Listen
Throughout his childhood in state care, young Aucklander Tupua Urlich felt he had no voice.
From the age of five to 15 he was bumped around a fractured social welfare system, living in more than 10 foster homes.
Tupua Urlich Photo: supplied
Now, he is 20 and works in Auckland as a youth advocate with child support group the Dingwall Trust, helping to build a system that doesn't victimise children.
A review of the Ministry of Child, Youth and Family, led by government troubleshooter Paula Rebstock, is under way and proposes to involve children in all decisions that affect them - as well as having an independent advocacy service supporting them.
Mr Urlich has been involved in the review on the minister's youth advisory panel, and he told Nine To Noon he found it empowering.
"They've had so many reviews in the past and they haven't really had a focus on the ones on the receiving end of their services," Mr Urlich said.
"For me it was actually very empowering in the sense that a lot of things that had really gotten to me throughout my life and had negative effects on me, I had an opportunity to not just speak about them but to confront them and to battle them in (some) ways."
Mr Urlich has strong opinions on where the system is failing young people.
"One of the main things for me is the poor outcomes for us. The title attached to children who make it through the care system alive, you've got two labels: you're either a victim or a survivor. And that statement says a lot about the care system.
"They're not providing what young people need. They obviously need love, care, protection, they need people to nurture them, they actually need a system that cares. That's not what we have at the moment," Mr Urlich said.
At five, his father was in and out of jail and his mother struggled with drug and alchohol addictions. There was domestic violence in their home.
"I've got really good memory of being young, and I just knew things were wrong. I knew that isn't how a child should grow up or what we should grow up around but I still had a lot of love for my family. And the difficult thing with that is that they took family away. I understand the need to remove that immediate danger... (but) I was only safe from abuse and domestic violence for the eight-hour drive from Auckland to Hawke's Bay. That's when the state stepped in."
He said he has met a lot of good people who are in the care system he was in for 12 years and their situations still break his heart.
"At 17, I mean, most of them are in prison, they have joined gangs... The way the system leaves you is so abrupt and just inhumane and it just ruins lives," he said.
Mr Urlich said he struggled with being left to his own devices once he turned 17, which is the age the social welfare system traditionally stops caring for children, although this is currently being debated.
"I've been homeless more than three times... it's not a very forgiving system. So when you turn 17, they no longer pay the caregivers. Not all the time, but often, you then have nowhere to go. They say, 'oh well, go back to your family'. They didn't want you when you were three, four, five - why do they want you now as a 17-year-old? It's not very well thought out but there is hope for change in that area."
Listen to Tupua Urlich on Nine to Noon: