Jude Simpson

Bringing her own personal experience    of family violence, domestic abuse and gang association, Jude Simpson has been committed to working with women and young adults to better their futures for the past 10 years.

Jude's ability to relate to victims of domestic violence comes from her own experience; from the age of 9 Jude was a victim of child abuse and subsequently found herself caught up in a cycle of domestic violence, substance abuse and crime. This cycle continued for the next 28 years, by which time Jude had been a member of both the Mongrel Mob and Highway 61 gangs, had had four children to four different partners and had been involved in serious criminal activities.

At age 37, Jude found the strength to turn her life around and is now committed to helping others do the same. She began putting this into practice in 1996 by gaining employment at Life Works International as a facilitator to help women realise their potential and work towards achieving employment. Gaining qualifications in Adult Teaching and NZQA assessment, she then moved on to work in Education Support roles at Mahi Ora, Awarua, Focus on Jobs and Aramahi and more recently was a Manager of Employnz where she developed and implemented career focused programmes to help prepare and guide students into the workforce.

Jude has a passion for empowering women to break the cycle of domestic violence and to enable them to lead fulfilling and positive lives - a passion which prompted her to write her own autobiography entitled ‘Lost and Found'. The book explores her story and her journey to rebuild her life and is now in its second printing. She has also recently been the subject of a one hour ‘Expozay New Zealand' documentary for TVNZ based on her autobiography.

Additionally, Jude is a motivational speaker at various functions and meetings such as Women's Refuge Community Meetings, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Family Works and was the keynote speaker at the National Police Conference held in Wellington this year, speaking on Childhood Environments and Family Violence.

Jude is also involved in a number of initiatives including facilitating community workshops for sexually abused teenagers, police training on domestic violence and tutoring evening classes in Relationship Services. Jude has also had involvement with the Ministry of Social Development regional planning with a focus on family violence.

In January 2008 Jude commenced her position as Family Violence Advocate for Presbyterian Support Northern.

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