Safe Man Safe Family

Our People

Vic Tamati

Founder and Trustee

Vic grew up in a home where violence was presented as a kind of love, where it was literally a part of everyday life. He even bears a tattoo of the word LOVE on his fist, as a reminder. After doing two stopping violence programmes and breaking free of the cycle of violence, Vic was compelled to do something to help men like himself save their families from the legacy of intergenerational violence. And Safe Man Safe Family was born.

In 2019 Vic was recognised in the NZ Honours List for his services to violence prevention. Vic is also a father and grandfather to six amazing children and 9 wonderful grandchildren.

Angela Dalton

Chairperson

Angela has chaired the SMSF board since November 2017. She has a keen interest in helping empower communities to work together tackling family and whanau violence. An experienced chairperson, she has also chaired the Manurewa Local Board for 8 years, and has a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry.

Angela is skilled in business planning and development, coaching, mentoring, local government, contact centres and fundraising. She is also currently completing a LLB at AUT University. Angela is the mother of four and grandmother of four children who all live in the south of Auckland.

Dr David Codyre, MBChB (1980), FRANZCP (1989)

Trustee

David is a psychiatrist with 30 years’ experience working in New Zealand’s community mental health sector, in a range of clinical and leadership roles. He has spent the past 15 years leading development of primary mental health programmes, and advocating at a regional and national level for strengthening of primary mental health capacity, and better support from secondary mental health services.
David currently works with Tamaki Health, a network of clinics serving populations in high-needs areas of Auckland. He is only too familiar with the research on how childhood adversity (including family violence) creates ongoing life challenges, and sees it borne out every day in his work. He says “If we could ensure every child in Aotearoa/NZ was born after a healthy pregnancy, and grew up safe and loved, we’d halve the need for mental health and addiction services, significantly reduce the need for unemployment and sickness benefits, halve the number of people in prison, and ultimately reduce the need for medical hospitalisation later in life. The most transformational change I have seen in addressing this issue, has come from the work of Vic Tamati and his network of Safe Men.”

Tania Mahoney

Treasurer and Secretary

Tania has been working with Safe Man Safe Family since 2013. She is also the owner of White Swan Consultancy Limited, providing small business management and accounting services. She lives in South Auckland with her family, including two young adult children, and is passionate about supporting others to break free of the cycle of violence.

Tania has qualified with a Bachelor Applied Science in Psychology from the Open Polytechnic and Post Grad Diploma of Science, Psychology major from Massey University and Post Grad Diploma of Health Science in Violence and Trauma with AUT.

Phil

Key facilitators

Born in Helensville in the 50s to a hard-working mother and father, Phil’s childhood was nevertheless marred by violence which was prevalent especially when alcohol and financial pressure were involved. He ran away from home at 15 and never went back to his home of birth. Alcohol, drugs and gangs became his comfort and family, until he one day realised that he would lose his partner if he continued on that path. Phil has been a youth worker and founding member of te taitokerau youth workers’ network, and was also instrumental in starting the White Ribbon ride. He is also a national champion for the It’s Not OK campaign and has travelled extensively throughout NZ and Australia sharing his redemption story on change.

Phil has been happily married to his wife Rowena for 41 years. They have 6 daughters, one son and many moko. They are also specialist caregivers for Oranga Tamariki. He says “Over a 20-year period we have fostered over 240 children in our humble whare.”

Lua

Key facilitators

Born in the US, Lua grew up with the constant threat of violence. He says, “As a young boy I was always beaten and verbally abused and that’s where I think it started. I never knew any other way.” As he grew older, he began to use psychological and verbal abuse to intimidate his partners. Then he found that education opportunities were also affected – he got into Harvard but was forced to leave after being unable to manage his violence.

Lua has now been actively working in violence prevention for over 15 years (and with SMSF for 8 years) as a service facilitator and developer, delivering programmes in both English and Samoan. He has also served as a board member of various youth and violence prevention networks. Lua lives in South Auckland with his much-loved family.