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Waikato Tainui’s Mokopuna Ora partnership with the Ministry for Vulnerable Children/ Oranga Tamariki is expanding into Auckland.
Rahui Papa, the chair of Waikato-Tainui’s Te Arataura executive, says 60 percent of children in state care are Maori.
He says working with the ministry and its predecessor Child Youth and Family in Hamilton, Waikato Tainui has managed to find whanau placements for more than a third of 173 mokopuna taken into care.
The new service will be based at Papakura, which has the highest number of Waikato Tainui Mokopuna in care in South Auckland.
Mokopuna Ora will have two iwi advisors at the site.
Mokopuna Ora aims to improve outcomes for Waikato-Tainui mokopuna and whaanau through education and support, ensuring mokopuna remain in whaanau care, and ensuring mokopuna who are in the custody of Oranga Tamariki are placed back with their whaanau.
Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss says partnerships with others were critical to transforming children’s lives.
The ministry will take what it learns from the Mokopuna Ora Papakura 12-month trial and, with input from iwi, improve its services for tamariki in care.
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