[ Return ]

To: campbelllive@tv3.co.nz

Hi John

I watched with interest last night as you spoke with Celia Lashlie and Garth McVicar.

I am the chair of the Family Help Trust, a Christchurch based social support agency which has been working successfully with “at risk” children and their families, for the last 12 years. We work with families, in their homes for up to 5 years providing them with support and knowledge so that they can make better choices for their children and they will in turn do the same for their offspring.

We are the barrier at the top of the cliff and support Celia Lashlie’s comments on your programme last night that we need to get to the families that are producing the offenders to improve their ability to maintain personal relationships and improve their parenting ability. It’s actually that simple but requires funding, support and effective implementation.

Based on the success of our programmes which “teach” and support families instead of punishing them, Garth McVicar’s comments linking prevention with punishment – “bring back caning”, is not one we can endorse.

I am left constantly wondering why not more effort is put into early intervention services and programmes which support families while children are very young (and by that I mean under 5, preferably under 3). We all know that children learn by what they see, hear and generally experience as they grow up – that’s not new!

Just look at what our very own Roper Report in 1987 recommended – and that was almost 20 years ago! Effective early intervention is the key. Children don’t come with a manual and if a parent hasn’t been brought up in an environment conducive with positive parenting to the point that drugs, crime, violence and general dysfunction dominate, what chance will the children have? And their children, and so on.

As national and international research (Professor Huff et al) have shown, it’s a short distance from the cradle to a life of crime and violence if that is what has surrounded a child in the early years.

Thank you for keeping this important issue in front of New Zealanders.

Yours sincerely

Sally Thompson
Chair
Family Help Trust (Canterbury)