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The September 2008 Small Grants Fund call for applications attracted some highly competitive applications from across New Zealand. Save the Children commends those organisations that took time to submit an application and congratulates the five successful projects.

The following organisations are receiving funding from Save the Children New Zealand's Small Grants Fund September 2008:

1. Nga Wahine Tamariki Punanga O Whakatu, Nelson Women’s and Children’s Refuge

2. Cholmondeley Children’s Home

3. Te Puna Oranga

4. Helping Families Ltd

5. Waihi Community Resource Centre

 

1. Nga Wahine Tamariki Punanga O Whakatu, Nelson Women’s and Children’s Refuge -  $9,000
Project:  Rangatahi Programme

 

This programme works with young people affected by domestic violence in order to support them to deal with their feelings (such as anger) in a manner that does not hurt themselves or others.

It will engage ten young people and their family/whanau, as well as their peers and teachers. The service will be delivered in a culturally appropriate way, and involve primary caregivers so that there is a transfer of learning into the home environment. The project will help the young person to strengthen their self-esteem and develop safety plans and support networks, and help prevent the young person from continuing the cycle of family violence. It will also give young people the opportunity to discuss experiences and build relationships with other young people.

The programme runs over six weeks, after school for two hours, with a maximum of six participants in each programme. It is split into two age groups, 12-14 year olds and 15-16 year olds.  The programme will include pre- and post-questionnaires to assess the level of understanding around domestic violence issues, an evaluation of the programme and also follow up meetings with the young people and their whanau. The programme will run from 13 January until 23 March, 2009.

The organisation has already run a similar programme for younger children, and further such programmes will be run based on the success of this pilot, to address the fact that such a programme is not being run for this age group by any organisation in the area.
Save the Children is supporting this project because it is consistent with promoting the following children’s rights:
All children and young people have the right to live in a safe environment, free from violence
No child or young person is responsible for the violence they experience
Violent behaviour is learned behaviour and planned intervention is necessary to break the cycle of violence from being passed on from one generation to the next

 

2. Cholmondeley Children’s Home - $9000
Project: The Supported Foster Care Programme – What Is Best Practice?

 

This project seeks to research what is required by foster carers to maintain a foster placement for children with very high needs, particularly in the area of severe behaviour.

This will help to support foster children to not ‘bounce’ from placement to placement. This research will be focused on Cholmondeley Children’s Home in Christchurch, which provides care for foster-children who do not currently have a placement. However, the findings of the research will be able to be used by foster carer support organisations, and similar NGOs around the country. Some similar research has been conducted overseas, but none in a New Zealand context.

The research aims to identify best practice in supporting foster carers for children with sever and challenging behaviour. This will enable Chomondeley Children’s Home (and similar organisations) to produce comprehensive support packages for foster carers and children in order that children can maintain a long-term placement in a caring family. This research address the very pertinent issues in New Zealand, this being that too many children are ‘bouncing’ from one foster home to the next, seriously affecting their long-term life outcomes. This will be done by the researchers talking to children, foster carer as well as professionals involved in the process.
 

3. Te Puna Oranga - $4000
Project: Rangatahi Mentoring and Education Abuse Prevention

 

Te Puna Oranga is a kaupapa Maori service that works towards whanau wellbeing, including helping whanau to exercise authority to make the right decisions for their wellbeing. This funding will allow six young people involved in the organisation to attend the national Jigsaw conference in 2009. 

Attending this conference will help the six young women to train and develop as mentors as part of the Te Puna Oranga programme in which young women mentor other young women around abuse awareness, safety, boundaries, self-esteem and relationships. This mentoring programme functions as an early intervention and protection in reducing all forms of violence and abuse towards children. By attending the conference the young women will also develop their leadership skills.

4. Helping Families Ltd. - $996
Project: Tuakana Teina

 

This project will train young people involved with Helping Families Ltd.’s youth leadership (Tuakana) group in Tologa Bay.

The group organises events for children aged up to 12 in the area, and by participating in it the young leaders gain the opportunity and skills to become active participants within their own whanau and community. This project also encourages responsibility and accountability among young people and children in the community. Developing this relationship is particularly important in the Maori community in which this project will be carried out.

This project will also promote children’s rights to be listened to and taken seriously, and to play and relax. The young leaders will then be able to share their learning and experiences with other young people.
 

5. Waihi Community Resource Centre - $1555
Project: Children’s Day

 

This project will work to use meaningful participation of young people and children in the Waihi area to plan Waihi’s 2009 Children’s Day celebrations, following on from a very successful 2008 Children’s Day that promoted healthy eating, active lifestyles, positive parenting and family fun.

20 children, representing 8 schools in the region, will be directly involved in the planning process. These children will be encourage to develop their creative thinking, responsiveness to community, budgeting, assertiveness and communication skills.  The overall goal of the project is to create positive opportunities for children and young people to contribute to the Waihi community. The forum model used for this participation will be used as a template for further consultation with children and young people.  A debrief will follow the project, where the following will be discussed: what worked; what needed improvement; what could be done differently. This feedback and recommendations will be used to adapt the template for future use.