We cannot achieve the outcomes on our own. We will develop strong relationships with a diverse range of partners by strengthening existing relationships and building new ones.
Good partnerships will be seen in our work both directly with Māori offenders, and also with the offenders’ whānau, and the communities where Māori offenders live or will return to.
We will work collaboratively with other Government agencies, specialist and community-based Māori service providers, and local Māori communities and groups.
We will also work creatively with employers and training providers to give Māori offenders the best opportunities for rehabilitation.
Strong partnerships and a collaborative working style will:
Progress to date
Partnership and collaboration has strengthened across the justice sector. Joint solutions are being implemented to tackle persistent justice sector issues.
Effective Interventions is a justice sector approach to reduce Māori offending and re-offending, and therefore increase public safety and reduce the growth in the prison population.
A promising opportunity is the Priority Offenders initiative led by the Ministry of Justice and NZ Police where all agencies work together with high-risk Māori offenders and their whānau in their own communities to reduce re-offending.
The Department is focused on improving its relationships with the health sector. These partnerships are particularly important given the special health needs of Māori offenders and the links that issues such as mental health and drug and alcohol abuse have to Māori offending behaviours.
Every day we work with partners in the community. Significant relationships with hapū, iwi and specialist Māori service providers have been established in many regions, along with increasing recognition of the value of our long standing relationships with volunteer groups.
Many Māori community groups also benefit from the community work that offenders do.
Looking forward
Good partnerships will be seen in our work both directly with offenders, and also with offenders’ whānau and communities.
We will work collaboratively with whānau, hapū, iwi, Māori community providers, Māori volunteers and other government and community based agencies to help us succeed for Māori offenders.
To be effective in our Māori partnerships, it is important that we continue to strengthen their capabilities to enable them to better support us in the work we do.
Providing our partners with opportunities to learn more about the way we do things as well as learning from others is key to continually improve our work with Māori offenders.
An example of this is the Community Probation & Psychological Service annual and regionally based Tikanga Māori Programme Provider hui.
It is also important that our staff are aware of ‘who does what’ within the communities of Māori offenders and who is the Departmental contact.
This is particularly important where staff from different groups and services are working with the same hapū, iwi and other Māori community groups.
The recently structured Māori Services Team within the Rehabilitation Group will appropriately target our efforts towards engaging with whānau, hapū, iwi and other Māori community groups to enhance the rehabilitation and reintegration of Māori offenders.
What progress will look like
We will know we are successful when we see:
“Because Māori communities want to help and are ready to help – we as an agency need to be able to partner them into the process by guiding as well as working alongside them.” - Community Probation & Psychological Services staff member