Workshops coming up in 2012

Tiaho Trust’s first Whanau Ora ‘venture’

October 2011

Tiaho Trust is a ‘for disabled - by disabled’ organisation that provides information and empowerment services to the disabled community of Northland.  The Whangarei-based Trust has been instrumental in coordinating or supporting many of the major initiatives undertaken by Northland’s disabled community:

• expansion of disability parking and improvement of public access ways within Whangarei City;
• the formation of a Disability Sector Reference Group;
• the adoption by Whangarei District Council of a WDC Disability Action Plan; and
• a collaboration between select Northland tourism operators to produce New Zealand’s first ‘accessibility tour route’, fine-tuned to meet the accessibility requirements of tourists with disabilities. 

Tiaho Trust won a Whanau Ora contract under the Whanau Integration, Innovation and Engagement (WIIE) initiative.  The criteria for participation in Tiaho’s Whanau Ora initiative, whanau must have a whanau member with a disability. 

Tiaho engaged Venture Group to produce administration and process tools for use by participants and Tiaho staff, ready for roll-out in September.  A major focus of Tiaho’s Whanau Ora approach is the development by each whanau of its own Whanau Plan covering the next 2 – 5 years.

Gill Minogue of Venture Group developed tools covering all aspects of a strengths-based participation and administration processes.  Tiaho Trust’s CEO, Jonny Wilkinson, was very pleased with the timeliness, breadth and quality of the tools that Gill produced, commenting, “You’re a machine!  You’ve done a really good job here and exceeded my expectations!”

In turn, Venture Group regards its work for Tiaho Trust as aligning perfectly with Venture’s own objective of ‘turning ideas into action’!