The Healthy Families Far North team are supporting and holding spaces in different kaupapa around the motu.
Want to know more? Read a snapshot of some of the mahi we’ve been involved with in and around the rohe.
‘Our Voices Matter’: Taiohi shape Youth Week in the Mid North
‘Tāringā whakarongo ki te reo o ngā rangatahi, listening to the voices of young people’ – that’s the theme of this year’s Youth Week – a chance for taiohi to share themselves in ways that feel right to them through kōrero, creativity, culture, leadership, and everyday actions.
Healthy Families Far North together with Sport Northland, Paua Trust, Mid North Youth Connect Collective and local taiohi are gathering insights directly from young people about what matters to them, to help shape and bring to life the Youth Week celebrations happening in the Mid North.
Youth Week is a nationwide celebration that recognises and uplifts rangatahi. It creates space for their ideas and leadership to come through. It also encourages communities to think differently about how they engage with young people – shifting from planning for taitamariki, to creating alongside them.
This year’s approach signals a continued shift toward centering rangatahi voice in decision-making, not just in the events themselves, but in how they are imagined and delivered.
As communities, organisations, and decision-makers, this is an opportunity to reflect on how taitamariki voice is being included in the decisions that impact them most. What would it look like to listen first, and to create alongside young people in a way that is meaningful, ongoing, and embedded in how we work?
Practice Foundations: A monthly public sector community of practice
Healthy Families Far North are hosting a series of Practice Foundations online sessions, in partnership with Auckland Co-Lab, creating space for practitioners across Aotearoa to connect, reflect, and strengthen their practice.
These sessions share practical tools, insights and examples of how whānau-centered and mātauranga-led ways of working are making a real difference for whānau and hapori across Aotearoa.
In our upcoming session, we explore the pātai: How can we enable whānau and hapū leadership, governance, and decision-making?
We’re fortunate to welcome Kaye-Maree Dunn (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Ngāti Mahanga, Ngāi Tamanuhiri, Ngāti Kahungunu) as our kaikōrero, in conversation with Sophia Beaton (Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu) from Hikitia! – Te Tai Tokerau.
Drawing on her papakāinga mahi and her role as co-founder and Kaiwhakahaere of MEA – Making Everything Achievable, Kaye-Maree will share insights into enabling whānau and hapū leadership, governance, and decision-making in practice.
Nau mai, haere mai e te whānau!
If you’d like to stay connected or receive information about upcoming sessions, you can sign up here.
Active Movement ki Whangaroa: Re-imagining active spaces in Whangaroa
Healthy Families Far North are exploring what it takes to support whānau in Whangaroa to be more active, more often. With communities like Kāeo, which are small and relatively isolated, the focus is on understanding what works locally, and what will really get people moving.
By mapping the physical activity landscape, identifying barriers, and listening to whānau and taitamariki about their ideas and needs, early conversations are raising questions to how we might better support activities and environments that our community already enjoy.
Testing ideas, gathering feedback, and engaging with the community board is a way to co-design opportunities that are inclusive, culturally grounded, and relevant to the people who live there.