Sharing violence prevention insights with undergraduate students

This month, our Atu-Mai violence prevention senior manager, Paul Tupou-Vea, was invited to the University of Auckland to share knowledge about our work as a guest lecturer for second year Bachelor of Health Science students.

It was an opportunity to link theory to practice, sharing about real-world applications of the social and health sciences

“Despite the early start, students seemed really engaged,” he says. “It was an opportunity to link theory to practice, sharing about real-world applications of the social and health sciences,” he says.
His lecture for the Mental Health Development course was entitled Violence Prevention – Le Va’s response to a community and societal issue.

These students have been learning about the role of theory in designing mental health promotion programmes.

Having Paul come in and demonstrate how that theory can be translated into practice whilst remaining responsive to community-specific needs and aspirations was invaluable.

University of Auckland’s Melissa Reid-Ellis says she found the lecture very inspiring.

“I think we too often focus on responding to violence and other major health issues, when we should be trying to prevent them from occurring in the first place,” she says.

“It’s great to see that we have organisations such as Le Va doing this important mahi for the people of Tāmaki Makaurau and Aotearoa more broadly.”

Atu-Mai is utilising a community mobilisation approach to prevent sexual violence in our communities.

The programme also connects with others in the sector to support workforce development efforts and sharing our knowledge with the sector and across the community is an important way to learn, connect and empower as many parts of the system as possible.

“Sexual violence and its risk factors are complex, so it’s important we are standing together with sector partners and community leaders,” Paul says.

The invitation to guest-lecture came from long-time supporter and advocate, Professor Janet Fanslow, who is a population health scientist specialising in violence prevention and the promotion of mental health.