Whanau Ora funds boost keeps focus on family

The Whanau Ora programme is proving to be a success at Rotorua Family Focus with a rise in client numbers prompting a need for bigger facilities.
The whanau (family) health clinic was one of four successful applicants to be granted Whanau Ora grants in the Bay of Plenty this year, receiving $60,000. The Whanau Ora programme is designed to focus on whanau as a whole, rather than individual family members and their problems. It encourages agencies to deliver coherent services to the whole family.
Rotorua Family Focus manager Stacey Ford said the funds had contributed to more resources and helped put in place an operational workframe and practice standards to ensure staff and whanau were safe at all times.
The organisation is moving from Tutanekai St to the old legal chambers building on Haupapa St to provide a better working environment to cater for an increase in clients.
Mrs Ford said it was satisfying to see more whanau come forward to receive help.
"Our whanau ora is about creating a sense of collective responsibly towards eliminating family violence - not only our agency and those agencies in the sector, but whanau and extended whanau," she said.
She believed the increase in clients was due to the national Whanau Ora campaign. As well as providing specifically designed whanau wananga, there were a number of future development plans in store for the remaining funds.
"Our aim with Whanau Ora is to engage whanau across a number of the agency's services to provide a coherent service to them so they are all committees to working to prevent family violence in their homes," Mrs Ford said.
"We will use funding to provide more social work support to current services and to train staff in facilitation, meditation and conflict resolution skills."
Mrs Ford said the organisation had run three wananga to date and there were six whanau on the waiting list.
"We are very fortunate to have received the funds to help us move forward and we strive to promote and instil values in the people that visit us," she said.
The agency's values include putting children first, fairness in relationships and building equity in relationships.
Maori health organisations Tipu Ora and Korowai Aroha have been running Whanau Ora principals since the organisations were established but have enforced more structure since it had become a government initiative.
Korowai Aroha Health Services chief executive Ngaroma Grant said the organisation had held a district health board Whanau Ora contract for many years but Whanau Ora as it was now known was a new initiative for health providers.
Through Whanau Ora initiatives Korowai Aroha staff conduct health checks in kohanga, attend Maori health, sports, kapa haka and educational events and delivers health promotion and resources to the community.
"Whanau Ora has been significant in shifting to an outcomes-focused approach to service delivery and results-based accountability," Ms Grant said.
Tipu Ora Charitable Trust executive manager Raewyn Bourne said Tipu Ora was established in 1991 to provide services for mothers and their babies and was funded on Whanau Ora principles.
"Tipu Ora: Whanau Ora is our trust vision statement and our trust values support this," she said.
Key Tipu Ora Whanau Ora services will include a Family Start Programme and Well Child Tamariki Ora Services.