T he Rebel in Me

1. The Rebel in Me

2. Failure is no longer an option

3. Failure is no longer an option • New Zealand has the highest youth suicide rate in the Western world. Over 600 young people took their lives last year • National unemployment amongst our young is a staggering 32% • Since 2005 the number of young criminal offenders has grown at an alarming rate • Hospital admissions due to ‘Social Gradient’ conditions continues at an unacceptable rate with Maori and Pacific Island children at greatest risk

4. Ahikaa Learning CentreIwi & Whanau led Development • 50 Iwi members established an Education Working Party • Priority: Parents of next generation We are losing too many of our youth - alcohol and drugs • suicide & self harm • mental illness • prisons & criminal justice system • hopelessness, feeling useless, no future vision

5. Dominant Taiohi Attitudes • Hopeless =the despair you feel when you have abandoned hope of comfort or success • Helpless =unable to help oneself; weak or dependent =deprived of strength or power; powerless; incapacitated • Defeatist =expectation or acceptance of failure =Acceptance or resignation of prospect of defeat

6. Rebel Defying or resisting some established authority, government, or tradition Reclaim Restoration, as to productivity, usefulness, or morality To bring into or return to a suitable condition for use

7. Fanning the flame that burns in each one of us • ManaAke Identity, confidence • Whanaungatanga Nurture, Relationships • Kotahitanga Unity, togetherness • Manaakitanga Caring & sharing • Rangatiratanga Owning our future, leadership

8. Means keeping the ‘home fires’ burning, and is designed to inspire and ignite the untapped potentials in our youth, whanau & communities.

9. Ahikaa

10. How we teach Ahikaa® Experiential Learning • Based on the now famous NFTE Bronx programmes • Uniquely New Zealand teaching style with strong Maori values • Kinesthetic teaching techniques get spectacular results • 21st Century taiohi need 21st Century skills that will stay with them for life • Our youth are no less capable of learning and succeeding than any others; they simply need a different approach – one that reinforces their creativity and talents • It is never too late for children to become who they can be

11. NFTE & Ahikaa Aim to: • Inspire, motivate and build confidence • Develop ‘entrepreneurial mindsets’ • Build entrepreneurial eco-systems in low-income communities • Foster whanaungatanga and local, national and international networks • Facilitate local business creation and global business development

16. How we teach Ahikaa® Experiential Teaching Method • Addresses motivationas well as capability • Acknowledges that all learning comprises personal, social and environmental perspectives

17. What we teach

18. Be a part of the solution • Ahikaa: • Working together to support our kids to reach their full potential.

19. Child & Family Wellbeing

20. Child and Family Welfare:‘An ideological battleground’ • Absolutely not a neutral exercise • Taps into fundamental beliefs about nature of self, children & families, and society...and role of government

21. Differential Child & Family Welfare Foci • Relative focus: child, family, community, society • Balance of local discretion vs bureaucratic control (subsidiarity) • Specialized vs Embedded; Degree of separation of child welfare from broader welfare/wellbeing • Types and extent of authority used • Linkages with judicial and police systems • Relative emphasis: individual change; sharing of social resources; collective empowerment & action • Breadth of intervention mandate

22. Where do our child & family welfare systems come from?

23. Indigenous and Western Conceptions of Health and Wellbeing Western Ideals • Individualism • Independence • Secularism • Future orientation • Self-motivation • Internal LoC/R • Self-esteem Indigenous Ideals • Sociocentrism • Interdependence • Spiritualism • Past-present • Other-Motivation • External LoC/R • Humility

24. Conceptions of Self • Deepest, most basic and fundamental determinant of views of self, other and world; • Basis for value systems, structures, institutions • Beneath conscious awareness • Basis for construction of cultural value systems, structures, institutions

25. Self-Contained Individualism(E.E. Sampson) thoughts feelings memories desires motivations intelligence disorders talents

27. Languaging Self-Contained Individualism and Violations of the Ideal thoughts feelings memories dysfunction motivations intelligence disorders talents

28. Languaging Self-Contained Individualism and Violations of the Ideal Ego diffusion Schizo- delusional dysfunctional co-dependent paranoid Psychotic Boundary issues

29. Geertz, C. 1973. The interpretation of cultures. New York. Basic Books. “The Western conception of the person …is…a rather peculiar idea within the context of the world’s cultures.”

30. Indigenous Conceptions of Self:Ensembled Individualism Wairua Tupuna . Whanauhapuiwi ko au AoTuroa

31. Indigenous & Wstn self(ctd).. • Western typologies of health and wellbeing, child and family welfare, psychology& psychopathology, justice, education, organisational principles, risk assessment, outcome measurement, selection and evaluation make sense where self-contained individualism is the ideal.

32. Maori and other Indigenous conceptions of health and wellbeing, child and family welfare, psychology & psychopathology, justice, education, organisational principles, risk assessment, outcome measurement, selection and evaluation make sense where ensembled individualism is the ideal.

33. Milne Report • “…they do not know how the Maori mind works, they don’t.” • our minds, our whakaaro, our way of thinking is not the same. • it’s (psychology) a preconception of Western thought. …what really concerns me is that we’re looking at hinengaro, Wairua….Maori have different understandings and at different levels…”

34. Milne Report (ctd) • “Psychology is actually dangerous for us”

35. Milne Report (ctd) • Ako Pakeha atu, ka puta Pakeha mai” “Given Pakeha teaching, it will be Pakeha learning (thinking) that emerges” • Maori become brainwashed in training” • Maori who go in to do the mainstream psychology training, get their whakaaro stuffed up…and then they can’t find their way home.”

36. Types of Child & Family Welfare Systems • Threshold/Child Protection Systems • Family Support Systems • Community Caring Systems

37. Threshold Systems: Foundations • Individual right & responsibilities primary • Immorality Psychopathology Dysfunction • Moving from ‘substantial risk’ to ‘risk of harm’ • Narrow, coercive entry systems - criminalisation of child abuse & neglect • In crisis; numbers increasing; budget blowouts

38. Threshold/Child Protection Systems • Focus on child protection & risk assessment • 1st response = assessment of risk • Standardisation of instruments, tools, timelines; less discretion for workers • More time spent on compliance, less with families • High levels of worker burnout & turnover

39. Threshold Systems: Features • Families meet minimum standards of dysfunction to qualify for intervention • Parents/Families as villains, children as victims • Dual mandates – to care for & control families -more time investigating, less time helping • Professionals as experts • Not convincingly demonstrating effectiveness

40. Family Service Systems • Healthy families vital for social cohesion • Framework of child, family, community welfare • Family violence, abuse seen as symptomatic of family difficulty • Local service providers preferred over national standardisation • Local discretion in decision-making, • Use of ‘intermediate’ systems • Emphasis on prevention and support for families

41. Community Caring • Families/Whanau basic unit of society • Child development is shared community responsibility • Transforms family functioning from private to community concern • Family abuse linked to social oppression; no blame model • Emphasis on supporting families; long term relationships • Use of extended whanau, community helpers • Less professional involvement

42. Rebel Defying or resisting some established authority, government, or tradition Reclaim Restoration, as to productivity, usefulness, or morality To bring into or return to a suitable condition for use

43. Youth Presentation