potential offenders. The agency works with the whole family, and sometimes extended family, in such areas as family dynamics, schooling, recreation and leisure to bring about permanent change in families. The agency is supported by the Police and Child Youth and Family in their work. Family violence is a recurring issue in these families. For many of the children their is no light in their eyes and Annie's real joy is to see the light appear in their eyes.

Meet the Team

Meet the Rotary Group Study Exchange Team who are travelling to Rotary District 5450 in Colorado. From left: Judith Timpany, Jessica Trask, Hollie McPhun, Brenda Kelly, and Annie Firaza.

The team are taking part in a Family Violence themed study exchange.