This presentation will address prevention and early-intervention for child and adolescent mental ill health by moving through the everyday conditions of life with families; we will share stories from a community psychology research project working with a community collaboration to respond to violence in the home in South Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Thinking with professionals as experts in community care opens spaces to understand ethical responses to family violence as a key preventative mental wellness strategy, providing a responsive response to understanding children experience violence with all their senses (Callaghan et al., 2018).

As a community response, Gandhi Nivas offers three homes of peace across Auckland that provide temporary accommodation for men and 24/7 social, cultural and safety support for family recovering from violence. Welcoming men into a home for a period of rest and reflection in response to family violence enables respite for family at home too, and more stability for the everyday routines in children’s lives, such as school and childcare, as women and children do not have to flee to refuge. These processes enable spaces to hear women and children’s experiences of distress within the context of family violence, enhancing understandings of how to provide safety-focused responses for wellbeing.

Gandhi Nivas build dignified relationships with families, moving with everyday community rhythms to attend to experiences of precarity, isolation, loneliness, grief, trauma, stigma, racism. These everyday practices address the social determinants of health (Hodgetts & Stotle, 2017) and invite families into processes of becoming well and violence free.