Frost on the boardwalk, snow on mountains, fog in the valley, early morning sunshine... stunning morning.
Our residential services in Otaki and Roxburgh have now shut down operations. Our community social workers are still working from these locations and will continue to help and engage with our families in need, but the rooms and corridors that have echoed with the sounds of children's laughter for decades are now silent.
Final farewell to Roxburgh children's residential village
The Christchurch children's village has a fantastic internal gym space but was missing a crucial ingredient - basketball hoops! Thanks to those wonderful people at the Glenelg Trust we received funding to install some.
The funding also enabled us to procure a height adjustable system which means the little ones have a fair shot too.
The kids are having a ball!
With help from Stand Youth Worker in Seconday Schools services, funding and advocacy, students at Dargaville High School are now wearing Tupenu / Sulu va tonga/ Le Faitaga as part of their school uniform for both informal and formal use.
The school had included this as their part of new uniform going into 2018, but had yet to source the required garments.
YWiSS services enabled students to find a supplier, get the required garments approved, order them, and start wearing them to school. This created a diverse uniform option that has become popular for both Polynesian and non Polynesian students.
Way to go Karla!
The Otago Daily Times has run an article that provides some Q+A around the village closures.
Reporter Pam Jones takes some of the questions from the Southern mayors and poses them to CEO Dr. Fiona Inkpen.
TVNZ had an article last night on the closures and the mother of a child attending the village was able to have a say.
For the full statement and press release, please read here
Source: Otago Daily Times
Some of the kids from our Northern village enjoying a warmer day at the beach
Some good news in, staff at our Welfare agencies being given the backing from the top to help, not hinder, people coming to them for assistance.
Govt officials told to try a little kindness
"I've done a lot of stories in my life time and I think this is the key" - Oprah
Oprah is doing a special on Childhood Trauma with CBS. Linked is an excerpt and interview about the show. Looks to be good watching and, with her influence, will certainly help spread the message of the long lasting impact of childhood Trauma.
Unfortunately geo-blocking seems to prevent access to the full video.
Circumstances are forcing us to look at closing the residential villages in Otaki and Roxburgh. We'll keep our website up to date on this so please go to THIS PAGE for more information.
The Otago Daily Times has also published an article on this matter
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/roxburgh-childrens-camp-may-be-closed
Thanks to our friends at Mitre10 Beckenham for the huge discount on these fabulous new work benches at the Christchurch village. The results speak for themselves as the kids work together to build amazing things!.
Cuteness turned up at East Coast today to give the children two massive baskets of eggs!
Congratulations to the latest Theraplay trainees. Some came by plane others by car one even came from afar (Australia). All the best and have fun!!
-Regards from Practice leader Dr. Petira Thorensen
We've updated our website! The new site should be a lot more mobile friendly and gives us more ability add and remove sections of the site as needed.