South Auckland

The Otara venture began in December 2012 and officially launched by the Bishop of Auckland in October 2013 (right), as a deliberate mission to those most in need in our society and a response to the Gospel principles.  Catholic Social Services has as its core principle the Gospel values.  

Since starting we have established a positive relationship with both parish priest and school at Otara, with referrals coming from both sources.  

We are about to begin a pilot training programme with a small group of leaders from the Mangere East parish to train these as leaders able to provide a course in Managing Strong Emotions in their communities, with support from us. 

Programmes       

1.      POSITIVE PARENTING – The Positive Parenting Programme aims to build up skills in families that assist the parents to parent safely and with awareness about child developmental needs and their roles as parents.  It has been developed specifically for Pacific Island people by Cabrini.   It differs from other programmes as it deals with the internal childhood patterns of the parents themselves and works towards repairing these patterns so that they can parent their children differently.  It has psychoeducational, spiritual, cognitive behavioural and psychotherapeutic components.  

2.      STOPPING VIOLENCE – Both Ruth and Cabrini are trained in running Stopping Violence Programmes.  In addition, individual clients receive skills training in managing strong emotions.

3.     FAMILY VIOLENCE – An important part of this work involves education around Domestic Violence eg zero tolerance for violence, NZ law, impact on children and partners.

4.      SEXUAL ABUSE – An important part of this work involves education around inappropriate sexual behaviour, empowerment of those who are survivors of sexual abuse and NZ law.