Hi, I'm Beryl and this is the Insider's Guide to Good Shepherd New Zealand. Good Shepherd is a charity organisation that supports women and girls around some of the big issues in New Zealand, particularly in financial issues around inequality, poverty, family violence and harm. Economic abuse is a form of family violence, so it's not separate to family violence, it is family violence.
It's about control and coercion and exclusion from financial decisions and involvement around economic resources. Someone might not have access to transport even though there's a car in the family. They might not have access to their own bank account to get their own wages from work that might be controlled by a partner.
So the financial as well as the kind of resources. We're a phone-based service, so we have a small team that works across New Zealand and we support people via referrals or on the phone to talk through their financial situation and look at what debts they are dealing with and try and kind of unpick that and work with any unjust debts, working with the financial sector, so with creditors and banks and different social services. If you've got an issue with your landlord, we might be able to step in and help that.
If you've got a debt with a bank that's getting in the way of you being able to get some other assets sorted, we can work with that. We also work closely with the credit reporting services to look at the impact it's having on your credit report, so that if you are needing to go and get a rental property and you've got some debts that are impacting on your credit report, we can work on those. We will reach out to the creditors or the financial services where the debt is being held and we'll have a conversation and get them to understand what the experience has been, that it's been family violence, that someone has done this to another person or has made a decision or signed on their behalf without them being aware, and the financial services will look into the finances and we'll see if we can address that debt.
Quite commonly, the relationship finally ends. We have women who come to us and say, I think I have debt, I'm getting phone calls from debt collectors, I don't know anything about it. So our team will look into the credit report and see what's been listed on there.
They might have some information that they've received in the mail that they don't understand. One of the big pieces of work we do is always considering safety in every piece of transaction that we do supporting clients. So when we're talking to creditors, we have to advise them that they need to be talking to the client about their safety and checking in that if they make changes, what is the safest way to do it.
There's a number of ways that you can contact us. We have our referral form on our website. You can just pick up the phone if you're comfortable to do that, or we have an email address that you can send us an email.
Anyone over the age of 18 can use our services, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or sexual identity. If you just want to ring and ask some questions, we don't need to know who you are or why you're asking them. We can talk through the sort of things that we could do to help.
If you're not ready for a phone call, you can send us an email. We're quite happy to kind of just continue an email conversation. If you ring us and we're talking things through and you decide it's not for you or it doesn't work, you can hang up and go away.
We haven't gathered any information. Your details will be confidential. We only gather what we need for the services and only those working with you will have access to them.
So we don't share anything without your consent. If you have a support person you're working with, whether that's a service or a family member, they can absolutely walk this journey with you. We understand that family violence is a really complex situation and people are navigating lots of services and supports.
Things can escalate, people need to go away and deal with other things. So if they need to do that, we can continue working with them while they're going and addressing something else or we can stop and we can come back and start again. You don't even have to understand what you're going through, just reach out.
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Description
This video provides a guide to who Good Shepherd are and what they do. Good Shepherd is a charity organisation that supports women and girls in experiencing economic abuse, which is a form of family violence. Good Shepherd can help people access financial assistance, including no interest loans, help to advocate to the financial sector and to creditors who might be chasing unjust debt. The services are free and anyone over the age of 18 can use them, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or sexual identity.
This video provides a guide to who Pet Refuge are and what they do. Pet Refuge is a charity organisation who provide temporary shelter and care for pets while their owners escape family violence. The service is free and available nationwide – while the shelter is based in Auckland, they are able to help pets based anywhere in the country. This includes transport from anywhere in New Zealand, safe accommodation, food, exercise, enrichment and veterinary care. All pets receive a health check on arrival, and Pet Refuge cover veterinary costs during their stay, including vaccinations, desexing and any treatment they may require.
Parental Guidance Recommended for Younger Viewers.
No. You can reach out at any stage. While it can be more difficult to address unjust debt if the economic abuse is still ongoing, we're here to support you wherever you are in your journey.
Yes. Many people don't reach out until years after the abuse has ended. While it can sometimes take a little longer to untangle what has happened, we'll work alongside you to explore options for addressing debt that resulted from economic abuse, no matter how long ago it occurred.
You don't need to provide any evidence to access our support. If we need documents later to help us work with banks or creditors on your behalf, we'll explain everything first and only share information with your permission.
Depending on your circumstances, we may be able to help you access financial assistance, including our no-interest, no-fee Good Loans and other forms of financial support. We'll talk through your situation with you and explore what options may be available.
We'll do our best to support and advocate for you when dealing with government agencies. These processes can be complex, and while we can't guarantee an outcome, we'll work alongside you to help you understand your options.
Business debt can be complex, and support will depend on your individual circumstances. We can help you understand your options and work alongside you to consider next steps. In many cases, specialist support may be needed, such as an accountant, lawyer, or specialist team at the bank - we’ll talk this through with you once we understand your situation better.
We don't offer counselling ourselves, but we understand how important emotional support can be. There are supports available in the community, and we can help you explore your options.
Our service focuses on the financial impacts of economic abuse, so we don't provide crisis or emergency support. If you need immediate help, we can connect you with specialist family violence services such as Women's Refuge, Shine, or other support organisations.
No, all the support that Good Shepherd provides is free of charge.
