Q&A with Joelene Whitfield: 15 years at RISE

In July this year RISE Clinician Joelene Whitfield celebrated 15 years working at RISE. She took a few minutes to reflect on her career in family violence.

What brought you to RISE, which 15 years ago was called Stopping Violence Services Nelson?

I had worked at a women’s refuge while I was studying and as my first job in the family harm field. I spent three years doing that work and burned out due to the fact that we were constantly working in crisis mode and under-resourced.

After a short stint in the UK and after having my first child, I started a role with Whenua Iti where I could work with women in the outdoors and focus on their adventure programmes. That really excited me, I loved it. Then Stopping Violence Services Nelson was hiring for a person to work with men in the non-violence programme and I decided I’d been away from family violence long enough. Working with men would be a good challenge, and it was.

What was your initial impression of your work at Stopping Violence Services Nelson?

The flexibility of the role and the chance to work in a smaller community appealed. I appreciated the family-friendly work environment. I could work shorter hours and then grow into the role adding more time. This meshed well with my busy family life.

Was there a case early on that was memorable?

A young man was mandated to attend the non-violence group. He had very low engagement and wasn’t open to the work. He didn’t cause an issue or wasn’t disruptive, but he didn’t participate.

About two or three years later, he came into the office. He said that he had been stoned throughout that programme and he wanted to come back and re-engage. He had split from the partner he was with at the time and was about to be a new dad with a new partner and he said his behaviour needed to change.

I thought it was such a success that he identified that for himself and wanted to engage again with a self-directed motivation. His partner also attended a programme at RISE. She reported feeling safe after he showed he was able to manage challenges in their relationship in safe and healthy ways.

How has the family violence sector evolved over the last 15 years?

The primary change is that we definitely have a more trauma-informed approach to working with all clients. We now recognise that most people are impacted by something that has led them to use violence by the time we see them.

We’ve moved away from the black-and-white thinking of victims and perpetrators. Now it’s just about people who are impacted by family harm. We leave the judgement at the door and there’s no longer a shaming response that used to sit in this work many years ago. Nearly everyone we see has been hurt and harmed, whether a child, teen, or adult and recognising this as we work towards change has been a huge step forward.

What have you liked about working for [what is now] RISE?

The variety of the work and all that I have learned within my various roles. I started working with men and then moved into focusing on youth. Eventually I picked up adult safety work with women and younger children again. I feel it is a strength that I feel able to effectively offer support to any person who walks in the door here.

For the last 10 years or so I have been involved with the daily family harm meetings that bring together Police and social service agencies to guide people and whānau involved in Police call-outs. The work is different every single day and it’s constantly changing and yet I enjoy being in that type of collaborative and responsive environment. The work is always changing and constantly challenging me.

How do you keep up your positivity working in family violence?

It’s the small successes. They add up.

When I first started, I had a man in the group who I’ve since come to know well. He was referred to RISE several times but only managed to engage in a programme once under a court direction once. Even then he kept his head down and didn’t participate more than he was required, which sometimes happens. We’d see his name pop up again and again, though, and we would always try to make contact and encourage him to access support alongside his involvement with police and the court system. Often he wouldn’t answer or would decline to talk but occasionally a we’d have a conversation and slowly built a connection. Sometimes he made appointments but then ultimately would not attend.

One day very recently, his name showed up again within a family harm report. Once again I was tasked to follow up with him. All these years I’ve kept holding hope for him and, while the chances of him taking up the offer for support were slim, I rang him anyway. His response was heartening. He said, “Thank you for calling, I can’t keep doing this anymore,” but we ended up talking for an hour. He made an appointment with me for the next day and this time he turned up.

Now he's in prison as a natural consequence for breaches of his protection order. But I got a text from him prior to being taken into custody saying:  

“in a very short time you have helped me realize from small acts of kindness out of love u can let people know that they matter and that some people do care. thank u.”

I hold hope that upon his release he may gain success in making lasting changes and may be more receptive to accessing support to do this. Sometimes holding hope and building connections is the best we can do. While I understand that this example may not seem like a success to many the importance of maintaining empathy while also upholding accountability is essential to effectively addressing and ending family harm in our communities.  

What advice would you give your younger self if she wanted to work in this area?

Follow your passion, do the work that gives you a natural sense of energy and purposefulness, that fire in your belly. There will always be tough days and the work will be hard at times, but being true to yourself and trusting your values and beliefs is the most fulfilling way to work. Surround yourself with support because working in isolation and lack of self-care are the biggest risks in this work. I am part of an amazing team both within and outside of RISE and I feel very blessed that 15 years later I still find my work incredibly rewarding.