Media Release

10 October 2014

For immediate release

Returning home to support our youth

For Terri and William, coming home to Whangarei was always going to happen, it was just a matter of when.

Excited about the move, the couple started their new roles as Teaching Parents on October 1st in a ‘live in’ group home. The new home, set up by Te Pae Aronga Taitamariki, will be run as a whānau teaching environment with up to five young people resident aged between 13 and 17. While in the home, the young people will learn life skills in a therapeutic environment along with attending school, sports and other activities.

After working in Auckland and raising a family, the now grandparents are excited to be living back in Te Tai Tokerau and working with young people.

“We’re really excited about being back. The programme we will be delivering is really fantastic, and the support we have already received from the organisation has been great.”

Terri was raised with her eight siblings by her mother and stepfather in Whangarei. Her whānau would often take in young people who could not live at home for various reasons. From a young age, Terri knew she wanted to carry on this work at some point in the future.

The journey towards returning ‘back home’ began when Terri saw an advertisement for Teaching Parents with Te Pae Aronga Taitamariki. “It was like everything was falling into place. We knew that this was what we were meant to do.”

Te Pae Aronga Taitamariki is a joint venture between Otāngarei Trust, Ngāpuhi Iwi Social Services and Youth Horizons. Set up in late 2012, the joint venture was formed with a strong commitment to support at-risk young people in Northland.

“It’s great to have such a strong, nurturing couple on board. We need more like them to help care for our rangatahi.” Michelle Thomas, Te Pae Aronga Taitamariki Residential Manager comments.

The focus of Te Pae Aronga Taitamariki is to support children and young people in Te Tai Tokerau by providing clinically and culturally appropriate therapeutic services. These include foster care, early intervention services and a new family group home. The joint venture also holds the Ministry of Social Development contract for the Kaikohe Social Sector Trials.

About Youth Horizons

Youth Horizons is a non-profit organisation, which works with young people who are at risk of poor life outcomes due to complex behavioural and/or mental health needs, including conduct disorder and antisocial behaviours.

With a history of nearly 20 years practice, Youth Horizons now provides a range of interventions, including residential and foster care treatment, family preservation and reintegration, primary mental health intervention and independence transitioning services. These are all underpinned by the philosophy that young people should be empowered to fully participate in family/whānau, community and other productive pro-social activities. We use therapeutic and evidence-based models of care and we are continuously working towards best practice.

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