Skylight Trust’s Heather Henare honoured as a hero
Skylight Trust’s Chief Executive Heather Henare honoured as a hero
Chief Executive Heather Henare has been awarded a local hero medal at the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards for her work helping families and children through tough times.
Heather was awarded her local hero medal at a ceremony at the Beehive Monday night.
Heather Henare is acknowledged as someone who never
shies away from the hard stuff, like working to stop child
abuse and family violence and helping children and whanau
recover from trauma.
Many years ago she started working
to help stop child abuse by working with the community and
Child, Youth and Family before taking the helm of Women’s
Refuge for almost a decade.
Bringing all that knowledge
with her she became Skylight’s Chief Executive two years
ago.
The Skylight Trust supports children and whanau to navigate through tough times by building resilient individuals and communities. It offers counselling support, information, and guidance to help people through grief, loss and trauma.
Skylight supports over 16,000 New Zealanders each year.
Heather Henare says she is
humbled to be acknowledged alongside many other outstanding
New Zealanders who give their time and energy to make New
Zealand a better place.
She says, “Skylight is a small,
but important part of the not-for-profit support structure
that New Zealanders rely on when the going gets
tough.”
“For myself and I’m sure others
working in this sector, that this work wouldn’t be
possible without the support of all the wonderful people to
whom contribute every day to improving the lives of others.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work my passion all my
working life, for me that has been a real privilege. It’s
good to see recognition of the contribution our sector makes
to the wellbeing of New Zealanders.”
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