Waipareira wins major research grant

Waipareira wins major research grant

Wai-Research has been awarded a grant that will allow the research arm of Waipareira to drill into the west Auckland community and find out what really works for whanau.

Funding from the Health Research Council (HRC) was a major step forward for Waipareira, Wai-Research Director Dr Tanya Allport said.

“The idea of being able to produce our own research --research done by ourselves, for ourselves; research that is of releveance to this community - is fantastic,” Dr Allport said.

“Receiving this grant is wonderful as it finally puts Te Whanau O Waipareira in a position where we can work with our community to determine what our research priorities are, and secondly to capture the narratives of whanau going back five generations, to find out what were the things in their journey that have made a difference to their lives, and to the flourishing of their whanau. “

Wai-Research was established last year and since its launch 13 months ago has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Iwi-based research team Whakauae Research.

Dr Allport said the HRC funding is for the “Catalysts of Health” project.

“The project is to look backwards to tell us all the good stuff and things that have made a positive impact on whanau,” Dr Allport said.

“We already know the statistics of what isn’t working, so by finding out what make whanau healthy and well in our rohe we will be able to firstly apply it to our own services, and secondly advocate for changes to take place in other areas, other providers, other rohe, where our learings will aim to contirbute to what we know about the effects of urbanisation on Māori, and the resilience of Māori in the city.”

For more information about Wai-Research go to www.waipareira.com

ENDS

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