Funding to help strengthen vulnerable families will improve the work of Dunedin's social agencies, recipients say.
Stopping Violence Dunedin (SVD) counsellor Cinnamon Boreham said the Ministry of Social Development family-centred funding became available in April and was about "empowering families".
"We've said we will work with 10 self-appointed families and then we will build a plan around their needs. The idea is to strengthen their own natural links," she said.
The funding, made available through reconfiguration of existing pools and replacing the Family Violence Whanau Ora Fund, was a Government initiative to deal with family violence by working with individual families.
It would allow SVD to work "more deeply" with some of its client group who had been asking for wider support to stay together.
"In the past, we've only offered a programme and it's been quite hands-off. There is a shift in people's needs and we wanted to enhance our service plan," Ms Boreham said.
Still in the concept stage, the funding would be rolled out within SVD in the next couple of months.
It was expected families would receive counselling and advocacy support from a social worker with everything from organising benefits and creating safety plans to signing children up to sports groups.
"It's about working alongside a family that might lack capacity to reach out."
Arai Te Uru Whare Hauora executive director Donna Matahaere-Atariki was also pleased with the family-centred funding, despite losing other funding in the reconfiguration process.
Many "frustrated" staff often queried why there was not something designed to help entire families, she said.
"I think it is a much better approach. It means that we are working with the families and we are not working with what the organisation thinks is a good idea.
"This is absolutely about getting the funding to frontline work."
Under its approach, a social worker would be assigned to a family to "act as a navigator and broker", create a long-term plan for the family, and could call on a mental health worker and addiction worker where required.
Rather than contact an agency, her vision was that families "would begin to ring each other", as well as talk with their neighbours, local schools and business owners.
"We want really strong, resilient, self-determining communities."
Three families were already involved in the programme, with a further 12 expected to be catered for with the $80,000 received.
"I hope that we will get 15 families and within that family there will be up to eight individuals that we are working with," Ms Matahaere-Atariki said.
Services in Otago received $436,815 of the $13.335 million family-centred funding available.
