Healthy Families South Auckland and Community Action on Youth and Drugs (CAYAD) recently held a hui to bolster their joint efforts in improving health and wellbeing initiatives across Auckland Council and its communities.
The hui aimed to build whanaungatanga between the two teams, now part of Auckland Council’s Community Impact Unit.
This marks a step forward in collaboration and sharing of expertise, with both focused on shifting the systems and conditions that hold complex social and health issues in place and ensuring that by working together its impact is enhanced across multiple areas of work.
For CAYAD, this was a valuable opportunity to explore the alignment in both teams’ systems approach and share the challenges and successes experienced along the way.
CAYAD kaimahi Danny Kittner says the day provided space to explore each teams’ projects in detail, focusing on synergies in how both work and the communities they work with.
“One important takeaway from the hui was recognising the similar journeys our two teams are on. We are both focused on improving wellbeing outcomes for our communities, leveraging off our place within local government and aiming for high-impact, systems change,” says Danny.
“Our CAYAD team left the hui with a refreshed sense of connection to the Healthy Families South Auckland team. This is something we want to continue to grow over the next 12 months.”
Both Healthy Families South Auckland and CAYAD have a longstanding commitment to promoting health and wellbeing in Tāmaki Makaurau and were part of The Southern Initiative until 2023.
Healthy Families South Auckland manager Matt Appleyard says there is an importance of collaboration within the Community Impact Unit, with teams working across citywide priorities to improve the lives of Aucklanders.
“Working together with other teams across the Council allows us to pool our strengths and create more impactful initiatives which address health and wellbeing,” says Matt.
“By aligning our efforts, we can achieve greater outcomes for the communities we serve across Tāmaki Makaurau.”
