Many offenders need to deal with anger issues and one Mangere-based organisation has been providing this type of support and education to men in the Auckland region for more than 25 years.
Te Roopu o Te Whanau Rangimarie (TWR) provides a number of programmes for the community and one programme it has offered since the beginning is the anger management programme for men. The aim is to provide education and preventative programmes enabling tane to make positive and constructive changes in their lives.
Te Whanau Rangimarie Manager Mihi Kameta has seen a number of men through the course. She sees first hand what a difference talking about the problem can make. “The hardest part for the men is learning to accept that they have a problem. Once they have overcome the denial, the changes can really happen.”
Programmes are held once a week for 10 weeks. Each session enables tane to share personal problems, difficulties and concerns and how to address these issues. A cross-section of men participate in the programme, showing how widespread the problem of domestic violence really is, says Mihi.
TWR contract a Court Approved Facilitator to run the programme. Every participant must be assessed before entering. Some are not suited to the group programme and instead receive one-on-one 
time with a counsellor, who takes them through the course individually.
In conjunction with the Community Probation Service, TWR also offers a wahine programme that addresses the issues of domestic violence from both a victim’s point of view and an offender. Increasing numbers of wahine are now participating in the programme.
CPS Service Manager Libby Wilson works with TWR and Probation Officers to approve referrals to the anger management programme and she provides support where needed. "We haven an excellen relationship with the domestic violence programme provider in the Mangere area. They are a pleasure to work with and are really in it for all the right reasons, " says Libby.
TWR Trust member Hine Rauwhero says the kaupapa of TWR from its beginings in 1981, was never to turn away whose who required counselling, regardless of wealth or wellbeing, and she says that "Whakaaro" (thought) is still applied today.
"Our kaupapa is to help anyone who asks for our help no matter the age, gender or nationality, " says Hine.
This philosophy lives on today thanks to those who established TWR. Those people, including Chic Cooper, who passed away two years age, and Mihi Kameta and her staff must be acknowledged for all the hard work put into Te Whanau Rangimarie."