DFI te rā tuawhā

Tohatoha - (verb) (-ina) to spread around, spread out, spread abroad, distribute, share, deal (cards). Not just LCS, but SLC, CLS and LSC etc. Today was about the use of a website to 'hook' (noun: matau) or entice people in, using a universal approach to designing learning and creating a multimodal website. I started a website with a focus on level 5 social studies, NZ history and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Not having particular students in mind was the biggest disadvantage for me, but I have started gathering some text resources that may be of help to others. Click on the image to access the site.

DFI te rā tuatoru - kia awhiawhi hanga

Kia kaha te reo Māori. Whāia te ara poutama o te reo ka tohatoha ai - keep improving your language and share what you know. Ko tenei taku pepeha.

Media Moments - part 1

This blog post will discuss the four national media events for Kootuitui ki Papakura in the last few months. They are a
1. TV interview - June 2019
2. Radio interview - July 2019
3. Radio news story - August 2019
4. TV news story - August 2019

The media we have been seeking is for national coverage of our Ko Huiamano: Warm, Dry, Healthy Homes programme. This programme is significantly different from other types of provision in this area because it is a community-led development model, being:
- developed by whānau through co-design
- delivered by whānau largely through their commitment to being volunteers
- built on the kaupapa of 'fill my kete, fill your kete'
- focussed on education for behavioural change rather than provision of goods
- not funded through any government scheme such as AWHI (Auckland Wide Healthy Homes)

The first national media event was a short segment on What's Next? where our Kootuitui Whānau were featured on episode 3 being interviewed by Nigel Latta. On Demand here and the text article here. This was excellent timing for us with the winter just getting underway and we felt so proud to be in the spotlight. It was wonderful meeting Nigel and the segment reflected fairly on our work. We received lots of 'congratulations' and 'you guys are doing amazing work' but no direct offers of support. There wasn't any direct link back to us as an organisation as the media didn't actually mention our name 'Kootuitui ki Papakura' or show our logo and the segment sounded a little like a group of people helping others without a charity or organisation behind them. At that stage, I hadn't started to harness the power of social media so after the screening, I shared the On Demand and text links and the euphoria of being on national TV ebbed away. Maybe the viewing demographic for this programme were not the people we were trying to reach?

We recently had support to publish a booklet which details the story of our Homes strand and the Ko Huiamano prototype and I was looking to once again get a national spotlight on our work. I began contacting reporters I knew and emailing TV sites. Then, quite suddenly, I was rung by Radio NZ to do an interview with Jesse Mulligan. This was recorded at 1pm one afternoon and published on their website. Through this interview people were beginning to become more aware of Ko Huiamano: Warm, Dry, Healthy Homes and understand how this part is situated within our whole scope of EDUCATION, HEALTH AND HOMES.

The same RNZ reporter who linked us with Afternoons with Jesse was really keen to attend a home installation and see what happens, in particular the effect of the bubble wrap on the temperature. This led to our Radio news story. This story was broadcast on Checkpoint with photos, video and commentary as well as a short article. This was a tenanted Housing NZ property which showcased our partnership with HNZ. At this stage the social media just took off, maybe because RadioNZ had the story as a feature article on their website.

Even though I had not received any direct replies to my approach to TV media, Te Ao News saw the second RNZ article and contacted me. They wanted to cover our work from a different angle and we agreed on an interview with Māori homeowners. The added piece to this story was that a warm house had had a positive impact on their health. The segment was screened on a cold, Friday, August evening and is here. This is such a positive story of helping our kaumātua and the impact of a home on the health of its occupants.

My next blog post will focus on the social media that has come from the mainstream media above. I am still looking for opportunities for publicity through mainstream media, so if you can assist me in any way, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you. Help us support by Māori, with Māori, for Māori for the improved lifelong outcomes of the young people of Papakura.

Annual Stakeholders' Event

Last Wednesday we held the annual morning where we welcome sponsors, partners, schools and local community organisations to hear about our activities over the past year. It is a short showcase for our funders, sponsors and partners to get an insight into Kootuitui ki Papakura.
This year, the event was hosted at Papakura Central School and included a welcome to the 70-ish attendees, short presentations (above) from representatives who work in each of our three strands and a tour of 1:1 hubs and the school clinic. The Education strand was presented by four PCS students who showed attendees how they learn in an online environment through their teacher's visible website, some of the Google apps they use and the cybersmart learning around making positive, thoughtful and helpful comments on blogs. Having students present is always well received, as is hearing from whaanau who share their stories and others' stories of change through their engagement in the Homes strand initiatives.
This is our third year hosting this event and I have learnt through that time some things that have helped the planning for each successive year. These include the preparations that need to be made at the Trust level, at the school level and at the level of connecting with the various delivery partners. The run sheet invariably gets behind, so I have learnt to factor this into the programme and to break up the 'listening' activities with time for the attendees to talk, walk, network and have refreshments.
The Kootuitui team gets behind this event and pulls together to make it happen. Right now, there are 10 employees, including full and part-timers, with additional volunteers, and we are also supporting the salaries of about 6 FTE - so we are growing as a roopu.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Connections are continuing to be made with other organisations as we focus on our vision of improving the lifelong outcomes for tamariki in our community.

Changing lives one home at a time

A TSI (The Southern Initiative) collaboration with Kootuitui ki Papakura set out to support whaanau to create solutions to the challenges they are facing in day to day living.

This project came about as we were looking to establish an initiative focussed on 'Homes' for families in Papakura. This resulted in a unique peer-to-peer model aimed at empowering locals to improve housing conditions in Papakura in a practical way, while delivering positive social outcomes.

TSI input led to a co-design process that built the capability of whaanau. It then helped them develop a low-cost home intervention kit to create warmer, drier and healthier homes. 

By using a strength-based approach, the whaanau involved experienced greater social connectedness, built a network of authentic and trusting relationships, learnt how to implement their innovative ideas and grew their self-confidence and basic DIY skills.

Due to the high level of training the Kootuitui Whaanau have received, they expanded their knowledge of their tenancy rights, learnt budgeting skills and through whakawhanaungatanga (the building of authentic and trusting relationships), the families transferred what they learnt to whaanau across the community through a 'Fill my kete, fill your kete' approach.

The initiative delivered specific results – meaning many whaanau now have warmer and drier homes. This model will continue to be developed and opportunities sought to scale it further.

Kootuitui ki Papakura would like to thank TSI for its support to produce this document which chronicles the story of our Homes strand. 

Focus on the Homes strand

The Warm, Dry, Healthy Homes programme came about as a direct result of the prototyping from co-design over 2016 and 2017. The Kootuitui voluntary whaanau learnt about the elements of a home that are important for the health of its occupants - namely insulation, moisture control, mould control, heating and ventilation. They then worked with stakeholders - Habitat for Humanity, Beacon Pathway and Auckland Council, to identify how houses could be simply remediated to make them warmer and drier. Whaanau offered their homes for testing to find out the effect of bubble wrap on windows, draft stoppers on doors, v-seal around windows and long curtains. These had an immediate and positive effect.

Ko Huiamano - Warm, Dry, Healthy Homes has three parts:

1. Education workshops on the elements of a warm, dry, healthy home
2. House assessments and a written report provided
3. House installation and minor repairs service

During 2018, a programme of workshops, house assessments and interventions rolled out.

• - 11 home performance workshops were attended by 102 people. This resulted in 63 homes being assessed and 41 interventions being carried out.
• - Three of the Kootuitui Whaanau gained employment and others have taken up community leadership roles, such as school Board of Trustee membership. 
• - Many families in Papakura not normally reached by traditional services now have better housing conditions. 

The 2019 programme is underway. Watch videos of stories from whaanau who have been impacted by this prototype and listen to an interview on Radio NZ here.

Evaluation of Kootuitui's holistic approach

In the period 2016-2018, Kootuitui ki Papakura was excellently supported by the Middlemore Foundation for Health Innovation. The Foundation provided most of our funding and also offered expertise in system development and the building of stakeholder relationships. With our pilot period coming to an end, the collection of data across all three strands was pulled together and analysed. The report attached here is a testament to the hard work of everyone involved - the trustees, employees, volunteers and key partners. Although our outcomes may be more apparent in the medium and long term, there are many indications that such an holistic approach as we take does lead to some very real positive outcomes, even in the short term. Coupled with recommendations for further development, this document both acknowledges areas of strength and achievement and encourages us to continue to iterate to achieve our vision of ensuring lifelong outcomes for tamariki.

https://sites.google.com/kootuitui.org.nz/papakura-kootuitui-trust/research

Ko Au - All About Me

During term 1 I have been teaching digital footprint in classes. Part of this was to ask students to write an introduction about themselves for their blog. This would be a smart piece of writing in that they wouldn't use any information that should not be shared online.
I started this with my year 3-4 classes in two schools and then decided to use it with the year 5-6 classes in some schools. When I thought about Kereru Park, I considered that many students there could speak Te Reo quite well and might prefer to write this in Māori. I mentioned it to Jason and he gave me the phrases on slide 2. Then, I went to class and asked the teacher, Whaea Horiana to help me with the correct phrases in Te Reo for slides 1 and 3 and this is the result. Please feel free to reuse or modify as you wish.

EdTech Google Summit Auckland 2018

This summit has held in the first two days of the April school holidays. It was a great time for learning, listening, trying things out, networking and sharing. It was quite hard to choose what sessions to attend, however through the summit app, the resources for all sessions were accessible - and this included all summits - NZ and overseas. What a terrific resource for continuing learning.
I appreciated the messages from the keynote speakers such as the importance of play in learning and encouraging students to tell their own stories. I have a number of activities from the workshops I attended to investigate and think about how these could be adapted for classrooms I facilitate in. I also appreciated the workshop in Te Reo that I attended and have a list of technological words in Māori that I can trust are correct. Here is the list should blog readers be interested. I'm going to try using one word a week and that way I may remember them.
Baruk and I did our workshop. We were quite critical of our performance and immediately jotted down ways to improve it. We are now working on an upscaled version for submitting for uLearn 2018. I am very grateful to everyone who shared their knowledge, expertise and resources.