ABOUT US
Family Help Trust has operated child abuse-prevention services for high-risk families since 1990. We set out to confront the causes of family harm and provide client families with the skills they need to improve their lives, and those of their children.
This first service was a pilot named New Start and targeted a group of recidivist offenders, focusing on their children, and providing intensive home-visiting family support and mentorship. The pilot achieved encouragingly low levels of re-offending and measurable improvements in child health outcomes and family functioning. This programme expanded and continued through until 2020 when it was decided that the needs of these children and families could be incorporated within the aims of the Safer Families Service.
In 2001 Family Help Trust with the help of a three-year grant from the Rata Foundation established the Safer Families Service. It was developed as a joint venture between the FHT and the Christchurch Women's Hospital Community Midwifery Team.
Following its experience with New Start and the post-birth complications for special needs babies, the Trust sought interest from midwifery services for an additional intensive long-term home-visiting service to begin early in pregnancy.
The Trust learned there were significant concerns pregnant women with high psycho/social needs were falling through the cracks of local services, and that midwifery services were being obliged to provide additional services for which they were not trained. While targeting high-risk mothers with new babies soon after birth was highly desirable, the Trust believed it was even better to provide intensive support services both pre and post birth.
It was an ideal opportunity to maximise good outcomes for infant/child bonding and breastfeeding promotion, together with dealing with a raft of social problems that affected, outcomes for the unborn child. Eventually FHT began operating The Safer Families Service on its own and independently of CHCH Women’s Hospital.
By the mid-2000s FHT was successful in attracting government funding from the then Child Youth and Family (now Oranga Tamariki) to operate the service. The intensive support aspect of the programme fitted well with the government’s commitment to supporting and strengthening whanau to enable tamariki to grow and thrive within their own family networks. Recognition of the value of the Safer Families Service by our government partners is a key feature to ongoing sustainability of the programme.
In 2012 HIPPY (Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters) was introduced to Christchurch with FHT granted a sub-license to operate the service locally. It was a two-year home-based early childhood enrichment programme that builds the confidence and skills of parents to create a positive learning environment to prepare their child before they enter the primary school system. The programme delivered many other benefits including improved communication between parents and children and employment for local parents as tutors within the programme. It was funded by Ministry of Education through Great Potentials who own the license to deliver the service. The programme at FHT had been successful in Aranui, Hoon Hay and Hornby producing positive outcomes for children and their families. In 2021 the HIPPY programme ended as there was no government funding available for HIPPY in Christchurch from January 2022.
In 2018, Family Help Trust was one of the first and is now one of 12 agencies contracted to the Canterbury District Health Board for the Mana Ake – Stronger for Tomorrow service being delivered through Canterbury schools to children in Years 1 to 8 who are facing ongoing challenges which affect their health and well-being. The programme’s idea grew from research into the needs of children following the Canterbury earthquakes. Following significant disasters there was a wave of anxiety and psycho/ social issues affecting children in the subsequent years. While the earthquakes happened over a decade ago there has been a recognition that ongoing issues such as the pandemic, the mosque shooting, and other societal factors create uncertainty and concern for children.
In 2022 Family Help Trust launched its Safer Family Service in mid Canterbury which was an expansion of its Christchurch counterpart. Through the generous support of a group of Ashburton Funders a pilot was established for three years to help fill gaps in services to vulnerable families in Mid Canterbury.
This first service was a pilot named New Start and targeted a group of recidivist offenders, focusing on their children, and providing intensive home-visiting family support and mentorship. The pilot achieved encouragingly low levels of re-offending and measurable improvements in child health outcomes and family functioning. This programme expanded and continued through until 2020 when it was decided that the needs of these children and families could be incorporated within the aims of the Safer Families Service.
In 2001 Family Help Trust with the help of a three-year grant from the Rata Foundation established the Safer Families Service. It was developed as a joint venture between the FHT and the Christchurch Women's Hospital Community Midwifery Team.
Following its experience with New Start and the post-birth complications for special needs babies, the Trust sought interest from midwifery services for an additional intensive long-term home-visiting service to begin early in pregnancy.
The Trust learned there were significant concerns pregnant women with high psycho/social needs were falling through the cracks of local services, and that midwifery services were being obliged to provide additional services for which they were not trained. While targeting high-risk mothers with new babies soon after birth was highly desirable, the Trust believed it was even better to provide intensive support services both pre and post birth.
It was an ideal opportunity to maximise good outcomes for infant/child bonding and breastfeeding promotion, together with dealing with a raft of social problems that affected, outcomes for the unborn child. Eventually FHT began operating The Safer Families Service on its own and independently of CHCH Women’s Hospital.
By the mid-2000s FHT was successful in attracting government funding from the then Child Youth and Family (now Oranga Tamariki) to operate the service. The intensive support aspect of the programme fitted well with the government’s commitment to supporting and strengthening whanau to enable tamariki to grow and thrive within their own family networks. Recognition of the value of the Safer Families Service by our government partners is a key feature to ongoing sustainability of the programme.
In 2012 HIPPY (Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters) was introduced to Christchurch with FHT granted a sub-license to operate the service locally. It was a two-year home-based early childhood enrichment programme that builds the confidence and skills of parents to create a positive learning environment to prepare their child before they enter the primary school system. The programme delivered many other benefits including improved communication between parents and children and employment for local parents as tutors within the programme. It was funded by Ministry of Education through Great Potentials who own the license to deliver the service. The programme at FHT had been successful in Aranui, Hoon Hay and Hornby producing positive outcomes for children and their families. In 2021 the HIPPY programme ended as there was no government funding available for HIPPY in Christchurch from January 2022.
In 2018, Family Help Trust was one of the first and is now one of 12 agencies contracted to the Canterbury District Health Board for the Mana Ake – Stronger for Tomorrow service being delivered through Canterbury schools to children in Years 1 to 8 who are facing ongoing challenges which affect their health and well-being. The programme’s idea grew from research into the needs of children following the Canterbury earthquakes. Following significant disasters there was a wave of anxiety and psycho/ social issues affecting children in the subsequent years. While the earthquakes happened over a decade ago there has been a recognition that ongoing issues such as the pandemic, the mosque shooting, and other societal factors create uncertainty and concern for children.
In 2022 Family Help Trust launched its Safer Family Service in mid Canterbury which was an expansion of its Christchurch counterpart. Through the generous support of a group of Ashburton Funders a pilot was established for three years to help fill gaps in services to vulnerable families in Mid Canterbury.