July 05, 2021
Whanau Ora ready to help Oranga Tamariki
Whānau Ora is ready to step in and help Oranga Tamariki with the tamariki and rangatahi displaced by the closure of the Christchurch care and protection residence.
Helen Leahy from the South Island commissioning agency Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu says working to ensure children can be raised within a loving family context is core to what whānau ora is about.
She says young people in the residences have highly complex needs.
Section 7A of the Oranga Tamariki Act makes in mandatory that whakapapa, whanaungatanaga and mana tamaiti are fundamental to their care and protection.
"That's where whānau ora comes in because we know how to provide that support, to extend networks of love and capability out across the extended whānau, to be able to link into the appropriate genealogical framework, the whakapapa that will help to provide that young person with that sense of belonging and identity that is so foundational to connection," Ms Leahy says.
She says if Whānau Ora was invited in, it would be happy to put navigators or other support into the new community homes.
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