The Minister responsible for Social Investment Agency Carmel Sepuloni and Minister for Whānau Ora Peeni Henare announced on Friday that the Kāinga Whānau Ora initiative will receive $4.6 million over two years to further expand in Palmerston North and to into extend into Whanganui.
Kāinga Whānau Ora(external link) is a community and Iwi-led programme working with families and whānau living in Housing New Zealand (HNZ) homes. The funding allows the initiative to provide further support to the 167 whānau in Palmerston North and reach 300 more whānau across Palmerston North and Whanganui. The initiative is led by Te Tihi o Ruahine Whānau Ora Alliance and supported by a governance group of fifteen agencies and organisations including SIA, Ministry of Social Development and New Zealand Police.
The purpose behind Kāinga Whānau Ora is to build family and whānau confidence, while supporting them to achieve their goals and aspirations. It focuses on improving housing, supporting children, boosting skills and employment, reducing reliance on benefits and improving the health of whānau.
SIA is particularly proud that the pilot has successfully put the methods of Collective Impact(external link) initiatives into practice. People, agencies and NGOs organise themselves around a common goal, such as supporting whānau into stable, safe and healthy homes. Resourcing is then directed towards achieving this common goal, with whānau leading the way. The result sees whānau, agencies and NGOs working collaboratively together, creating a sustainable change in the community that centres around whānau strengths.
Using our Data Exchange(external link), the pilot has already developed a whānau dashboard built on both agency-supplied and whānau-surveyed data, enabling the governance group to understand whānau progress and challenges. In addition to the dashboard, Te Tihi have also developed whānau privacy consent forms with input from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and Statistics New Zealand. Te Tihi are also designing ways to report whānau data back to whānau.
SIA will continue to play a key role in providing the lead support to the Kāinga Whānau Ora initiative, assisting with the programme governance, administration, monitoring, data measurement and collection, evaluation and co-ordination of funding. We extend a warm congratulations to Te Tihi and the whānau that have worked tirelessly over the course of the programme so far. Te Tihi will work with Te Oranganui Trust (an Iwi governed health and social service provider in Whanganui) to deliver Kāinga Whānau Ora in Whanganui.
At SIA we believe flexible funding and contracting models can enable social service providers like Kāinga Whānau Ora to work with communities and whānau in more holistic ways. Our work includes supporting government with the testing and scaling of social sector funding and contracting models which promote innovative social service delivery.
