Blog

Communications Coordinator
Fixed term; 2 years

The Rainbow Violence Prevention Network is seeking a Communications Coordinator for 20 hours a week to support our growing work.

As RVPN’s Communications Coordinator you will have responsibility for managing our external and internal communications. You will be responsible for overseeing RVPN’s communications including our website, social media presence, and newsletter. You will assist with tasks such as copywriting, graphic design and resource development to enhance our communications with network members as well as external stakeholders.

This is a remote position, however, if based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the successful applicant will have the option of working from the InsideOUT office in the CBD.

Skills and experience desired:

• Outstanding knowledge of rainbow communities and the challenges faced by sexual, sex, and gender minorities (required, however further training can be provided)
• Strong understanding of intersectionality, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Te Ao Māori (understanding of basic te reo Māori is desired)
• Commitment to RVPN’s responsibility to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our work
• Passionate about RVPN’s mahi and rainbow inclusion
• Strong critical thinking and communication skills, written and verbal 
• Strong organisational and time management skills, initiative and ability to manage competing priorities
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to respond effectively to feedback and critique
• Experience creating content using graphic design software such as Adobe Suite or Canva
• Basic familiarity with WordPress or other website editing tools 
• Familiarity and competency using:
  • Meta Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Meta Business Suite, LinkedIn)
  • Google Suite
• Previous experience in communications or the ability to demonstrate communication skills in life or work. 
• Able to work independently and collaborate effectively with Network Lead and collective members of Rainbow Violence Prevention Network

The successful applicant must be comfortable working independently, however you will connect regularly online with network members. The RVPN also meets kanohi ki te kanohi at least twice a year.

RVPN is an inclusive employer and we value diversity. Applications will be considered regardless of ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexuality, physical or mental ability. 

View the full job description here. Submit your application by the 16th of January 2026 using the following form: https://forms.gle/dNM6e9EpGMQra4odA 

RVPN is umbrella-ed by InsideOUT Kōaro. We provide a budget for professional development, a quarterly wellbeing allowance, a working from home allowance, and wellbeing leave included with other sick leave.

By Johan Kettle, Respectful Relationships Coordinator, InsideOUT Kōaro

Over the past year, a collective of us from InsideOUT Kōaro and RainbowYOUTH came together to co-create a respectful relationships programme for rainbow rangatahi across Aotearoa, with support from the Rainbow Violence Prevention Network and Te Puna Aonui.

What a spectacular task before us. 

Everyone involved brought with them valuable lived experience and the learnings and dreams we all shared to provide our rangatahi greater possibility for safe, loving and respectful relationships. 

Aro ki te hā is a programme born from an ever-present need to provide support and education to address the specific ways we experience violence within our rainbow communities. It is a six week wandering to explore ways to come into respectful relationship with whenua, self and each other. 

Aro ki te hā addresses our location within the settler colony of New Zealand and its impacts on what we are taught about relationship. Not just our romantic relationships but what it means to be in relationship at all. We look at the ways systematic oppression shows up in our relationships and how they might recruit us into harmful ways of relating. We look towards what safe, loving and liberating forms of relating can look like and how to be in a practice of safe love – from the love of the whenua we are living on, to our relationships with ourselves, our whānau, friends, romantic partners and our communities.  

Without many resources, our communities have been self-organising rainbow specific relationship education for many, many years. We acknowledge the anti-violence leaders, teachers, organisers, and healers who have created a pathway to allow for this kaupapa. Some of whom we may not know the names of, but whose legacies are most certainly felt. 

Aro ki te hā will be piloted later this year as a six-week programme (primarily delivered online at this stage) and it is our hope to receive funding to further develop the programme in-person.

This programme has been shaped by a magnificent rōpū of young people that advised and shared decision making around the program’s content and delivery. We have created a collective document shared here; Tentacular Kōrero to gift back as a taonga to them for their contributions and to share with you all our journey together. Inside this document lives the stories, whakaaro, kōrero and mauri we shared over six months – facilitated and led by Te Wheke. A huge mihi to all the rangatahi involved (you know who you are), you are all bioluminescent queer rainbow brilliance – what an honour to listen and be enchanted by your stories, wisdom and curiosities. We also mihi to Whaea Rangimarie Davis for her cultural guidance and awhi; to Jill Faulkner for generously sharing her narrative expertise and wisdom and finally to Yujin Shien for bringing the document to life with their illustrations and design. Thank you.

There is also an informal research output that we wish to share open source with and for the betterment of our communities. May the knowledge shared support better opportunities for rainbow people to be held, loved and cared for in warm, nurturing ways; Aro ki te hā research report.

This programme has been founded on and grown by relationship. These documents invite our wider community into our process and in intention, demonstrate a commitment to accountability and transparency. If you wish to provide feedback of any flavour, please email Dando at [email protected].

By Claire Black, Chief Executive, OutLine.

With Pride celebrations taking place across Aotearoa, it’s a time to reflect on the tremendous progress that rainbow communities have made. But Pride is also a time to confront the huge challenges that rainbow communities still face.

Among the most urgent issues is domestic and sexual violence against rainbow people. It’s rarely acknowledged, but rainbow people in Aotearoa experience violence at disproportionately high rates.

The statistics are truly shocking. One in two rainbow people will experience domestic, family and intimate partner violence and abuse in their lifetime. We need more research, as the statistics are imperfect and don’t reflect the variations and complexity of rainbow experiences. But what we consistently see is that rainbow people experience higher rates of violence, compared to the general population.

If that wasn’t bad enough, rainbow victims of violence may have limited access to appropriate support. That’s because the majority of violence prevention education, awareness and support services fail to acknowledge the existence of rainbow communities or adequately cater for them.

We urgently need change. That’s why the Rainbow Violence Prevention Network (RVPN) has launched This Is Us Campaign and invested in education resources, such as our upcoming webinar for health and violence prevention professionals.

This Is Us is an awareness campaign that calls for an Aotearoa where all rainbow people are free from family and sexual violence, and all rainbow people who have experienced harm have access to safe supports.

We’re working towards this goal by raising awareness of the issues affecting various groups within our rainbow communities, and educating people on how to affirm rainbow identities as a violence prevention tool. This Pride season, Mediaworks supported us to put out a series of billboards and radio ads. We’ve also been running a social media campaign with support from RVPN’s member organisations.

But it’s not just enough to spread awareness of these issues if rainbow people aren’t able to access appropriate supports due to a lack of awareness among mainstream violence prevention and health providers. We also need that to change.

Rainbow people’s experiences of violence are often overlooked or misunderstood by mainstream organisations. In part, this is due to underreporting; many victims don’t feel safe to seek help or report an assault due to mistrust of police and the courts, a fear of not being taken seriously, or a desire not to portray tight-knit rainbow communities in a negative light.

These issues can be compounded for rainbow people who are also migrants, sex workers, disabled or elders. Victims from these groups may be less likely seek help due to fear of prejudice and discrimination, or a lack of awareness of the support that is available. Transgender and intersex people also face the additional barrier of mistrust in the medical system, which can prevent them from seeking help.

When violence prevention and health providers don’t understand these issues, they are unable to provide safe and welcoming spaces for rainbow people to get help or report violence. In turn, rainbow people won’t seek support if they don’t feel safe to do so – which means providers will continue to overlook these issues.

Aotearoa urgently needs fit-for-purpose violence prevention and support services for rainbow people. This means creating environments where all rainbow people feel safe and supported to report violence and seek the help they need.

RVPN has been working to address these issues by providing education and resources for mainstream violence prevention and health organisations. We offer a range of free resources for professionals on our website, and are working to upskill violence prevention professionals through education initiatives.

If you work for a mainstream violence prevention or health organisation, you can help by learning about the issues and advocating for change. Our webinar on rainbow violence prevention will give you the knowledge to confidently navigate rainbow violence issues and create safe spaces for rainbow clients. You can watch for Preventing Violence Against Rainbow People: A Panel Discussion here.

You can also help by signing our pledge against rainbow violence, and learning more about RVPN’s This Is Us campaign.

With your help, we can work towards ending rainbow violence in Aotearoa.

Claire Black is Chief Executive of OutLine Aotearoa, a rainbow mental health organisation providing support to rainbow people, their friends, whānau and allies throughout Aotearoa. OutLine has led RVPN’s This Is Us Campaign to raise awareness of rainbow violence.

The Rainbow Violence Prevention Network is a coalition of organisations working to end rainbow violence. Member organisations include OutLine Aotearoa, InsideOUT Kōaro, RainbowYOUTH, Te Ngākau Kahukura, Intersex Aotearoa, Gender Minorities Aotearoa, Rainbow Path Aotearoa, HELP Auckland, RespectEd Aotearoa, Wellington RapeCrisis and Rape Prevention Education.