HISTORY

RISE first began in 1982 as Men Against Rape, founded by a group of men who met at Fairfield House. They sought to support the work of Women’s Refuge and Rape Crisis in Nelson through fundraising and any other assistance they could offer. This gradually evolved into providing services for men, initially as a support group and then providing educational programmes for men who were perpetrators of family violence.

In the early 1990s a national organisation, Men for Non-Violence, was formed to support local groups and advocate at a national level for government support for stopping violence programmes. Nelson was, and remains, an active member of the network (now the National Network of Family Violence Services), and incorporated as Men for Non Violence (Nelson) Inc in 1991.

In 1997 they changed their name to Living Without Violence and extended the organisation to involve women in the management and to deliver services to both men and women with histories of family violence. In the 2000s they secured a contract to provide counselling to men and women and then worked closely with Get Safe Motueka to provide services across Nelson and Tasman.

From July 2003 the organisation became Stopping Violence Services Nelson and based themselves out of their Vanguard Street office for the next 17 years. During this time there were various contracts to support men, women, and children experience family violence. The organisation underwent a significant restructure in 2009 and began moving in the direction of providing specialist family violence services through longer-term government contracts. In 2012 they collaborated with Maataa Waka in Marlborough to expand services and deliver a stopping violence programme to that community. The service delivery programme with Get Safe Motueka had been a bit rocky and stabilised in 2013 when Stopping Violence Services Nelson officially took over delivering programmes in Motueka after Get Safe closed for good.

July 2013 saw the beginning of the SVS – Living Safe era, following the organisation’s major restructure and expansion of services across Te Tau Ihu. The organisation also became an approved ACC supplier for Integrated Services for Sensitive Claims in 2014 and expanded service to Department of Corrections clients on the West Coast in 2015. A further expansion of services happened in 2016 into Kaikoura.

Another service restructure in 2016 moved the organisation into the leading light within the family violence sector, changing service delivery in a way that respected the perpetrator’s story and need to receive guidance and support to help end his cycle of violence. In the years that followed, the clinical leadership would continue on this path, incorporating longer-term treatments for serious trauma interventions.

In 2021 SVS – Living Safe rebranded and changed its name to RISE: Respect, Inspire, Support, Empower. Within RISE there is meaning. Respectful family relationships don’t include violence and so we help others understand what respect is, how to be respectful, and how to honour someone else with their respect. We aim to inspire people, especially perpetrators, to understand that lifelong change does happen. Through support and empowerment – listening, treating people as worthy of hope, change, and love – we can break the cycle of family violence for the whānau in our community.

RISE is a Charitable Trust registered with the Charities Commission (CC24151).