Queen's Birthday Honour: New MNZM from Kaponga says recognition more about Start Taranaki than himself

Neville Phillips has been named as a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit on the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2019 for his work with serious young offenders. Photo / Supplied

For several years, Neville Phillips lived next to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation unit in small-town Kaponga at the foot of Egmont National Park.

The unit was based in the long-defunct Kaponga Maternity Hospital and helped young people aged between 15 and 25.

Phillips, 63, lived on a farmlet where he trained greyhounds and horses while working in the dairy industry.

It was not uncommon for those in rehabilitation to jump the fence, invited by Phillips to help him with some work or to join him on a trip to the beach.

The unit operated under several names for more than 10 years until the Choice Taranaki Charitable Trust failed to make anything of it in the early 2000s.

Up stepped Phillips who created Start Taranaki, a non-governmental organisation that aims to provide intervention for young men.

Start has proven so successful Phillips has been named as a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit on this year's Queen's Birthday Honours List.

"Initially I was embarrassed, a bit confused and very surprised, but I got over all of those sorts of things," said Phillips, the Start chief executive.

"I realised it's not so much about me, but about the organisation. It's acknowledging the work that Start does rather than me as an individual.

"On that basis, I was excited to have received the honour. It reflects the sacrifices that my family and myself and a huge amount of staff have made over the years."

What started out as Phillips and a couple of mates trying to help out has evolved over 16 years and Start now offers support to serious young male offenders.

About 20 staff work on a three-stage wilderness experience with teens aged between 15 and 17 who have been through a youth court process.

It starts with isolation, in which the offenders are removed from their familiar environment and taken into a native bush setting.

"They've got all the trauma they've suffered, but they go for a walk in the bush and it's soothing for them," Phillips said.

"Each young person receives instruction in bush craft and survival skills and as they succeed, they start to believe that they can achieve things."

Phillips says the basis of Start is about trust and demonstrating genuine affection.

"It's about treating them as a child who hasn't had the opportunities that everybody else has, but deserves every bit of love, care and attention as any child does."

He said a lot of kids do not realise the environment is theirs, it is there to be used and can greatly support mental and physical health.

"I found kids from places like New Plymouth, Whanganui and Palmerston North who had no idea how to get a feed of paua, chuck out a surfcaster, surf or kayak.

"They were bored shitless and getting in trouble, so I showed them what I did when I was a kid, distracting them from the rubbish that was making them trip up."