MEDIA RELEASE

21 September 2015

Snapshot of Pacific Whānau Ora progress published

Pasifika Futures today released a progress snapshot of the Pacific Whānau Ora programme and its commissioning activities following a year on since the commissioning agency was established.

The report highlights providers, trusts, community groups, churches, organisation and individuals funded under the Pasifika Whānau Ora programme for various projects and developments devoted to working with Pasifika families within their areas of focus.

$16.5m of Core Commissioning Funding will be used by the eleven already existing providers to deliver Whānau Ora services to 2,940 Pacific families throughout New Zealand.

$4.9m of the Innovation Fund will support seven innovative and exciting programmes and assist 469 families over the next two years in areas such as education, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, access to support services, employment, cultural capital and capacity.

$206,000 of the Small Grant Fund will fund twelve organisations to support community healthcare, educational tools, churches and individual development projects.

Pasifika Futures Ltd chief executive Debbie Sorensen says the first year of operation has formulated commissioning contracts with organisations from Kaitaia to Invercargill supporting in excess of 3,726 families.

“The new commissioning model reflects a strong commitment to the four domains identified by the 1,800 families we consulted with in areas such as health, housing, education, training and economic development.”

“We are interested in finding out what has been achieved by working with families in the best way we can to deliver the best quality support to really articulate what works and what doesn’t.”

“One example that we can articulate Pacific Whānau Ora outcomes in a short period of time is 29 percent of families identified that they wanted to prioritise debt reduction and they have reduced their debt loading by 5 percent or more.”

“85 percent of families have set up a bank account and 77 percent have health plans.”

The report shows a high number of students have been accepted into trades training and successful in gaining apprenticeships, with a high number of families engaged in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math activities.

“The next couple of years will be hard work. There’s no secret about it and we are particularly interested to see what more can we do for Pasifika families,” says Sorensen. 2

ENDS.

Snapshot Progress 2015 on our website http://pasifikafutures.co.nz/publications/

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