Staff profile

Storm
Senior Community Work Supervisor

Storm's diverse work experience has set her up well for a career as a senior community work supervisor.

The 56-year-old grandmother has been an industrial machinist and a caregiver for intellectually-challenged adults. When she started with Corrections 13 years ago, she worked part-time supervising offender work parties and part-time as an IHC caregiver.

Her skills proved useful in both roles. “You have to know how to read people and communicate with people who are not willing or able to communicate themselves.”

When the opportunity came to work full-time with the CPPS, things just fell into place.

Storm is of Tainui descent and her hapu is Ngati Maahanga. She says her cultural connections have helped her establish good working relationships with local marae and iwi.

She works with about 10 part-time and full-time Community Work Supervisors. “You have to be very organised. On a daily basis I’m mentoring staff and dealing with offenders at roll call, and organising their comings and goings.”

One of the best parts of her job is taking calls from agencies that use community work who are rapt with the job offenders have done. Sometimes she’ll team up with a supervisor serving summons on offenders who don’t turn up.

The job’s also given Storm a chance to work as a probation officer. “I absolutely love my job. We have a strong whānau-style work environment, very supportive, very professional. You need a strong sense of what’s right and wrong, you need to be fair but firm.”

Storm chairs the Hamilton Māori Staff Network and enjoys supporting other Māori staff and finding ways to enhance the Department’s responsiveness to Māori.