About Us

Family harm is having an enormously negative impact amongst entire community. Te Whare Tane is an emergency service that will provide access to support services for men involved in incidents of family harm including those issued with a PSO (Police Safety Orders) or warnings from the Court. We will include an ongoing recruiting and family harm education programme by engaging with men where they gather, Sports clubs, Prisons, PD Centres, churches, etc.

Te Whare Tane – House for Men is located in the Hutt Valley as this is where the greatest need is within the Wellington region.

Why the term Family Harm instead of Domestic Violence. A key message we are bringing by this distinction is that there are several more types of abuse besides physical abuse. Furthermore, several specialists believe psychological abuse, for example, can actually have longer term, negative affects on the victims than most physical abuse does. 

Initially, the house will focus on men living within the Hutt Valley but in time we expect to learn more about the best way to provide ongoing support and access to social services for our clients regardless of where they live throughout the Wellington region. 

The Centre will be based in a house and support offered will be fivefold:

1. Access to social services - including counselling and both practical help such as finding accommodation, job hunting, advocacy, etc

2. Being part of a behavioural change programme run in a men's group setting

3. Access to volunteer mentors

4. Emergency shelter

5. Support for their families – including, parenting classes and couple weekends where they will be given tools for healthy intimate partner relationships

The primary outcome we are looking for is ensuring whole families are feeling safe and secure, because there isn't abuse going on at home.