Te Hau Toka: Collaboration for Community Well-being in Fiordland
In the remote setting of Fiordland, Southland, an initiative named Te Hau Toka exemplifies how community services can unite to tackle mental health and well-being challenges. Te Hau Toka was launched in 2020 by a group of organisations across the Southern Lakes region in response to the wide-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a collective effort that pools the expertise and resources of various local and health organisations and has been supported by government funding. Central to its success in Fiordland has been the way Anna Star and Alexa Smith have creatively filled service gaps within the community, enhancing and supporting the work of organisations already established in the region.
To understand what the community needed, they took the time to listen and understand the unique needs of Fiordland residents. They undertook comprehensive listening initiatives, which involved setting up community groups to hear directly from individuals across various segments of the community. This allowed them to gather insights from those often hard to reach, ensuring that they heard from a broad cross-section of the community. Through surveys and one-on-one interactions with service providers, Anna and Alexa painted a detailed picture of the community's challenges and successes. This process not only highlighted the pressing issues facing new families, youth, seniors, newcomers, and businesses but also underscored the importance of a tailored, community-centric approach to mental health and well-being. Their dedication to listening formed the backbone of their strategy, enabling them to develop initiatives that resonated with, and supported the communities diverse needs.
The idea was to enhance, not duplicate, the efforts of existing organisations, focusing on empowering them to better serve the community. Anna and Alexa supported existing community organisations by being a resource and plugging gaps that the organisations were unable to service due to funding, or not having enough people resources to get them off the ground. Once these initiatives were set up and established, Te Hau Toka could pass them back to organisations who could maintain them. This included initiating groups for new parents, forming support networks for migrants, and creating opportunities for people to meet in order to tackle isolation and foster community connection.
Another part of Te Hau Toka was to mobilise and empower the community to develop initiatives that would support well-being in the Fiordland community. Anna and Alexa supported individuals to apply for a small grants fund called Connecting Communities that allowed people in the community to access a small amount of financial support to get an idea off the ground. Sometimes, this just meant providing financial support for volunteers to purchase tea, coffee, and biscuits to set up a community group; sometimes these small financial barriers prevented people from trying something new. Some of the funding went to a group wanting to provide hangi resources at no cost to groups and community events. A group also received funding for an inclusive biking, walking, and running event for locals, as well as funding for an education session through the local toy library, which was facilitated by an occupational therapist who spoke on the topic of sensory modulation and sensory toys.
This incredible initiative has meant that community services and the wider Fiordland community have been listened to, supported, and connected in a way that will continue to support the changing needs of the Fiordland community and increase community resilience and well-being.
