Supporting violence prevention in Canterbury with Aviva Families
Aviva is dedicated to preventing family and sexual violence for all whānau, rangatahi, and tamariki, regardless of gender, age, or ethnicity. The organisation takes a holistic approach, believing that breaking the cycle of violence involves both perpetrators and victims. Their services range from triaging those in crisis and providing education programmes to supporting victims in court, offering long-term healing, and advocating for their needs. Based in Christchurch, Aviva serves the Canterbury region with a team of 55 kaimahi.
Sofia Ayushi, Team Leader of the Family Violence team’s Early Engagement Service, uses Recordbase to record client information, session notes, activities, and data for reporting. However, Aviva faces significant challenges, including funding limitations, resource constraints due to high demand, contract instability, navigating government bureaucracy, and addressing the complex needs of their clients, such as mental health issues, addictions, housing, and financial support. Despite doubling their resources over the past seven years, the waiting list remains long. Last year, Aviva received 5,500 phone calls throughout the year. Overall, the Family Violence and Sexual Violence teams have supported over 1000 clients each year. Close to 2000 clients per year receive physical support.
Aviva is grateful to use a CRM that’s supported by others in the same sector and tailored to the needs of a family violence organisation. Day-to-day, their staff primarily uses it to log client data and generate reports. Co-Leader and General Manager – Corporate, Nicki O’Donnell is responsible for managing reporting in line with their contracts and has worked with the Wild Bamboo team to configure Recordbase for their needs.
“We’ve spent a lot of time with the Wild Bamboo team structuring Recordbase in a way that’s truly helpful. Now, we’re using the system much more efficiently. We have complex services and contracts, and reporting isn’t always straightforward. But now that the structure is in place, the rest is easy—we just record activities and notes. A very important feature for us is the Group Import, which saves us from having to do individual imports when working with lots of groups.”
Nicki especially appreciates the custom reports developed with the Wild Bamboo team. “The Wild Bamboo team can take the data and convert it into whatever I need, which is invaluable and a huge benefit. Reporting used to take us days each month. Streamlining the templates means it now takes just 5-10 minutes. This is truly a massive advantage.”
“The relationship with the team that we’ve built over the years is really important. They really get it. They understand how Aviva works and what we need, and that comes from decades of experience with the sector. I have a lot of trust in them—they’ve done amazing work for us. I know that if I reach out, I’ll get a call back. I also trust that our client information is safe and secure. A couple of years ago, we undertook a big project that took about six months, and the team supported us every step of the way.”
Sofia also has praise for the customer service she’s received. “Even when we’ve needed changes made due to new contracts and things like that, it doesn’t take long to be actioned. Everything is done promptly, which is really helpful when our kaimahi are on the go.”
“We’re really happy with the team that work with us, we appreciate everything they do.”
