Vanessa Graham, 34, is a bi-cultural social worker based in Manawatū working out of the Palmerston North site and has been a social worker for almost 3 years.
She is one of many Oranga Tamariki social workers celebrating National Social Workers' Day on September 17, a day to step back and reflect on their role and what it means to be a social worker.
Graham is care-experienced, first entering the care system at just 3 and a half years old, and again at 9.
“What made me want to come and work at Oranga Tamariki was my care experience.
“It wasn’t until I came here as a student, I realised how much impact social workers in this space have.
“I wanted to build experience as a social worker but also do better.
“I remember requesting my own information from when I was in care and it was less than 20 pages, but I knew I had so many years with Oranga Tamariki and Child Youth and Family.
“I wanted to see in the future other tamariki, rangatahi and taiohi (youth) having full records of their time here.”
A new career path
During her time in care, she gained support from the Highbury Whānau Centre, a place she went to work at twice and now works closely with as a social worker in Palmerston North.
“They called me the first time after I had just moved back to Manawatū and asked if I wanted a job as a youth worker.
“I was in my first year of a sport and exercise degree at Massey University and had just finished my exams, but then I thought - this is not how I want to help rangatahi.”
Not long after that Graham became a māmā to her oldest child and paused her study to focus on being a mum.
The call to make change
But the call to make a change for a wider group of rangatahi was great, and when her son was 6 years old, she enrolled to study her social work degree.
During her study to become a social worker she worked part-time, fell pregnant and birthed her second child and had to study through Covid-19.
It wasn’t easy, and Graham gets emotional talking about how hard she’s worked to create a different upbringing for her tamariki.
“Giving my children a different upbringing to what I was given makes me feel honored and very humbled.”
She hopes the young people she works with today see her as a person who has made a difference in their lives.
“I hope rangatahi and tamariki who I’ve worked with see me as someone who’s listened.
“Someone who has done and followed through on what she said she would do. Someone they can trust.”