Healthy Homes Initiatives recognised

On September 12, The Healthy Homes Initiatives won two honours at the prestigious Spirit of Service Awards 2019 - the first was the Better Outcomes Award (Te Tohu mō ngā Hua E Pai Ake Ana) and the second was the overall Prime Minister’s Award (Te Tohu a te Pirimia).

The Healthy Homes Initiatives’ application to these public sector awards was a collaboration of Ministry of Health, with Housing New Zealand, Ministry of Social Development, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority and Auckland Council through The Southern Initiative.

It is an amazing recognition of the hard work and commitment of everyone involved, and the real impact this programme is making for New Zealanders. It has significantly reduced hospital visits and antibiotic prescriptions for children in 16,000 families through 46,000 collaborative housing interventions to create warmer, drier homes.

The Healthy Homes Initiatives are focused on the needs of whānau and allowing frontline providers to innovate. People on the ground are setting priorities with whānau and telling the agencies what’s needed. The HHIs in Auckland are known as Kainga Ora (Waitemata and Auckland District Health Board areas) and Awhi (Counties Manukau District Health Board).