Community-led contact centre goes live in Whakatāne

Enid Ratahi Pryor: We're very pleased today to be launching the Enabling Communities project, which is actually about bringing our mokopuna, our tamariki home. 

It's about working alongside Oranga Tamariki to do things differently inside the system, to do things differently it's about introducing a new model. 

A model that is led by tikanga, a model that is led by place, being driven by communities and by hapūand iwifrom where they are, and having our children immersed in their own whakapapa and their tikangaas solutions for their future out of state care. 
 
Pania Hetet: The process after that is pretty much they go out and do an assessment on the needs and if it was for instance somebody from Tūhoe rather than them continue to work with that client, they refer to us. 

And so for us whanaungatanga can take two hours, for two days. It's as long as the final and it takes to engage with that family 'cause once you get engagement, then you get by in and then you can make some progress. 
 
Enid Ratahi Pryor: Our Iwi of Ngāti Awa, like many of the other area across the country, have for many years, about 30-40 years been talking about having our children, our tamariki, our mokopunareturned home to their people, whānau, hapūand iwi.  

The difference between the system we're introducing today as Te Pūkāea and the system of yesterday is today's system, our new model is about respecting the place of whakapapa, respecting the place of tikangaand the solution for our whānaumoving forward.