This programme was created to provide our emergency housing community with support through a multi-agency approach to give the tamariki a space to be able to engage in positive activities through building connections with others, allow them to be active in a safe space, get to engage in new opportunities and allow them to grow into their own person. The agencies collaborating on the delivery of this activities programme are Youthtown, Hamilton Police Prevention team, Whitiora School, and MSD. The programme runs 4 days a week during the 10-week school term where the tamariki attend afterschool for 2 hours.
Hamilton Police identified the need through their work and what they see when they are attending jobs out within the motels within Hamilton and saw several tamariki not engaging in education and/or positive activities. From this identification they connected with several agencies who had an interest in collaborating to provide afterschool activities to the tamariki who are living in emergency housing. We identified that Whitiora school would be “The Hub” for all activities / programme as it is situated in a location which is accessible for the majority of whanau in emergency housing and a majority of the tamariki attend this school. Youthtown lead the delivery of the programme across the term and provide kai, engaging activities for indoor activities, sports activities for the outdoors and organise providers to come in to deliver their activities such as karate, basketball, touch rugby. Hamilton Police have assisted with consent forms, attempting to have a couple of police officers in attendance on the programme afternoons, and liaise with agencies to be involved with the programme. Ministry of Social Development have provided access to funding to enable this programme to go ahead with no cost to the whanau for their tamariki to attend the programme. By making the programme accessible through the school location and funding we have been able to provide a free accessible programme to the tamariki and their whanau where their tamariki are safe and connections are able to be built with external providers and local police officers.
This programme has been running at Whitiora School across the last 12 months with up to 40 tamariki being able to access the programme across the 4 days it runs per week. New registrations have always come across the terms with our larger days being Wednesday and Thursday afternoons having 3 Youthtown staff running activities for the tamariki. New activities have been contacted to come and run activities such as making poi over Te Reo Maori week, have sports activations such as Waikato rugby, Northern Districts Cricket, WaiBOP football for summer terms so they outside weather can be involved, Youthtown staff having backyard games such as longball, basketball, and our team building games and activities. This year we have connected with Te Mapura for them to be able to offer tutoring to the tamariki so on some of the afternoons tamariki head to Te Mapura for tutoring in numeracy and literacy which was identified as a need for this group of tamariki as well so for 1 – 2 days a week they attend this tutoring and the other 2 – 3 days spent with Youthtown at Whitiora School. At the end of the term, we have afternoon celebration where parents/caregivers are invited, Te Mapura join, Hamilton police come and cook the BBQ and provide us some activations such as dress-up in police gear, pulling the police car and making mini police cars enabling everyone to come together to celebrate the programme and connect.
This programme started with connections being made with various organisations being contacted by the Hamilton Police Prevention Team to be involved in getting this programme off the ground for the tamariki and whanau in emergency housing. Utilising the strengths of each organisation we were able to come together to form a plan, programme, and partnership between each of the key organisations and work to bring in other organisations across the journey to provide opportunities to the tamariki and whanau on the programme. Every afternoon tamariki turn up to have kai, connect, engage with Youthtown activities to support them with learning life skills, working collaboratively skills, building resilience skills, and unlocking potential. Youthtown work to connect in with other organisations to come along and provide opportunities for the tamariki to connect with them and find out more about who they are, what they do and have a go at what they offer – karate with Cambridge Kyokushin Karate, police fingerprinting team, Kainoa Lepou running basketball sessions, cupcake decorating with our own staff member Laura, Oral Health teaching them around brushing their teeth and toothbrushes, St John’s running first aid with our tamariki, Hamilton Police team running an afternoon of activities.
Originally we started out with around 20 tamariki registered on the programme and this has grown over the last year to where we have 40 tamariki registered and up to 30 attending programme during the weeks across the term. The tamariki on the programme enjoy attending the programme and provide us with different ideas around what they enjoy, what they would like added to the programme and enjoy when the Police come for a visit so they can play with the handcuffs and try on their vests. Parents are always very appreciative of the programme and to have their tamariki getting awesome opportunities to learn, discover and enjoy.
