Accessible Family and Sexual Violence Services for Disabled People - Budget 2023

Supporting mainstream family violence and sexual violence providers to improve their accessibility to disabled people - Wellbeing Budget 2023.

This initiative responds to physical and digital barriers that disabled people experience when accessing family violence and sexual violence support services.

The Government is investing $3.419 million over two years to support some family violence and sexual violence providers funded by MSD to be more accessible for disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori.

• Disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori experience significantly higher rates of interpersonal violence across their lifetimes than other New Zealanders.
• This initiative will provide some financial assistance for change-ready, MSD-funded family violence and sexual violence providers to:
  • receive a specialist accessibility assessment of their physical and/or digital sites with recommended changes
  • help to implement those changes where possible.
• Funding will also be used to understand the full extent of access barriers across the family violence and sexual violence system.
• This initiative aligns with the ‘Safeguarding Adults at Risk and Disabled People from Violence and Abuse’ initiative led by Whaikaha, the Ministry of Disabled People.
• This initiative is part of a whole-of-government Te Puna Aonui package of $73.480 million over four years to fill key gaps and improve outcomes for family violence and sexual violence services.
• This initiative supports the delivery of the following Te Aorerekura actions:
  • Action 29: Develop a plan to fill the service gaps for family violence
  • Action 30: Develop a plan to fill the service gaps for sexual violence.
• The long-term outcomes of this initiative include:
  • improved access of disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori to mainstream family violence and sexual violence services
  • a greater understanding of the mainstream service gaps that currently exist for all disabled people across the family violence and sexual violence sector.