Salvation Army Social Services Conference

E nga mana, e nga reo, e te iwi o te motu, tena koutou, tena koutou tena koutou katoa.

First of all I’d like to acknowledge Territorial Commander Commissioner Donald Bell and Territorial Secretary for Social Programme, Major Campbell Roberts,  National Manager for Home Care Major Meng Cheong, National Manager for Addictions and Supportive Accommodation Major Lynnette Hutson and Major Ian Hutson, the National Manager for Community Ministries. It’s my pleasure to join you today at this conference.

The winds of change are indeed blowing across New Zealand, and all of us are being called to serve where we can. I am grateful New Zealand is blessed with organisations like the Salvation Army. The work you do with families, parents, and children most in need is invaluable in helping New Zealand to become a healthy, connected society.

As your report, Into Troubled Waters, highlighted late last year, New Zealand faces many challenges – including rising unemployment and increasing living costs. Many New Zealand families are feeling the pressure, and when families are pressured other social indicators are also affected – like family and social violence and child poverty.

Our role as Government is to be very clear about what is happening out there in the community, and to do whatever it is that we can to mitigate the impacts of financial and social pressures on families and communities.

We know getting people work, and keeping people in jobs means more to an individual, a family and a community than just an income.  It instils self-respect, pride and a sense of achievement. You will know this from the work you do out there in the community – how many of the testimonials on your website are about people who felt worthy as a person after taking on volunteer roles at one of your Family Stores? And how many of those people later moved on to paid employment, either with the Salvation Army or with another employer? Working and feeling like you’ve got something of value to offer society makes people feel good about themselves, so we’ll be doing everything we can to keep people in jobs.

New Zealand is a small country – everyone is connected to everyone else. Employers needing to cut costs know that if they have to let someone go, it’s not only that person affected. That someone has a family, and is part of the community. It is in the best interests of both the employer and the employee to work together to keep the job, and find other innovative and creative ways to cut costs and boost value.

This is what last month’s job summit was all about - business leaders, government, banking and union leaders coming together to brainstorm how to collectively get the country through a prolonged, and probably nasty, recession. The summit demonstrates the way that we will all need to work together to look after each other in this time of economic uncertainty. It’s up to Government to lead and model this collaborative and innovative way of working.

In challenging times like this, it is always the children who suffer most. Stressed parents are not happy parents, and it’s tough to be loving when you are worried about putting food on the table. Children are totally reliant and dependent on the adults around them, and they should be able to enjoy the pleasures and joys of childhood. These children will then grow up to become the happy, well-adjusted adults that will create our future. Yet far too many of our children are being forced to grow up too fast.

A couple of weeks ago, a 14 yr old held up a dairy at knifepoint and stole Toffeepops, milk and nappies.

What kind of pressure must his family be under for that child to feel like his only choice to get nappies was to steal them at knife point?

Situations like this demand we work together to support our most vulnerable families, so they know they have somewhere to turn when times get really bad. I know the Salvation Army always lends a hand right across our country – but that boy didn’t know he could come to you for help. He didn’t know he could have come into any of our Work and Income offices and worked with one of our frontline workers to help his family.

By and large, the kids we hear about in the news or through the court system, like this 14 yr old, come from families under pressure. The solution to dealing with this small group of young people is not at the justice end – although appropriate justice does have a role to play. The solution lies in prevention. It lies in working with families so children can grow into happy, well-adjusted young people and adults. The solution also lies in not being afraid of our young people because the actions of a few taint our perception of the rest, and it lies in celebrating the achievements of the many thousands of youth around the country doing great things.

This Government believes in our youth, and we want to show our support for young people in a very real way, especially now when there is a danger that a lack of employment options for 16 and 17 years could see them bored and aimless, with all of the resulting social disruption.

However, we will not just let 16 and 17 year olds go on a benefit.

We expect all young people under the age of 18 should be in work, education, or training.  We want to give all young people equality of opportunity, but also the responsibility, obligation and motivation to better themselves no matter what their circumstances are.

Our solution is to support our young people with the introduction of the Youth Guarantee.

The Youth Guarantee will address the issue of large numbers of young New Zealanders leaving school without any qualifications, and the wasted potential and lost opportunities this represents.  We will provide quality education that ensures even troubled youth can achieve their potential, and contribute to our society and economy. 

We’ll do this by creating access, free of charge, to a programme of educational study towards school-level qualifications. It includes opportunities for those who might be more motivated in non-school settings.

Plus we’ve developed Fresh Start for those young people who are already in trouble. Designed to make young offenders accountable for their actions, Fresh Start responds to the underlying causes of behaviour. It also improves and extends the range of options for dealing with serious young offenders. 

The main components of this programme are:

•          Extending Youth Court jurisdiction to include 12 and 13 year olds who commit serious offences
•          longer residential stays and increased supervision requirements for persistent and serious offenders
•          new powers for the Youth Court to order parenting, mentoring and drug and alcohol programmes.

It’s a tough love approach which recognises that “one-size-fits-all” is not the most effective way to respond to behaviours of young offenders. These young people take the actions they do for a variety of different reasons; including bravado, boredom, financial pressure, peer pressure, need for attention, curiosity, and to feel powerful.

All young people who offend are a part of someone’s family. This Government wants to get alongside families who are struggling so these types of situations don’t occur. We want to stop children and youth from entering our youth justice system at such a young age. However, it’s a fine balance between offering easily accessible support to parents, and making sure they also step up to the plate and take responsibility for the role they play in creating their situation.

So we want to make it clear to parents that support is a two-way street.

People must be prepared to help themselves and do what needs doing.

It’s unacceptable for parents to allow their situations to deteriorate to the point that they are unable to provide a safe environment for their children. It’s unacceptable for parents to feel like they’re under so much pressure that they’re neglecting their children. It’s unacceptable for parents to abuse, or allow the abuse of, their children because that’s all they know, or because they’re afraid.

So how do we work together, Government and NGOs like yourselves, to get parents to step up and take responsibility?

When I scroll down the many pages of testimonials on your website, and see all those happy smiling faces, I know what you’re doing is working. People are coming to you for help, and you’re able to respond to that need. However, the dynamics of the relationship between you as a social services provider and the people you help is different from the one between the Government as a social services provider and the people we help.

It’s our challenge to know that the support and assistance we’re providing is being effective; not just in getting people through the next week or the next month, but in changing the drivers that created the situation they’re in. We need to make sure our programmes and services help people improve themselves and, as a result, have the power to change their situation for good.

Give a man a kumara and you feed him for a day. Teach him how grow a garden full of kai and you feed him for a lifetime.

Yesterday in Dunedin I heard about a man who needed help from a foodbank. He couldn’t bear the thought of taking something, without giving something back – so he brought in some lettuces and other veggies from his own garden to give to other people. That’s what gives me hope that together – we’ll get through these tougher times.

As the Government assesses all of its spending to ensure that programmes and services provide real value for money, we need to look at whether or not these programmes and services are helping people change their lives for the better. Not just allowing them to continue on in the same old way; sometimes for generations.

I see people who’ve made this change when I look at the work the Salvation Army does. Your focus is on helping people help themselves to change and grow. This is one of the reasons why I think it serves the whole country for the Ministry of Social Development to strengthen its ties with community agencies.

NGOs play a vital role in supporting the most vulnerable members of our society, like 73 yr old Murray who first made contact with the Salvation Army in the 1960s. All those years of working with the Salvation Army and you never gave up on him. You even negotiated a Housing New Zealand flat on his behalf.

This shows me that your constant interaction with Government agencies means you probably have some ideas on how we can provide better service and value to the people who need us most. Building closer relationships means NGOs feel able to approach the Ministry and share these ideas. It means we’re open to listening to the ideas you’ve got and taking them on board.

I hope that during this conference you are able to digest what I’ve had to say, and think about some creative and innovative ways Government and agencies can work together to build resilient, confident New Zealanders.

Thank you.