Almost four years into the work and the Crown-Te Hiku Iwi investment in reducing and preventing whānau harm in Te Hiku is firmly in the green.

A recent Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis has concluded that for every $1 invested in Whiria Te Muka, there is a $4.07 return. The findings have also affirmed that every incident of reported whānau harm in Te Hiku costs $61,627 to stakeholders.

Whiria Te Muka is the NZ Police-Te Hiku Iwi partnership that was launched in 2017 to support whānau experiencing harm to move towards Mana Tangata.

The analysis was completed by Business and Economic and Research Limited (BERL) and evaluated the long-term outcomes of Whiria Te Muka, including the reduction and prevention of whānau harm, a strong Crown-Iwi partnership and Mana Tangata or Mana Whānui.

Whiria Te Muka worked on 976 reported incidents in 2018, 1390 in 2019, 1631 in 2020 and 975 to August 31 this year. Although reported family harm has increased, 896 whānau have moved from high to low risk.

“We have seen more whānau building confidence to ring 111 before the harm escalates. We expect numbers of whānau harm will continue to rise as our communities build more trust in NZ Police and the 111 system,” says Whiria Te Muka Iwi Co-Director Callie Corrigan.

Northland Police District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill agrees that the report demonstrates that the work that Whiria Te Muka is doing is having a significant impact on whānau harm in Te Hiku.

“Whilst the return on investment is extremely good, what is potentially equally as important is what we’re hearing from whānau who have been through family harm where Whiria Te Muka have assisted their transition into a place of safety. For many they have lived with family harm in their household for many years, and finally they are getting the resources and ability to be able to manage their lives in the absence of harm,” he says.

Te Rarawa Chairman and Whiria Te Muka Leader Haami Piripi says the opportunities for iwi development and a prevention focus have emerged as opportunities.

“This encourages more participation by another genre of stakeholders who can make a tremendous difference to the current scenario of reactionary responses by going back down the pipeline to cognitive and behavioural understanding about prevention,” he says.

He adds that Te Hiku Iwi need to better understand the nature of whānau harm in Far North communities and the Whiria Te Muka evaluation has provided indicators for how well it is doing and how far there is to go.

“This is so cutting edge from my point of view as a social scientist and I think it’s great. But I’m also an an Iwi leader with responsibilities and obligations to love and protect every one of them. We’ve all got a story about whānau harm and it just spreads insidiously right through the community. Ending violence in our home is what drives me,” he says.

The report also looked at how the Crown-Iwi partnership is working by rating a number of critical success factors. Overall, the report concluded that Whiria Te Muka is in a unique and strong position to affect systemic change and better support people experiencing whānau harm in Te Hiku.

Callie says the BERL result provides Whiria Te Muka with a whāriki or foundation to start measuring the strength of partnership.

“Partnership is hard. You don’t just have a strong relationship overnight. But this helps us understand the areas we’re doing really well in, while also highlighting the areas we need to improve upon. We look forward to identifying how we can start strengthening those,” she says.

The report was completed by analysing interviews with frontline Iwi and Police staff and management, as well as reviewing the unique quantitative and qualitative data that is held by Whiria Te Muka.

BERL chief economist Hillmarè Schulze says a SROI model is a method for measuring values that are not traditionally reflected in a financial statement – including cultural, social, economic and environmental values.

“It can identify how effectively a programme uses its capital and other resources to create value for the community. The overall objective of an SROI analysis is to measure social return on investment by documenting and evaluating the impacts of social change,” she says.

However, Hillmarè adds that Whiria Te Muka cannot take credit for all of the change in whānau lives.

“We know the Whiria Te Muka team is amazing, but they can’t claim to be responsible for all the impact. We know that there is a whole community of other agencies looking to reduce whānau harm. Collectively, the agencies contribute to reducing whānau harm,” she says.

Callie says the report starts to provide Whiria Te Muka with the financial benefit of partnership and the financial value of cultural capital, which is often undermined in system change.

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