Case story: Better Futures Hauraki

An Action Plan to uplift children and youth in Hauraki is just one thing that came out of the Better Futures Hauraki Forum.

As well as the action plan, released in September 2008, the Forum has led to valuable learning, new relationships and an agreement to focus on outcomes.

“Better Futures Hauraki isn't anything revolutionary and it is about the same sorts of things as networking meetings, but is sort of stronger because you put it on paper and because you have a meeting that flows from your goals”, says Jenny Dowthwaite, a FACS Regional Relationship Manager actively involved in the Better Futures Hauraki Forum.

John McIver, Hauraki District Council's Community Development Officer who facilitates the regular Forum, says the focus on reviewing progress is important.

“As well as the networking between people, we review the action plan itself every time we have a meeting and enhance or report back on what's been achieved,” John stresses.

This does not mean people are tied up in paper. Instead, an evolutionary approach to planning was taken using the strengths of those involved.

It's not easy to know whether any new initiatives or changes happened only because of Better Futures. There are definitely some concrete things that are singled out as achievements such as a youth festival, expanded Children's Day celebrations, input into the work programme of new children's advocate and commentary on local social policies.

What is perhaps most important is a commitment by people to work together.

“In terms of collaboration people are actually speaking about the realities for them and their organisations. Not just what's happening, what they're doing. But people are starting to talk across the table to each other. It could be about services they're providing and how they found it works. They're getting that sort of collaboration where they can help each other in certain areas,” John observes.

Working together was built in from the beginning. The Better Futures Hauraki Forum arose out of joint work on a community report being prepared as part of FACS' local services mapping.

At the same time this report was being prepared the Hauraki District Council was drawing up it's first long-term council community plan (LTCCP). Connections were made between the two activities. The creative and imaginative approach brought by the local family violence intervention network is credited with galvanising action.

Agreement on goals by social services, agencies and the Council gave impetus to a Forum as a regular way of talking about issues and tracking progress. The goals people united behind are:

• Children were safe and nurtured in their home environments.
• Young people were positively engaged in school, work and the community.

The progress made by the Forum prompted Hauraki's Mayor John Tregida to get involved. In addition to quarterly meetings of a service delivery cluster, the Mayor convenes a twice yearly meeting with senior regional government officials from the DHB, Ministry of Social Development and other agencies.

“The Forum showed a strong and well-integrated community who were prepared to work in partnership with government agencies and take some responsibility, “ Jenny notes. “The feeling was that if Hauraki does its bit, it pulls people together, so how about you guys in central government provide the resources we need.”

Who covers the cost of social service networking, and new initiatives, is a challenge sitting quietly in the background.

“The current council is really supportive of making sure our communities are healthy and safe, so they can justify it back to the community. But when times get tough perhaps something's got to give,” John says.

Other challenges that have come up in conducting the joint work of the Forum is staff turnover. 

“People change and there are new people. In some ways you don't make fabulous progress as you would if you had the same group of people and they were coming back to them. Every time you're reiterating the process a little bit,” says Jenny.

Getting people to sit around the table working across a whole spectrum is important. As well as those working with victims and perpetrators of violence, John says you need to involve those organisations who are dealing with successes, such as scouts and sporting teams. 

He's wary about adopting any approach to planning and policy-making foisted on a community. There is a big distance between the big cities where many ideas emanate and the reality of life in Hauraki.

“You've got to know your community, know what makes them tick. You can certainly grab a lot of stuff from how everybody else does it. But I find if you're working in your community, you're just about going to make it up as you go,” he says.  

People are still positive about the value of the Forum, four years down the track. Progress is being made to achieve the goals through many different people being involved.

“To get anywhere we needed lots of streams. Whole lots of people were doing whole lots of different things. Part of it was drawing together those streams to get to the destination of safer children,” Jenny .

Lessons to share

• Involve a cross-section of organisations and people, not just those that are dealing with offenders and victims.
• Embrace the creativity and spirit that people bring... letting loose imagination can achieve a lot.
• It's not necessary to start from scratch but instead build on things people know and are comfortable with. This includes enhancing well-established processes, such as network meetings.