title: Healing in community: Exploring experiences of support groups for survivors of sexual violence

authors: Burton, Margot

abstract: This thesis examines the role of community-based support groups in fostering healing among survivors of sexual violence, with a particular focus on understanding the benefits and challenges of participation in such groups. Sexual violence is a pervasive social issue with long-lasting impacts on survivors. While individual therapeutic interventions are often prioritised, community-based support groups offer a unique pathway for healing through shared experiences, validation, and social support. The importance of support groups is highlighted in the literature on support services in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally, however survivors often face significant barriers in accessing support due to stigma and other systemic factors. This study seeks to address these gaps by exploring how support groups contribute to healing in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Using a qualitative research design, individual interviews and online qualitative questionnaires were conducted with survivors who had attended support groups. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed three overarching themes: Safety, Healing, and Navigating Systems. Safety emerged as a critical factor, encompassing the role of facilitators, group guidelines, and the overall group culture. Healing was facilitated through validation, connection, trust, and empowerment within the group setting. The theme of Navigating Systems highlighted the complexities of accessing services, engaging with support systems, and recognising healing as a continuous lifelong journey. The findings emphasise the need for trauma-informed, community-based interventions and advocate for policy and practices that enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of support groups.
 The findings of this study underscore the importance of safe, well-facilitated support group spaces and the need for greater accessibility to support groups for survivors of sexual violence. It also emphasises the role of policy in sustaining survivor-centred services that can foster healing and resilience tailored to meet the needs of different communities and cultures.

text: Healing in community: Exploring experiences of support groups for survivors of sexual violence This thesis examines the role of community-based support groups in fostering healing among survivors of sexual violence, with a particular focus on understanding the benefits and challenges of participation in such groups. Sexual violence is a pervasive social issue with long-lasting impacts on survivors. While individual therapeutic interventions are often prioritised, community-based support groups offer a unique pathway for healing through shared experiences, validation, and social support. The importance of support groups is highlighted in the literature on support services in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally, however survivors often face significant barriers in accessing support due to stigma and other systemic factors. This study seeks to address these gaps by exploring how support groups contribute to healing in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Using a qualitative research design, individual interviews and online qualitative questionnaires were conducted with survivors who had attended support groups. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed three overarching themes: Safety, Healing, and Navigating Systems. Safety emerged as a critical factor, encompassing the role of facilitators, group guidelines, and the overall group culture. Healing was facilitated through validation, connection, trust, and empowerment within the group setting. The theme of Navigating Systems highlighted the complexities of accessing services, engaging with support systems, and recognising healing as a continuous lifelong journey. The findings emphasise the need for trauma-informed, community-based interventions and advocate for policy and practices that enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of support groups.
 The findings of this study underscore the importance of safe, well-facilitated support group spaces and the need for greater accessibility to support groups for survivors of sexual violence. It also emphasises the role of policy in sustaining survivor-centred services that can foster healing and resilience tailored to meet the needs of different communities and cultures.

year: 2025

title: Human evaluation of Kea, an automatic keyphrasing system.

authors: Jones, Steve

subjects: keyphrase extraction

abstract: This paper describes an evaluation of the Kea automatic keyphrase extraction algorithm. Tools that automatically identify keyphrases are desirable because document keyphrases have numerous applications in digital library systems, but are costly and time consuming to manually assign. Keyphrase extraction algorithms are usually evaluated by comparison to author-specified keywords, but this methodology has several well-known shortcomings. The results presented in this paper are based on subjective evaluations of the quality and appropriateness of keyphrases by human assessors, and make a number of contributions. First, they validate previous evaluations of Kea that rely on author keywords. Second, they show Kea's performance is comparable to that of similar systems that have been evaluated by human assessors. Finally, they justify the use of author keyphrases as a performance metric by showing that authors generally choose good keywords.

text: Human evaluation of Kea, an automatic keyphrasing system. This paper describes an evaluation of the Kea automatic keyphrase extraction algorithm. Tools that automatically identify keyphrases are desirable because document keyphrases have numerous applications in digital library systems, but are costly and time consuming to manually assign. Keyphrase extraction algorithms are usually evaluated by comparison to author-specified keywords, but this methodology has several well-known shortcomings. The results presented in this paper are based on subjective evaluations of the quality and appropriateness of keyphrases by human assessors, and make a number of contributions. First, they validate previous evaluations of Kea that rely on author keywords. Second, they show Kea's performance is comparable to that of similar systems that have been evaluated by human assessors. Finally, they justify the use of author keyphrases as a performance metric by showing that authors generally choose good keywords.

year: 2001-02-01

title: Te Rau Matatini: Māori mental health workforce
development

authors: Hirini, Paul

subjects: Maori

abstract: Outlines the development and current projects of Te Rau Matatini, a charitable trust aiming to strengthen the Maori mental health workforce.

text: Te Rau Matatini: Māori mental health workforce
development Outlines the development and current projects of Te Rau Matatini, a charitable trust aiming to strengthen the Maori mental health workforce.

year: 2003