HEART Awards 2017
HEART Movement is a community-led programme of Te Waipuna Puawai developed to respond to high rates of family violence in Tamaki. The HEART Movement works to promote positive, healthy relationships and prevent family violence.
Our vision is a community where loving, safe, and supportive relationship are created and nurtured.
We run an annual community campaign to reach our messages around building healthy relationships with the community and increase their involvement with the HEART Movement. This campaign is run through a valued partnership with the Outside the Square project of AUT University. The campaign designed and implemented by the students over a period of four months culminates with the “HEART Awards Night”. The HEART Awards are a simple way to celebrate and acknowledge the work of all involved with the HEART Movement.
This year the HEART Awards were held on the 20th of October, at Te Oro in Glen Innes. Bev Adair Beets and Jane Koziol Mclain were our keynote speakers. Bev Adair-Beets is a youth mentor & tutor, Bev was an innocent victim of ongoing child abuse and has become a youth advocate speaking out against family violence. She works with young people in Street Dance/Hip Hop performance & Performing Arts, using this as a platform for positive growth. Bev recently joined The Crescendo Trust of Aotearoa as a board trustee.
Professor Jane Koziol-McLain, A Professor of Nursing and Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Trauma Research Centre, Professor Koziol-McLain has over 30 years of experience in her chosen field of nursing as well as a talent for research into the health system response to violence against women and children. She is currently leading three research projects including an investigation into an internet-based intervention to improve mental health outcomes for abused women; an evaluation of District Health Board systems for responding to victims of family violence funded by the Ministry of Health; and another looking at women’s experience of health care after disclosing partner violence. Alongside this work, Professor Koziol-McLain does consulting work in the Pacific with the United Nations Population Fund.’
The awards presented were made by the local artist Emily Karaka for the HEART Movement.
The HEART Awards presented included:
The HEART Training Award is an award that recognizes a person who has attended the maximum number of training and has demonstrated extensive commitment to upskill themselves and grow their knowledge to build healthy relationships. This award for this year goes to Reverend Atu Lagi, manager of the Stream Trust.
The HEART Partnership Award is for the partner that that provided the most significant assistance to our work. This year that award goes to Te Oro. They have been here day in and day out to support us run and sustain the “pockets of hope” programme.
The HEART Practitioner Award is an award that recognizes a practitioner who has shown extensive commitment to grow the work of the HEART Movement. Tracey Wakefield, Practice Leader from Tamaki Community Development Trust gets the HEART Practitioner Award.
HEART CHAMPION Awards
HEART Movement has around 40 champions popularly known as community Change Agents. They are volunteers and put in extensive hours to take the messages of the HEART Movement to their own homes and networks. This year we have had extensive support from many of our volunteers. We wanted to acknowledge the work of three champions that stands out.
Bryant Walker coined the term “Pockets of Hope” for this regular hangout space for the community. He has linked many people into our men support group, as well as the Pockets of Hope programme. One thing that Bryant and his family are always there for is to clean up after dinner and support us wind up, which is never an easy job.
Jay Hohaia has been critical to the success of our HEART BBQ in parks programme. He has towed the BBQ around, one of the hardest things to get volunteers for, to most of the HEART events and many community events. He is part of the HEART Leaders forum and has attended numerous trainings and connected many people to HEART.
Our final Champion Award for this year goes to Tara Moala. A strong advocate and spokesperson for the HEART Movement. Tara is involved with her family with the HEART Movement. She is a key administrator of the popular HEART Movement Facebook page, participated in a range of our training and lead the organization of the first community-driven HEART BBQ in the park on Torino Reserve.
Above and Beyond HEART Award.
This award goes to Faith Family Church. Not one, not two but almost everyone from the Church is involved with HEART Movement. Pastor Carla is part of our leaders’ forum. Joel, Lyalle, Sione, Joseph to name a few have all been part of the Koru group and the Pockets of Hope dinner. They have hosted programmes for us, supported us at our BBQ and are involved in endless other ways.
As part of this campaign with the AUT Outside the Square team to promote korero around healthy relationships, we’ve produced a series of videos with our inspirational Change Agents, following a couple of different themes. The first video is about the value of reflection.
We would like to acknowledge the Out of the Square team Adam Szentes, Claire Mourits, Lucy Houghton, Phoebe Stanford and Scarlett Sneddon for supporting Te Waipuna Staff make this event happen.