Tamariki Wellbeing programme update

Supporting the Early Years System - with NEXT Foundation Funding

This programme builds on the Early Years Challenge.

Since July we have recruited four new people to the SEYS team with a focus on talent with localised knowledge of community and whānau. This includes a role we are resourcing Papakura Marae with to facilitate community and whānau into the experimentation approach.

Our partnership with Papakura Marae is evolving well. We expect to enrol 15-18 Papakura whānau with tamariki from pregnancy to the first 1000 days of life. We are building on our early insights to support whānau to develop solutions to complex issues that will support them to give tamariki the best start in life. We commenced the set-up of our whānau-led work, including the new Papakura Marae role that will support this.

In August we hosted the Social Investment Agency (SIA) to share insights from the Having a Baby in South Auckland project to systems influencers such as social researchers. Having a Baby in South Auckland was a partnership between the TSI and SIA that used existing IDI data (75,000 births and their whānau) to understand the complexity of whānau lives in South Auckland.

TSI was also invited to participate in the launch of the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy in Rotorua and our SEYS work was referenced in the strategy.

The SEYS team participated in the launch of Tiakina te Tamaiti, a new strengths-based workshop for whānau Māori that is underpinned by Mātauranga Māori hosted by The Brainwave Trust.

Creating Home

Our Creating Home initiative works with Auckland Council and other key stakeholders to co-design places and spaces that can “create home” for whānau when parenting outside of their home.

We are continuing phase two of our work with the Manurewa and Māngere East Library teams and with whānau, the Council family and key stakeholders to co-design spaces where whānau can nurture their tamariki for lifelong outcomes. At Māngere East Library we have supported the establishment of a weekly whānau-led drop-in community group.

One of our early insights surfaced with whānau is that library staff that have localised knowledge and a sense of belonging to the community are valuable in connecting with the needs of whānau in these spaces.

Plunket

TSI’s partnership with Plunket Manurewa supported a whānau-centred co-design approach to the refurbishment of the Manurewa Family Centre. The new centre “Poutokomanawa” was opened on the 14 February as a warm and welcoming space that is whānau-centred.

Our core insight is that if we are to move from service orientated spaces to whānau-centred spaces that are warm, welcoming and nurturing, we will need to invest in the staff in each centre. The staff in these spaces need to be supported to care for each other, care for the space (be present) and then to be able to care for whānau.

This project is now complete and final evaluation and reporting is underway. The findings will be fed back into our Creating Home work stream.