Helping young children realise the consequence of drug and alcohol use is what Waipareira TaiTamariki programme is all about.
Photo: RNZ / Mihingarangi Forbes
The concept encourages tamariki to set aspirations and teaches them to achieve positive lives, using tikanga Māori as a framework.
The long term goal is to reduce mental health problems and Te Pou Matakana's Chief Executive John Tamihere said the programmed had returned $1.80 for every government dollar spent.
"This is a measure of moving into a position where middle class New Zealanders take for granted if you're dealing with intergenerational deprivation then you're dealing with a third generation, they don't have skill sets that everyone else would take for granted around basic parenting, basic budgeting, basic values and if you can start to turn them away from prisons and hospitals, you're doing a good thing."
Te Pou Matakana, the North Island distribution arm of Whanau Ora, has released its report today, using West Auckland youth to highlight a new formula for measuring outcomes.
Rather than counting outputs for the money spent at Waipareira's Taitamariki Programme it's measuring social returns on government investment.
Te Pou Matakana director of strategy and innovation Awerangi Tamihere said measuring social return was a complete mind shift.
"You're actually looking at a fundamental change in the behaviour of whānau so many programmes look at what's been provided for our families in a moment of time, question is did they actually achieve an outcome where they're able to sustain that change over time?
"That's a harder question, that's a tougher job to do, but really in a whānau ora model that is what we should be measuring"
But how easy is it to put a savings to an emotional outcome for example the report values "Increased Self confidence" at $19,000.
Mrs Tamihere explains.
"As a consequence of a number of other things you're doing, those individuals and families stop being a deficit burden on negative expenditure that the state continues to spend on this area."
Mrs Tamihere said traditionally providers had measured results on outputs, or a service provided, but measuring an entire family's outcome was new.
"When we looked internationally we saw a lot of work done on what's called SROI and what it is you start to measure the change that matters for families.
"It's still fairly new internationally and in NZ for Waipareira it's the very first Māori organisation to look at this and probably less than five in all of NZ."
The children on Waipareira's TaiTamariki programme are between 10 and 13, they have an increased risk of developing substance abuse issues and suffering from mental health.
The programme, which is funded by the Ministry of Health, uses data from the child, the family, the Waipareira community and government agencies to identify the outcomes both positive and negative.
Mr Tamihere said based on the new formula of accountability, he believed Waipareira's TaiTamariki was out performing government ministries.
"I welcome us doing this, but I invite mainstream organisations and the large organisations to meet us on the accountabilities."