Early findings in the seventh Window on Waikato Poverty report reveal a shift in not just who is fulfilling nurturing roles in the community, but how people's perception of state-sponsored help has changed.
Conducted by Poverty Action Waikato, the study is led by Dr Rose Black and Dr Anna Casey-Cox.
The study, entitled 'Neglect and nurture in our community', was triggered by media's treatment of neglect, which Dr Casey-Cox said was too preoccupied with finger-pointing and blaming.
"They say 'those people have done it again - those no-hopers have done it again'. Our story is more complex, including that people have been marginalised over time and excluded by the system." She said rather than individual victim blaming, the research seeks to create a picture of the complex circumstances which lead to poverty.
"It's looking at who in the community is doing the nurturing work, and getting the information out in the public domain."
Dr Black has a background in community psychology and Dr Casey-Cox from a background in public health and not-for-profit management.
Research is still in the data-gathering stage, and the next stage will analyse case studies to determine the origins of care and nurturing roles in the community.
But already Dr Black said there were common themes emerging, including a shift in attitude that public servants were there to serve the needy, to the needy feeling they have to serve the civil servants.
"The process of getting a benefit is very hard. We've gone from a community that knew what a public servant was for and shifted to the government saying 'you have to serve us'."
She said employees of state services were as stuck as anybody. "They have to follow a certain line and act in a certain way," said Dr Black. "We've lost a lot of what we used to have."
It would seem the many cutbacks and obstacles to support imposed by government in recent times has resulted in community groups taking the matter into their own hands.
Dr Casey-Cox said this had resulted in nurturing shifting from state level to community groups.
"The community is fed up with the increased demand to meet certain conditions to get help. People are fed up and they're looking at ways to get around it," she said. Nowhere is this more noticeable than with free meals, with a multitude of different community groups springing up to supply.
Hamilton has several community-run initiatives that feed the city's homeless, underprivileged and children in schools, such as Hamilton Homeless Trust and Authentic Church. St Vincent de Paul provides a free meal every Friday at lunchtime, free mobile meals in parts of Hamilton courtesy of its FulFill van each week night and makes hundreds of school lunches for children.
"We can't do much about housing unfortunately, but the community comes together on food," she said.
Dr Black said it was important to have findings for the Waikato because it provided a different voice to those coming out of Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch, but that the region was just part of a larger global system which focused on growth, development and economics to the detriment of the people.
"The inequality on a global scale is reflected in our society. It's very hard to be this kind of voice when we're in a system and this is how it is - but we want to say it doesn't have to be this way," Dr Casey-Cox said.
The research is funded by Hamilton City Council and final findings presented in March. Dr Casey-Cox said the goal was to create a more caring society and to inspire people to get involved.