The gathering is also a chance to celebrate the success of the Integrated Practice Accelerator initiative, which for the past few years has been bringing professionals and graduates working in social services together.
Agencies partnering on the programme are Anglican Family Care, Presbyterian Support Otago, Corstorphine Baptist Community Trust, Catholic Social Services, Southern Youth Development, Youthline Otago, Synergy Wellness, the Salvation Army and Otago Youth Wellness Trust.
Funding to start the programme was provided by the Otago Community Trust.
Otago Youth Wellness Trust chief executive Claire Ramsay says the accelerator is a programme that brings people working in the social services community together to train one day a week for 15 weeks.
"They learn integrated practice which is about collaboration and networking."
The focus was mainly on child and youth services but it also included budget advising, housing, disabilities and mental health.
One of its original aims was to retain more professionals in the city.
Students trained in areas such as social work, occupational therapy, teaching or nursing in Dunedin, but then many of them pursued jobs elsewhere.
"Social services are really short of people in this city, so this is about trying to build a community and retain them as well."
Integrated Practice Accelerator co-ordinator Ben McKenzie said sometimes students might have only done placements within a couple of organisations and they did not realise that the local workforce was bigger than they thought.
"There was one person that was on the accelerator and was headed for one particular facet of social services and actually discovered that they needed to be in an entirely different facet, which they didn’t realise existed until they’ve done the accelerator."
Youthline Otago general manager Julie Weatherall said it was nice for the community to see different organisations working together.
"It is really good to be able to break those barriers down and demonstrate that actually we are all here to support young people and their families."
The wānanga and social service expo takes place on Wednesday at the University of Otago’s St David’s Lecture Theatre.
Guest speakers are spoken word poet and cultural and youth development worker Dietrich Soakai, and Prime Minister’s Excellence in Education Wellbeing Award winner and authority on trauma informed practice in education Jase Williams.
