Te Hurihanga is an innovative pilot therapeutic, residential, educational and cultural programme funded by the Ministry of Justice & facilitated in partnership with Raukura Waikato Social Services.
The service integrates evidence-based clinical, cultural, residential and community treatment for recidivist young males who are at a high risk of re-offending
Loosely Translated as 'The Turning Point' , Te Hurihanga is a new approach aimed at turning young offenders away from more serious offending and is designed to be flexible and responsive to the individual needs of the young people and their families that participate in the programme.
Objectives
- Reducing Re-offending
- Holding young people accountable for their offending
- Providing tailored and specialist support to young people, which acknowledges their needs and will provide them with the opportunity to become positive members of the community
The Service
This programme will take each young person between 9 and 18 months to complete. It includes 3 distinct phases, each tailored to meet specific needs of individuals and delivered by staff trained to provide graduated, intensely supervised reintegration into the community.
Residential Phase - the young person lives on site 24 hours, 7 days a week, with specialist staff on hand to tackle the young persons biggest problems i.e. literacy, positive decision making, and taking responsibility for their offending via specific targeted therapeutic intervention.
Transition Phase - the young person is presented with the opportunity to try new skills in different places, following a period of settling into healthy routines.
Home Phase - the young person lives at home whilst parents / care givers are intensely supported by programme Multi Systemic Therapy Team.
Participants
A maximum of 8 young people will live at the home at any one time. These young people will be local males (their homes are within 1 hours drive), aged 14 to 17, who have appeared before the Youth Court and whose offending has been serious enough that they risk going to prison due to the high likelihood of re-offending.
For further information please contact David McCarthy (Programme Manager) on 07 838 3671 / 021 673 852 or at davidm@youthorizons.org.nz