Te Aroha Noa in Palmerston North has begun a process that goes way beyond the traditional way of responding to ‘learner needs’. With their research partner from Point Research Ltd they have developed a co-designed process where trained staff and students work with whānau to find out what’s getting in the way of effective parenting. Then together with whānau, they can plan for activities, education or therapeutic services that will break the cycles which keep these whānau failing.
We talked to Bruce Maden, the founder of Te Aroha Noa, about how the project came about, and the first stage of the co-designed process.
Getting started
“The need arose from working with our young people who have been really marginalised from the education system, usually for months or even years. We could see that they were making progress in our He Ngakau Rangatahi programme, but as we picked them up from home, or dropped them off, we became increasingly aware that there were difficulties in the home environment – that there were numerous other siblings, not yet in our programmes, but already on the same path. We could see we would have a continuous flow of these young people. So we decided we needed to address whānau issues and engage them in the learning process.
“In 2016 we had won a Vodafone World of Difference Award and we found that an extension grant was available. So we worked with our research partners at Massey University to find funding to develop a co-designed process, and Vodafone granted us $300,000 over three years to implement the programme. With that funding we were able to employ Annalise Myers from Point Research and she trained our staff and some of the students in empathetic interviewing and the engagement strategy. Annalise has acted as a facilitator throughout the process.
“We started with a pizza lunch to which we invited the whānau of our He Ngakau Rangatahi programme. We asked them who would be interested in participating in our research. Eight whānau said they would, and seven have completed the first stage of the process. It’s the mothers who have engaged. We have since found that these seven have brought up a total of 46 children and together they have thirteen mokopuna – so we are influencing a big target group.
The process
“Each of the mothers took part in an interview which generally lasted for about 2 hours. The tapes were transcribed and our team highlighted what they thought were the statements that stood out. They were transcribed onto post-it notes and referenced. Then we got the mothers to look at the transcripts (we read it to them if necessary) and they selected what stood out for them. We put these onto post-its and added them to the overall collage.
“Then Annalise and our team analysed the data. We came up with nine themes.
“We found that all the mothers had suffered huge amounts of abuse, neglect and trauma. They had been brought up in whānau where there had been non-accidental deaths, violence, suicides, sexual abuse, and serious mental illnesses. In spite of this we found these women had tremendous resilience – the ability to just get on with it and keep going. They had buried the trauma, just under surface, but they were aware of how much the trauma is influencing their parenting.
“But because no one had helped them deal with their trauma, to grapple with it and learn from their experiences, they were not able to provide the parenting needed to change things for their whānau. They had aspirations for their children, they didn’t want their children to suffer in the same way, but they had no way of moving forward.
“They were heart-wrenching interviews – powerful mind-blowing stories and when we asked them if they thought their story would be much different from their neighbours, they all said, no. They would be the same.
“One of the issues was about how the whānau interacted with systems. Parents who had looked for support for their children found that all they were given was a diagnostic label. Oh, he’s ADHD! They were not provided with any real assistance with the behaviour.
“Isolation was another theme. They did not have supportive relationships with other adults or the wider community so they found parenting challenging.
“Many had experienced being raised by another sibling, often quite a young sibling, and as a whānau had resorted to supermarket dumpster scavenging to survive.
“Grief, loss and trauma were unbelievably present and the systems had failed to really understand where they were coming from and did not work with them to assist them. The parents found that systems acted on them, not with them.
“So out of those themes we developed our game changer statements. For example systems that worked in a mana enhancing way – based around rights and entitlements; or ways of promoting friendships though Te Aroha Noa.
“Then we held another hui and asked the parents and others from the community to read all the statements and game-changer ideas. People shared their stories, often with tears. It was very powerful and emotional. There was the camaraderie of being with others in the same position, and a lot of laughter too. But as they spoke out to others they realised the true impact of their grief and pain.
“For us the next part of the process has been to take the findings to wider audiences: our Trust Board; Oranga Tamariki; and we plan to do the same with the Child Health team at our DHB. We have written up their comments.
“What’s changed for the marginalised young people? Well they are finding that their whānau is more engaged and are talking more about things. There is increasing connection between parents and children. On the downside there has been a bit of a reaction by rangatahi to whānau moving into what was ‘their space’ – but we will manage that.
Next steps
“The next step is to employ a facilitator to work with these whānau and other parents and develop initiatives with them. Some could be educational, or they might be social activities, or therapeutic programmes. The important thing is that it doesn’t matter how small the activity is, if they want it, it will be done.
“We have found this co-design process has really influenced the total Te Aroha Noa strategy. We are now developing a health centre. We are working with a medical practice on that and it’s based on the community’s view of what an effective health centre would look like.
“MSD’s Organa Tamariki has funded our SKIP programme with a facilitator to help co-design that programme, and we will be applying the principle to other areas.
“So what we have learned from working with marginalised young people is helping us access other funding to work on other parts of our programme.
“Some of our teen parents have indicated a real interest in joining in. We will probably have them as a sub group.
“The true impacts of what we are hoping for should be seen in the future. Our hope is that as we work with the parents we have got and start initiatives, these initiatives will engage other whānau. It’s
going to be a long process.”
Next year ACE Aotearoa will have an article about how the process is unfolding.
What the whānau say
Marama Tupuala
My daughter got pregnant when she was 16, far too early for her. She went into the Te Aroha Noa teen parent programme. What I wanted was for her to have a good life. One I couldn’t have. My mother had a stroke when she was 25 and she had 4 kids so me and my younger brother (we were 8 and 9) brought the others up. We used to go down and wait for the bread to be put out, so you could get some food… I tried very hard to get my daughter on the right path. I have a son who is 9 years old. I now want to be there for every part of my son’s life: education, going to school meetings (my parents did not come), taking him to sports, getting
involved in his sports team, going to church together, going for walks together: family things so he is not left to outside influences that change him. Before I got involved with Te Aroha Noa I was stuck in my four walls, I stayed at home. Now I take an active part in everything Te Aroha Noa does.
Cathy Lonsdale
My son didn’t do well at school. There was an incident and he got all the blame for it and he was asked to leave intermediate. He went on to high school but he didn’t fit in and refused to go. I tried everything to get him going. I was seeing the truancy officer every day and he mentioned the school at Te Aroha Noa [He Ngakau Rangatahi programme] so we went there for an interview. He has now settled down. They talked me through things from his point of view. He turns 16 in August and he now has a focus on what he wants to do. He is going to UCOL to do IT programming.
Being part of the interviews was really good. They asked about my schooling and I got to put my views. It was good to talk with others about that sort of thing and all the trials and tribulations we have been through… About how we would like things to be different for our kids.