Strive Community Trust – Counties Manukau DHB – Phase 1 

$357,000 has been invested in Strive Community Trust through MCCF to increase vaccination uptake in South Auckland, specifically across Mangere, Papatoetoe, Manurewa, Manukau, Otara, and Onehunga. 

Strive is a well-established community services provider, including in transitional housing, family support services, and youth services – giving opportunities for engagement with hard-to-reach communities. 

Strive is delivering the “Be Wise, Immunise” project targeting cohorts including rangatahi aged 12-24, families with young children, and transitional housing clients.

The project includes providing information kanohi-ki-te-kanohi in the community, and transportation to vaccination centres. 

Activity has included: 

• making use of the Guide to kōrero with young people about Covid-19 vaccinations created by Ara Taiohi. This resource has increased staff confidence to engage with clients in a safe and well-informed way.
• transitional and emergency housing. Kaimahi are working across 20 housing sites (e.g., standalone homes, shared homes, and apartment complexes) to provide vaccine information to 1500 transitional housing clients.
• transitional housing and nursing staff have visited 700 clients and asked occupants if they wanted information about vaccination or wanted to be vaccinated on the spot. If they agreed the nurse performed the jab and the clients were offered an incentive

Risks to ongoing delivery include: 

• staff being a contact to a positive case, meaning they need to get a test and isolate until the results come back and are unavailable to support the COVID response effort
• staff fatigue due to an already stretched workforce delivering additional services to their communities.

These risks are partly mitigated by Strive working together with health provider Taikura Trust to fill resource gaps where possible. 

Strive is further partnering with Taikura Trust to provide support and resource tailored to whanau haua. 

Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei Health Clinic Limited (Ira Dot) – Phase 1 

The MCCF invested $2.661 million in the provider to deliver activity to support vaccination increases across events in Tāmaki Makaurau.

At Ira dot events in early November, Rangatahi Māori took to Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook to encourage each other to ‘get dotted’ on 6-7 November, in a city-wide campaign, aimed at rangatahi aged 12-34. 

The mass ‘gotyadot’ hubs were located at Eden Park and four Kura Tuarua across Tāmaki Makaurau. If people couldn’t make it to an event, they could also go on the Ira Dot website and click the Plot Ya Dot button and a mobile unit would be sent to their whare or organisation to get ‘dotted’ 

The Ira Dot campaign deliberately did not use the terms vax, jab or shot, to remove stigma. Culturally, ‘ira dot’ ascribes ‘whakapapa’ - the foundation for inherent connectedness and interdependence to all things from our tūpuna down to us. 

The initiative was backed by the Tāmaki, Tū Kotahi (Auckland, united we stand) collective of Tāmaki Iwi, Kapa Haka, Hauora Māori providers, Corporate Partners, Kura Tuarua and Whare Wānanga who wanted to get Tāmaki Makaurau dotted as quickly as possible. 

Te Tai Awa O Te Ora – Phase 1 

MCCF contracted and fully paid $280,000 to Te Tai Awa O Te Ora to help lift vaccination rates for whānau in Ōtara. 

Te Tai Awa O Te Ora encouraged the community to get vaccinated through reducing barriers to vaccination and recognising and responding to wider needs by promoting informed choice rather than incentivising vaccinations. 

The organisation engaged Māori by calling more than 1800 whānau and completing a mail drop to 12,000 households in Ōtara and Papatoetoe with information about vaccination as well as engaging with whānau through community marae in Ōtara and other Māori rōpu such as local Māori churches, Māori wardens and Ahi Kaa. 

Te Tai Awa O Te Ora designed and implemented a competition to encourage rangatahi to think about the connection between tikanga and vaccination, organised a community vaccination day for Ōtara and personally engaged with people on the streets. 

The pūtea provided by the MCCF to Te Tai Awa O Te Ora helped deliver more than 1000 vaccinations to whānau in Ōtara.  

Taikura Trust – Phase 2 

MCCF contracted and fully paid $535,000 to Taikura Trust to support tangata whaikaha and whānau through the crises that have arisen because of COVID-19, in Tāmaki Makaurau. 

Taikura Trust supported whānau through instances of family harm, financial and social hardship, and emotional and mental anxiety.

The Trust has achieved this through maintaining a key network of agency and community providers for tangata whaikaha and whānau to access essential resources when disconnected from their formal and informal support systems. The Trust also provided access to supports and services to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 for tangata whaikaha and whānau. 

Taikura Trust’s Tiaki and community engagement teams provided disability related advice and support to the wider community; these hui provided the opportunity to maintain their wider network and to gather information about additional resources available to the community. 

The Trust also focused on activities related to supporting the vaccine uptake to areas of Tāmaki Makaurau that have been slower than others to achieve vaccination targets. 

The pūtea provided by the MCCF to Taikura Trust has helped to engage with 230 tāngata whaikaha, whānau and kaiāwhina. Taikura has responded to 167 requests for support or services, representing 72% of the whānau contacted. 

Mahitahi Trust – Phase 2  

Funding of $158,000 enabled activities to support whānau suffering from mental health issues and addiction through COVID-19 within Counties Manukau. 

Mahitahi Trust is a kaupapa Māori mental health and addictions service with more than 30 years of experience, intelligence, and success in improving the health outcomes of whānau whaiora and whānau whanui. 

The pūtea provided by the MCCF addressed the urgent unmet community needs that have escalated for whānau affected by COVID-19 including providing whānau with COVID-19 isolation care bags to those who have tested positive for COVID-19 or are a contact and required to self-isolate.

Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hoani Waititi Marae – Phase 1 

Hare Rua, the Tumuaki or Principal of the kura, and other kaimahi, have been working tirelessly since the beginning of the Delta outbreak last August, to make sure their kura whānau, hapori Kura Kaupapa Māori, and wider Waitākere hapori are supported through the Delta and Omicron outbreaks. 

“We had to take care of the wellbeing of our people. We jumped in and started doing whatever was needed,” says Hare. 

The kura received pūtea through the Māori Communities COVID-19 Fund, administered by Te Puni Kōkiri, Te Arawhiti and Ministry of Health.

“The pūtea we received added another layer to the mahi we were already doing,” says Hare. “It allowed us to be even more creative with our support and to take care of our whānau in our own way.” 

Jacqueline Matthews from the Te Puni Kōkiri Tāmaki Makaurau office was pivotal in helping the kura secure pūtea.

“We were out there doing the mahi with nothing,” says Hare. “She made the funding a reality for us.” 

The kura has been involved in several different COVID-19 related kaupapa, from vaccination drives and testing to supporting isolating whānau with manaakitanga packs and helping to communicate trusted vaccine information. 

With kanohi ki te kanohi events posing a risk to whānau, the kura looked to Facebook Live sessions to help inform their community about the vaccine, organising 10 sessions with experts such as Dr Lily Fraser. 

In October 2021 the kura health hub became a verified vaccination centre, and three ex-students and three teachers were trained as lay vaccinators. Having familiar faces helped to put whānau at ease when they came to receive their vaccinations. “No one else is going to care for our people the way we care for our people” says Hare. 

So far, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hoani Waititi Marae has helped hundreds of people get vaccinated through their events, and through supporting other kura in the wider Auckland region to hold vaccination events. 

Most people in the kura whānau decided to get vaccinated, but those who chose not to get the jab have not been left behind. “It’s their choice” says Hare, “and they remain a part of the whānau.” 

Recently, the Ira Dot crew reached out to the kura to collaborate on their new campaign He Tau Ira – Year of the Dot. He Tau Ira has so far seen a huge vaccination drive take place on 5 February, with more collaborative events on the way in the coming weeks to support boosters and tamariki vaccinations. 

Omicron has added another layer of difficulty to their response, but the team has adapted to the rapid changes this variant is bringing. 

“Coming into 2022 we have our experiences from last year,” says Hare. “We know we need to go beyond the ideas used to date to encourage our people to vaccinate. We need to motivate our people with our own magic, with unconventional, out the gate, distinctively Māori ideas.” 

Read full story: /mo-te-puni-kokiri/our-stories-and-media/kura-kaupapa-maori-keeping-their-west-auckland-com 

Te Tai Awa O Te Ora – Phase 1 $280,000 

A competition for Ōtara rangatahi in December celebrated local pride and engaged taitamariki.

The Haumaru Hard Ōtara competition asked for creative expressions of how tikanga Māori connects with vaccination. 

The announcement of winners occurred as part of a family event with free kai, free t-shirts, prizes, bouncy castles for the kids and COVID-19 information, testing, boosters, and vaccination pass assistance. 

The event and the competition were organised by local kaupapa Māori social service provider Te Tai-awa o te Ora.  With a Māori Communities COVID-19 Fund package from Te Puni Kōkiri, they have been reaching out to whānau in Ōtara who might not otherwise be engaged. 

Kaimahi Ngarimu Waru said it was important to work with young people in a genuine, authentic way to help address barriers to vaccination. 

“The people of Ōtara have pride in our community and to get our whānau protected against COVID-19, we wanted to take a very serious kaupapa and make it a fun campaign” she added. 

Te Tai-awa o te Ora has been using social media, going door-to-door, organising vaccination neighbourhood drives with Turuki Health and mobilising their team of kaimahi and volunteers to address vaccination rates for Māori in Ōtara. 

“Our call to whānau is to come along this Saturday, even if you’re unsure. We’ll have information to answer your questions,” added Ngarimu. 

Read full story: /mo-te-puni-kokiri/our-stories-and-media/locals-invited-to-haumaru-hard-otara-celebration