Mr Hewitt, relaxing in Queenstown this week with his wife, Arlene, said he had turned his life around and was committed to helping others do the same through his work with social reform campaigner Celia Lashlie on the He Papa Pounamu Trust.
The aim of the trust was to work with communities to help them help themselves and make changes about violent behaviour, especially where children were the victims.
Mr Hewitt said he approached Mrs Lashlie about how to make a difference.
He was working for the Commissioner for Children at the time, when he felt frustrated by reports he kept seeing about children dying violent deaths, and felt ineffective to make a difference.
"Because I worked for the Government at the time, there was a perception that there was a `them and us' scenario."
Instead of it being helpful, he believed it was patronising and people did not want to be told what they "should" be doing.
He felt there was a need to work with communities to solve the problem and contacted Mrs Lashlie after hearing about her own interest in making a difference.
"When I went to Celia, I said I never want another child to die a violent death in this country again. I said I've got this idea . . ."
The two worked to form the trust, securing funding from British Merchant Tobacco, which, as the major benefactor, has provided more than $1 million during the four years since the trust was set up, and works through communities to help them help themselves.
"It's about empowering people to help themselves. We ask them how can we help?"
Rather than be shy about taking funds from a tobacco company, Mr Hewitt said it was about a company taking corporate responsibility.
"I have no problem taking British Merchant Tobacco money or gambling money. It's part of the corporate socially responsible model."
While people might like to put their heads in the sand about the issue of violence in the community, he said everyone was responsible whether or not they acknowledged it.
"We have the second-highest imprisonment rate in the world.
"Who's paying [for the cost of violence]? Not the low socioeconomic people. You are, and everyone else is."
"Which is why he said it takes input from everyone to make a difference.
"It's investment in social change. But everyone's got to play a part," he said, adding the age-old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child."
For Mr Hewitt, the work is a personal commitment to making a difference.
"I believe the driver is my own experience.
"I've had to make choices in life and I believe in God, but it's more to do with my own life experiences.
"It's part of the journey of being a good man."
Dancing and rugby, he said, had both helped make him the person he is today and equipped him to make the choices he's needed to to make a difference.
"A lot of people have given me the tools to make a difference and I'm grateful for that."
Life, he said, was about taking a few falls off a bike and getting back on it again.
