Wraparound services

Rangatahi are the generation of the future and it is our obligation to assist them to gain skills to better understand their world. Once this is achieved, they will be empowered to resolve difficult situations.

The wero for the Wraparound Service is to assist rangatahi when they seek knowledge that helps them deal with issues. We believe they come to the service with their kete of knowledge and we will assist to fill that kete with as many positive experiences, academic achievements, life-skills and perceptions so they choose the correct options in their life’s journey.

The travesty for the service would be not having tried to assist them on their journey and give up on them as many have already done.

The South Auckland branch of Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust is located at Nga Whare Waatea Marae in Mangere.

The Wraparound Service has focused on building stronger relationships in an effort to improve relationships with rangatahi, whanau and other agencies. These relationships continue to produce good outcomes in the Youth Courts and continuous positive comments received about our contribution in assisting to reduce the youth offending in South Auckland.

Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust is one of the founding members of the Mangere Youth Providers Forum who meet monthly to discuss issues in Mangere. The meetings are a focal point for government and community agencies that attend to present and discuss common themes. The forum is an opportunity to improve relationships and strengthen networks.

Tamaki ki Raro Trust, Genesis, Housing New Zealand, Mangere East Family Service Centre, Work and Income, Counties Manukau Sports Foundation, Department of Corrections, Police Youth Aid and Counties Manukau District Health Board are a number of government and community agencies that attend the Forum.

Wraparound works alongside the Justice Department as a panel member for the Youth Advocate (Youth Lawyers) for Counties Manukau. This nominated panel is recognised as one of the preferred service providers by Youth Court, Coordinators Bureau, and Police Youth Aid, Child, Youth and Family and a number of other non-government agencies.

The programmes have included outdoor pursuits, sexual health, youth law, youth rights, fishing excursions, family therapy rock climbing and a number of sports competitions externally and within Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust. We plan a repeat of the successful programmes in 2009. We have also had success with the sports and art competitions within the Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust of which trophies were attained.

Discussions continue with Child, Youth and Family resulting in better use of resources and improved relationship with our funder. This opportunity has allowed us to provide a better service and do justice to rangatahi, whanau and the service on a whole.

Planning to ensure we are one of the lead agencies when it comes to reducing youth offending in South Auckland are being developed. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for the day, teach him how to fish so he may eat forever”. We plan to teach our rangatahi how to fish rather than hand out fish. Preparing them with the skills to embark on their life’s journey, is the mahi we are tasked with and it is a worthy and rewarding challenge for both the Wraparound Service and Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust.

Whanau Development Unit

Whanau development staff provided services to 364 whanau, tamariki and rangatahi over the past 12 months, which far exceeded the contracted volumes of the three services delivered by the unit.

While emergency housing was the primary need of whanau, there was a significant increase in support for whanau whose children are in the care of Child, Youth and Family.

Over 160 tamariki and rangatahi participated in the Whanau Development Unit and Mau Rakau Programme. Individuals and whanau benefiting appeared to be those experiencing a range of social problems including literacy and numeracy difficulties, mediocre to extreme behavioural issues and criminal offending.

The predominant number of tamariki and rangatahi attended primary school, alternative education and vocational training programmes while others had been expelled or suspended from secondary school, involved in Youth Court or were residents at the Specialist Family Home.

Specialist Family Home

In 2008, the Specialist Family Home was restructured to accommodate the appointment of full-time house parents and a youth advocate to ensure that consistent high quality of care is provided to the residents. The House parents have created a whanau friendly environment founded on Kaupapa Maori values. This is invaluable to the overall restoration of rangatahi health and wellbeing.

Social Workers in Schools

The four schools-based Social Workers in Schools (SWIS) continue to provide early intervention and preventative social work services to young people and their whanau. 

Early social work intervention contributes towards the increased capacity of children and families to deal with problems. Children are now attending school with lunches, whanau are setting clear boundaries for their children, and there has been a reduction in behavioural problems. 

Budgeting Service

The Budgeting and Food Bank team are very busy. Ten staff across the organisation have completed the Federation of Family Budgeting Services training in preparation to assist the Whanau Development Unit by providing a more comprehensive budgeting service for whanau. The training is an NZQA accredited course and there was a 97 percent pass rate.

Staff Development 

Staff across Welfare and Social Services committed a fair proportion of their time to developing their knowledge and improving competency levels by attending and completing the following training courses:

• Mauri Ora Training
• First Aid
• Crisis Prevention Intervention
• Hauora
• Strengthening Families
• Customary Fishing
• Leadership
• Service costing and specialised caregivers
• Youth Strategy training 

Seven staff members are working towards completing the following qualifications:
• Post Graduate Clinical Social Work Supervision
• BA in Social Work Practice
• Family Violence
• Budgeting Service training

To locate any of our social services go to our contacts page here.