After five years on the Te Piki Oranga management team as Te Pou Taki (Cultural Adviser), Sonny Alesana has a new role, as Kōtuitui Hapori (Community Connector).
‘We were already doing a lot of work with the community and had also been asked by other organisations to provide cultural advice on health,’ Sonny explains. ‘In this role, it’s about Te Piki Oranga engaging with service providers to support families.’
He commenced the role in November 2020 and, since then, has been focusing on ensuring individuals and whānau can access Te Piki Oranga’s services with ease.
Being responsive
The Kōtuitui Hapori role was initially created in response to the pandemic, to help mitigate the negative social impacts of Covid-19 for whānau, but Sonny says it is about being responsive and creative to find solutions for the needs of whānau.
‘Covid-19 has been difficult for some families but there have also been positives,’ says Sonny, ‘and I like to focus on the positives. There’s employment out there but now it’s about how we prepare our whānau for those employment opportunities. It’s also about preparing others who might have lost their jobs and working out how we can utilise their transferrable skills to ensure they can transfer into other industries and jobs.’
Supporting tamariki and rangatahi at school is another focus. ‘Covid-19 really identified that, for some of our families, they didn’t have the digital equipment they needed to support their children in their education or they had the equipment but didn’t know how to use it to access student portals. We had to be creative in the way we worked.’
Sonny adds, ‘Then you have families ring you to say their child’s at home and they’re not willing to go to work. It’s about looking at how we can provide services early to avoid bigger costs in the long run. Prevention is better than the cure.’
He also sits on a gateway panel with Oranga Tamariki to ensure whānau are getting the right support when their children are being returned from care.
Looking ahead, Sonny will be working with a team of five to six other community connectors in Te Tauihu. They are planning to meet in person soon to determine what services can be offered, ensuring they are not duplicating what is already available.
Read about how Sonny connected with a local shearer, who with a new driver licence says he is ‘unstoppable.’
Sonny Alesana has a new role, as Te Piki Oranga’s Kōtuitui Hapori (Community Connector)
