Our paeārahi are based in Rotorua, Minginui, Murupara, Mangakino and Maketu. Each paeārahi carries a caseload of whānau who are striving to achieve their moemoea. Things that we may take for granted such as gaining a driver’s license, fixing the leaking roof, or enrolling onto and completing courses at learning institutions.

Te Arawa Whānau Ora have paeārahi who’ve worked for the organisation for almost six years to our newest paeārahi who joined two weeks ago. So, these forums are an opportunity for us to awhi each other and strive to all be working at the same level.

Lead paeārahi, Hinehou Stoneham, has been through the evaluation forms from today’s forum and says the paeārahi have provided great feedback.

“Today’s forum was productive. There were some raw issues we needed to talk about today. This kōrero challenged us, but often you need to have difficult discussions with whānau and the same occurs within our professional group.

“We came up with some great ideas, including utilising the skills within our rohe for ongoing training. These new learnings will filter down to the whānau we work with. We often forget about the wonderful things that go on in the background of our mahi, even though there’s some amazing stories happening. We need to be more mindful of those success stories and celebrate our contribution to fantastic whānau achievements.”

Hinehou says the national Whānau Ora conference is coming up next year with over 500 attendees, and she’s encouraging our paeārahi to attend.

“It’s beneficial for all paeārahi to attend because they’re all working in the same role. It’s a great opportunity to network, hear their stories, challenges and ideas, and how they’ve overcome any issues.”