He's become frustrated with organisations and groups parachuting into his community with well-meaning pilot programmes, only to "tick boxes and disappear once the funding runs out".
Paea, an ex-member of The Stormtroopers gang formed in Otara in 1970, wants to work with primary-age children and their families – many of whom he's known going back three generations.
It all starts with education, he says, and over the holiday period he will be working with youngsters before going to the school gates with them.
"There's a new breed of kids now that are very staunch, ruthless. They are a law unto themselves and don't give a stuff about the police, authorities. It's not good," Paea said.
"The schools do their best but there are still a lot of kids that I know aren't going to make it. They'll end up falling through the cracks: selling drugs, taking drugs, gang life.
"I want to go right back and recognise them at primary [school] level and work with them all the way through."
Keeping youngsters busy is also critical, he says, and he supports hip-hop and street dance projects, along with organised sport.
Paea helps kids learn to fix bicycles, and for the older ones, restoring motorbikes.
"It's about restoring themselves, the before and after, a way to get my message across," he says.
A similar project involves developing Otara Creek and getting youth to help build traditional-style Pacific outriggers.
"I live here, I've seen the issues and needs over years. If we don't give youth what they need now, they're going to end up shooting each other. We've seen it before."
He's excited about being back on the streets.
"For a while, I thought I'd done what I needed to do here," Paea says.
"But when I look around, there's still a lot of challenges. Nobody is telling me what to do, I'm funding myself, and just doing what I think is right."
