Doors open to New Zealands first childrens village

Te Puna Whaiora Children’s Health Camps officially opens its ground-breaking children’s village in Gisborne today.

The new children’s village, Te Kainga Whaiora, is the first facility of its kind in New Zealand that provides inclusive community living for children and their families within the health camp environment. Children will live in independent houses where they can cook for themselves, do their own laundry, invite in friends and family, eat communally and be a whanau.

The children’s village will be formally opened today by United Party Leader Hon Peter Dunne and Chief Families Commissioner Dr Jan Pryor.

Te Puna Whaiora Chief Executive Dr Fiona Inkpen says the children’s village demonstrates Te Puna Whaiora’s ground breaking, research-led approaches in child and family centred care.

``The village concept provides a home-like environment that offers exciting opportunities for children and families. Children can develop routines and participate in a way that can be translated into their home after the camp,’’ Dr Inkpen says.

``We want the children to arrive and feel like they belong, to have the chance to live in a peaceful and safe environment. We expect that with care and support, they will make new friendships and connections, learn new skills and competencies, master new ideas and attitudes, try new experiences and rise to new challenges.’’

The Children’s Village consists of four homes – three act as independent ``family homes’’ and the fourth is an administration unit. At the heart of its newly designed Children’s Village is a resource centre that allows children and their families to commune in formal and informal settings and also to experience ``marae-style’’ living.

The children’s village represents another step in Te Puna Whaiora’s quest to provide the structures, tools, and sense of family and community that inspire children and families to attain the knowledge and skills they need to survive and thrive.
``It emphasises a continued philosophical shift from deficits to strengths, from low expectations to high expectations, from control to collaboration, from an expert model to a partnership model, from gate-keeping to sharing, and from dependence to empowerment,’’ Dr Inkpen says.

``This approach provides an intensive experience that grows children’s development and well-being, strengthens family decision making and parenting, fosters child and family independence, respects children’s and family choices, and builds on existing child and family functioning.’’

 

Background information for media: Te Puna Whaiora Children’s Village

Te Puna Whaiora Children’s Health Camps officially opens its new health camp in Gisborne on March 18, 2009.

Breaking from tradition, the new Te Kainga Whaiora Children’s Village is the first facility of its kind in New Zealand that provides inclusive community living for children and their families within the health camp environment.

A new concept

Te Puna Whaiora has operated a health camp on the Te Kainga Whaiora site since 1941. In that time, more than 18,000 vulnerable children and families in the Gisborne region have used its services.

The type of services provided and approach taken has also changed over the past 68 years. The modern day Children’s Health Camps have a culture of care that is firmly child-centred, family-driven and solution-focused. Staff work alongside children and their families to support long-lasting development and wellbeing, family decision making, positive parenting and to foster independence.

Te Puna Whaiora has come to learn that physical spaces and technology need to support the positive human relationships that matter most to growth, development and learning and that the power of all three is cumulative. Real effectiveness occurs when these systems are artfully integrated into a seamless whole in which each system reinforces the others.

Meeting the needs of the whole child also requires a multidisciplinary commitment from social workers and teachers to work together to create an environment that enables children to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged while meeting their universal needs to belong, develop mastery, be independent and generous.

The village environment and approach will foster learning tailored to the needs and wants of individual children and families. Learning can occur anytime and anyplace, when and where the child and family desires. Learning will take place in a context of relevance, “just in time,” rather than “just in case.” And such learning will offer to children “just what I need” – that is, the opportunity to acquire relevant knowledge and skills through learning strategies that are personalised. In its experience, the best results are achieved when Te Puna Whaiora works alongside families in a familiar, home-like environment. This allows children and families to develop relevant skills and knowledge in a way that can be translated into the home environment at the conclusion of their stay.

Building the new Children’s Village

Te Puna Whaiora was aware that its Gisborne camp – originally built as army barracks with communal dormitory style sleeping arrangements – did not support this approach. It decided to build a completely new concept and designed facility: the Te Kainga Whaiora ``Children’s Village’’.

After reviewing alternative sites, Te Puna Whaiora decided to remain on the Rugby Park Domain site of the original health camp – maintaining the mauri (the spirit and the history) of the area.

The camp was closed in March 2008, at which time the buildings were demolished to make way for the new construction, carried out by Watts and Hughes Construction.

While the camp was closed, Te Kainga Whaiora continued to provide full services in the community, setting up a base in Kokiri House at Te Poho o Rawiri Marae in Gisborne. Some Te Puna Whaiora staff were based in Hawke’s Bay during the rebuild to cater for children in that catchment area.

A new home for children in Gisborne

The new Te Kainga Whaiora Children’s Village consists of four homes – three act as independent ``family homes’’ with four spacious bedrooms while the fourth home is an administration unit and reception.

Each house includes:

Four double bedrooms, to accommodate 7-8 children per house
Three bathrooms per house
Open plan living, dining, kitchen and family room
Study
Laundry
Indoor/outdoor flow
Large exterior, semi-private patio and/or veranda spaces
Links between the homes and administration unit village and the central whare, whilst still retaining an individual sense of enclosure and privacy

At the heart of the Children’s Village is a resource centre / whare that allows children and their families to commune in formal and informal settings and also to experience ``marae-style’’ living – whereby they can live and work in the centre.

The whare includes:

Commercial catering facilities
Separate dining area
Communal / sleeping space
Commercial laundry facilities
Air conditioning for environmental control
Exterior hard surface for Powhiri / formal welcome
Bathroom and toilet facilities
Storage
The evolution of health camps in New Zealand

Te Kainga Whaiora Children’s Village marks the next step in the continuing evolution of health camps in New Zealand. Since it began in 1919 (originally as “Sunshine Camps” aimed at staving off tuberculosis and malnutrition among children), Te Puna Whaiora Children’s Health Camps have helped more than 260,000 children and their families.

Te Puna Whaiora (now a charitable trust) has seven facilities around New Zealand and works with around 3000 vulnerable children and their families at any one time. While still referred to as health camps, they are now permanent facilities providing child and family services that range from community-based social services through to sophisticated residential care and schooling that offer a whole-child approach.

The service now caters for five to 14 year old children who have had long exposure to multiple risks and who lack the protection they need to ensure successful survival of such exposure. Many of the children referred to Te Puna Whaiora have been previously assessed or diagnosed as having long standing or chronic difficulties and exhibit multiple physical, social, mental and developmental challenges.

Te Puna Whaiora works alongside Child Youth and Family (part of the Ministry of Social Development), Group Special Education (part of the Ministry of Education), Resource Teachers Leaning and Behaviour (who work within schools), Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, paediatricians, child psychiatrists and psychologists, Iwi (Maori tribal) social services, doctors (GPs), school principals and other social agencies working with children and families.