Tamaiti Whangai Online: About Us

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"Our Children, Our Families"

About Tamaiti Whangai

1. Purpose

Tamaiti Whangai is a programme designed to mobilise families. It encourages them to create positive outcomes for their future development and helps them take full advantage of all the resources available. The Tamaiti Whangai project recognises that whanau are the most important and sustainable resource that make up communities.

2. Target Community

Tamaiti are the target group. In this sense the word Tamaiti expresses a Maori world view of the position of the individual that goes beyond the common translation of tamaiti as child. In this sense we are all tamaiti, in that our place in the world is defined by our relationship to environmental, cultural and spiritual realities that we cannot transcend. This includes the relationship of the individual to the community. Tamaiti in this context brings a sense of inclusiveness and equity and essentially means everyone.

3. Whanau Advocacy

The ‘people-to-agencies’ link is provided via a team of Tamaiti Whangai advocates who assist whanau in areas such as education, health, housing, employment, skills improvement, family relationships etc. Many of these factors are linked and mutually reinforcing which often can lead to extreme consequences, especially when people don't get a fair deal in their lives (perhaps because of disadvantages they face at birth which can be transmitted from one generation to the next).

There are five operational principles that guide Tamaiti Whangai.

1. Identify appropriate individuals and families as early as possible.

       Develop and promote better prediction tools, and seek to ensure people and families are assisted to the best of our ability.

2.   Systematically identify ‘what works’.

       Bring together best practice under the Tamaiti Whangai banner and highlight programmes that show strong evidence of positive

       results.

3.   Promote multi–agency networking.

       Explore how to extend the sharing of information between agencies.

4. Respect our client’s rights and promote their responsibilities.

       Pilot and explore the best means of providing tailored programmes of support built around strong and persistent relationships with

       those people and whanau under our care.

5.   Rigorously manage under-performance.

       Work with all sectors and agencies to ensure that services offered by the Tamaiti Whangai team adequately address the needs of its

       clients.

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