Home-based Social Work
We offer a free confidential home-based social work support service for families/whanau facing difficulties, needing support and/or wanting to make changes in their lives. The Manager receives the referral, allocates to a social worker. The social worker will meet the family/whanau, to complete the initial assessment and the child and family assessment, make a plan and goal to support the family/whanau to achieve their goals. Our social workers are professionals who work to best practice standards and will give individual attention and support and advocate for children and families.
Homebuilder’s is a non-government organisation, clients work with us in a voluntary relationship.
We can support with parenting, child behaviour management, family violence, family/whanau relationships, household management, building resilience, child development, routines and boundaries, care and protection, some health related circumstances, family/whanau wellbeing, education issues, or refer to another more appropriate community agency. This list is not limited as each family/whanau will be assessed on their specific needs.
Respite care (from a community referral) may be available to children 0 – 17 years of age who are in need of care or protection and need to have some time out from their family/whanau. This time out will enable both the child and the parent/s to look at the situation, assess everyone’s needs and plan for the future. Care or protection of the child is paramount to how we plan and work with the child and family/whanau. When a child/ren are identified as needing respite care, we will ascertain if family/friends are available to care for the child/ren in the first instance. Respite care involves the parent/guardian signing a Temporary Care Agreement to enable us to place the child with one of our approved caregivers who will look after the child in the caregiver’s home, for an agreed period of time.
Our Homebased service operates from Karamea in the north to Hokitika in the south, including Reefton.
Homebuilders Counselling Service
- To maintain the focus on the safety and well-being of children/ young people by offering up to 6 brief intervention sessions per annum to children/ young people from age 8 to 18.
- To provide up to 6 brief intervention sessions per annum to parent(s)/caregivers with children/ young people under the age of 18.
Improved family/whanau functioning
Flood Recovery counselling is available to anyone affected directly or indirectly form the Flood events in 2021 and 2022. Free counselling sessions are available. PLease contact the office to make a referral.
Social Workers in Schools
This service is available to students and their families/whanau from selected schools in the Buller region; Runanga, Cobden, Blaketown and Paparoa Range schools in the Greymouth cluster.
Buller School Contacts
Sacred Heart School – Reefton
Ph: 03 732 8645
Email: secretary.sh@xtra.co.nz
Reefton Area School
Ph: 03 732 8421
Email: office@ras.school.nz
Maruia School
Ph: 03 523 8860
Email: principal@maruia.school.nz
Karamea Area School
Ph: 03 782 6717
Email: kate.grey@karamea.school.nz
Westport North School
Ph: 03 789 7172
Email: office@westportnorth.school.nz
Westport South School
Ph: 03 789 7132
Email: office@westportsouth.school.nz
St Canice’s School
Ph: 03 789 7467
Email: principal@stcanices.school.nz
Granity School
Ph: 03 782 8109
Email: principal@granity.school.nz
Greymouth School Contacts
Runanga School
Email: office@runanga.school.nz
Ph: 03 762 7873
Blaketown School
Email: office@blaketown.school.nz
Ph: 03 768 9096
Cobden School
Email: reception@cobden.school.nz
Ph: 03 768 7465
Paparoa Range School
Email: principal@paparoarange.school.nz
Ph: 03 762 5740
This service aims to achieve good education, health and wellbeing outcomes for children. This service is school based and also works with families/whanau in their home.
The social worker in schools works with children (and families) when a child’s behaviour impacts on the learning and development, effects of emotional feelings that get in the way of learning, improve social skills to enable the child to build and maintain relationships, enabling friendships to grow and develop, building positive self-esteem and building a child’s strength and resilience.
Social workers in schools also organise and facilitate programmes for students and adults. These programmes are usually school based with referrals accepted by social worker from the principal, teacher, parent or child.
Social workers in schools can be contacted via the school or by contacting Homebuilders.
Kawatiri Family Harm Prevention
Community organisations and interested people have collaborated to work with “End the Silence on Family Violence”. The group co-ordinates projects to raise awareness through publicity and activities.
Kawatiri Family Harm Prevention is a collaborative network of individuals, community volunteers, non-government agencies and statutory agencies who work towards achieving family violence prevention in the Buller region by:
- Building a strong network for all agencies concerned with family violence prevention to work together, learn from each other and share ideas and experiences
- Providing information which focuses on changing attitudes and behaviours around family violence prevention
- Providing information that may provide support and education for people who want to make changes in their lives
- Providing information on ways to support family and friends who may be in violent situations
- Being part of national campaigns such as the It’s Not Okay campaign, and White Ribbon campaign
The Kawatiri Family Harm Prevention administrator is based at Homebuilders in the Buller.
Strengthening Families
Strengthening Families is a national initiative to co-ordinate services to families/whanau that will benefit from a multi agency approach. The client family/whanau consents to the strengthening families meeting and is included in the process and planning.
Homebuilders can organise and lead strengthening families meetings for clients. A meeting will enable clients to have support agencies/people available, to participate in a plan that supports the family/whanau to achieve their goals.
The Lead Agency continues to call meetings and monitors the plan until the goals are achieved, or not as the case may be. The meetings are then evaluated by all participants and closed.
Strengthening Families is offered coast wide.
Parenting Programmes
Homebuilders offer parenting programmes.
The sessions offer opportunities to:
- Reflect on where we are now as parents and what has influenced this
- Gain insight into parenting styles, skills and coping and the possibility of making changes
- Be accepting of ourselves – who we are and where we have come from
- Strengthen our understanding of the parent role within the family
- Understand the importance of play in the relationship
- Use empathy to develop the relationship
- Give positive, age appropriate attention
- Establish family rules, limits and routines
- Problem solve solutions for challenging behaviours
- Create consistency and safety
The foundation of any change in child behaviour first starts within ourselves as parents. Participants will hopefully begin a new journey in positive parenting and experience more of the joys parenthood has to offer..
Please contact the Homebuilders office for more information or to make a referral to Parenting Programmes.
Supervised Contact
Homebuilders provides professional supervised contact.
The service can be referred through the court process, Oranga Tamariki or through a third party. The court, Oranga Tamariki or the third party covers the costs for contact.
Homebuilders can be the venue for children transitioning between caregivers for contact, if this service is required to be supervised. The terms of the drop off and pick up is agreed between both caregivers, in a written agreed plan.
If all parties agree, and Homebuilders has capacity, Homebuilders may accept private referrals at the parties cost. Accepting private referrals is at the Manager’s discretion.
A detailed supervised contact policy exists to guide staff and clients through the process.
Supervised contact is based at 69 Russell Street, Westport. We aim to offer this service when we are based at our Russell Street premises.
Please contact Karin Hansen – Supervised Contact Co-ordinator – 021 297 4074
Fee Paying Services
Homebuilders can offer fee paying services. Please contact the Chief Exectutive for details.
* Counselling
* Supervision
* Facilitation / Training
*Supervised Contact
Kawatiri Men's Group
The Kawatriri Men’s Group is operating under the Homebuilders West Coast Trust umbrella.
They hold monthly meetings.