Last year Community Probation & Psychological Services (CPPS) created the Kaiwhakahaere role to help probation officers establish effective relationships with Māori offenders and their whānau.
The idea is that building stronger relationships will enhance communication and understanding, ensuring better sentence compliance and enabling probation officers to work in a more culturally-sensitive way.
The role has been trialled in CPPS areas across the country with a probation officer taking on the duties of the Kaiwhakahaere role either full or part-time during the pilot phase.
As well as dealing with offenders on a range of community-based sentences, the role also involves working closely with other government departments, educational and health providers and Māori community agencies to establish better community support networks for the offender.
Probation officer Natalia Taurima, who has been in the role part-time for two months, is the Kaiwhakahaere for the Waitemata area and says she has already witnessed positive results.
“All my mahi is aimed at working with Māori at a whānau level, creating a positive supportive environment for the offender so that they can turn their lives around and reduce the likelihood of them reoffending,” says Natalia.
One offender she works with is positively trying to re-establish his whānau connections which have been severed due to his earlier offending.
As a result his children have suffered, which has sadly led one of his sons to follow in his father’s offending footsteps.
Natalia has helped to successfully secure the offender’s son a position at a boarding school by enabling the family to source an educational scholarship. She worked in conjunction with the child’s Child Youth and Family Service (CYFS) youth worker and counsellor to steer the boy in the right direction.
“Whilst dealing with the offender is CPPS’ immediate concern, it’s also about rehabilitation and giving them an ordered family environment which will better support and sustain them once we’re out of the picture,” says Natalia.
Terry Snijder, the Kaiwhakahaere for the Wellington area, has also experienced positive change in offenders he has worked with.
He has recently convinced an offender, who was very resistant to any form of rehabilitation, to attend a tikanga Māori programme on his release from prison.
“At first he didn’t want to have anything to do with it, but I persevered and built up a relationship with him so he was comfortable to ask me questions about the programmes available,” says Terry.
“Once he understood exactly what was involved he agreed, and is now keen to participate in other programmes to address his offending.”
Offenders have to be ready and willing to accept help from Kaiwhakahaere. It’s a team effort between them and the probation officers who make the referrals.
Natalia says one of the major barriers Kaiwhakahaere encounter in their day-to-day dealings is that many Māori offenders don’t know much about their cultural heritage.
“A lot of offenders are whakama (shy) about admitting that they don’t know much about their Māori heritage. Once they get over this hurdle though there is so much we can do together,” says Natalia.
Following the pilot, a review will be carried out to ascertain the future shape, direction and long term viability of the role within CPPS.
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