Pou Maia
Our workforce is our most valued resource. We are very proud of what our team achieves with children who, at the outset of their involvement, appear to have few of the 'protective factors' that can compensate for the almost overwhelming difficulties that they face.
Almost all of our people look back on their involvement with Stand Tū Māia as one of the most satisfying and challenging experiences of their life.
When recruiting staff we look for specific personal qualities and values first and foremost, as well as experience and training. We also consider the ability and willingness of individuals to work enthusiastically within our strength based approach and make the professional commitment required to the social work framework. Our staff bring a wide range of qualifications, training and professional backgrounds.
The qualities and skills we look for and focus on developing in our staff mirror our values. We expect them to be:
passionate about real outcomes and focused on the needs of the children
respectful, compassionate and empowering in their work with parents and wider family
understanding of the impact of life trauma on the children we work with and what works to heal a hurt mind
able to focus children and families on solutions not problems
culturally competent in all that they do.
OUR TRAINING
Staff benefit from intensive training and regular structured professional and managerial supervision, and work within a proven and consistent framework.
We expect all of our teachers to maintain full registration and all social work staff are required to maintain their competency and work towards registration, if they are not already registered.
We have developed some key partnerships in order to ensure our staff are competent and confident in their work with our most vulnerable children. These partnerships allow us to offer well researched, evidence based learning programmes to our staff.
Ingoa Te Reo Māori
Stand Tū Māia has as an organisational model that uses Te Reo Māori role titles to articulate our positions and our aspirations for those positions.
It is called Ingoa Whare Tū Māia.
Everyone in the organisation can be called Pou Māia, a confident, strong, committed pillar of the house of Stand Tū Māia. The positions are then likened to different parts of the whare where the metaphor of the whare enhances and articulates the role. All staff are inducted in this model and many comment on how it makes them feel very present in their role and responsibilities to children and families in our service.
OUR BOARD - KAhui PoutUArongo
Every organisation needs good governance and leadership. Stand Tū Māia are fortunate to have kept the same board members for many years with backgrounds including health, farming, business, tourism, finance and politics with strong Māori links.
OUR KAUMATUA - Kāhui Poutokomanawa
Stand Tū Māia work closely with our Māori Kaumatua, gifted by Iwi in our regions, who share their wisdom, culture and Tikanga Māori with our Tamariki and staff.