What does safety look and feel like to you?

Lisa | Whakatū

Lisa describes how her mahi creates safety for whānau in crisis by offering free, non-judgemental support that prioritises manaaki (care) and mana motuhake (self-determination).

“Safety for me is a sensation and a solidarity that the people around me can and will act in good ways, and in mana-enhancing ways, not just for the self but for the collective good.

When I look at safety through my work lens – I manage the Motueka Family Service Centre – it’s a social service free to the community. We don’t charge anyone anything. So when you walk in the door, the bravest thing you had to do was open the front door and say, ‘I don’t know what I need, but I’m here’.

So we do things on the daily to give a good sense of safety. But we also back that up that all the practitioners across the district are so well trusted to one another, that the work itself will be the only hard part in terms of walking beside whānau.

What usually brings whānau to our door is a combination of absolute desperation, of feeling there’s nowhere else to go.

I think mana motuhake (self-determination) for whānau is one of the most powerful protective elements. So I think allowing whānau to flourish and to have their own say and voice leading their care journeys also allows for a wider spectrum of what is care. And so those sorts of ways of ensuring whānau are not being ‘done to’ as opposed to feeling that they’re getting a true set of ears and a set of eyes to listen to how life is panning out for them.

We usually greet them and say, ‘We’re so glad you’re here. Would you like a cup of tea? Would you like a cup of kawhe (coffee)? Let’s go to the kitchen and we make a kai together’. First of all, it’s manaaki (care). And who can be mad and angry and feel a lot of riri (anger) when you’re sitting, or you’re standing over the kitchen bench handing each other the milk and the sugar?

So we start to do some normalising things to support a drop in power differentiation, that we’re all the same. Much like you would at the marae. You just go into the kitchen, you make a cuppa and you pull out the scones, right?

And then we sit and we have a kōrero in safe, whānau-led spaces. So there’ll be toys in the corner. There’ll be things for teenagers, so kids can sit and relax and adults can get the care and the ears that they need, and we unpack with them whatever they’d like to share. So we start with what they’d like to share, and then we work out with them what might be some good services either we offer or where we can support them into other services.”