Start from where you are
You don’t need a gym membership. You don’t need a sport. You don’t need to be ready. The only place to start is where you already are, and the letterbox is far enough. South Auckland has gyms. It has swimming pools, parks, courts and sports clubs. If you know where to look, the options are […]
Growing new traditions for healthier futures
In South Auckland, a group of families are beginning something new. Not just a programme, but the start of new traditions that could shape the health of generations to come. We are currently in week one of testing a co-designed prototype created by participants who are living with type 2 diabetes, are pre-diabetic, or are […]
When silence is inherited: rethinking mental health through a whanau lens
In South Auckland, there’s a quiet truth sitting in many of our homes. It’s not always loud. It doesn’t always show up in crisis. But it lives in the spaces between our conversations or more honestly, the lack of them. For many of us, the way we learned to communicate was shaped long before we […]
Healthy Families South Auckland releases new reports with Health Coalition Aotearoa
Healthy Families South Auckland and Health Coalition Aotearoa have released two new reports highlighting key policy actions needed to improve access to affordable, nutritious food for communities across South Auckland. Titled “He kai kei aku ringa – There is food in my hands”, the foundation and community reports respond to rising levels of food poverty […]
Celebrating a decade of partnership: Healthy Families South Auckland & AUT
With the Healthy Families South Auckland and AUT partnership reaching a decade milestone in 2026, Lead Systems Innovator Julio Bin and Senior Lecturer Lisa McEwan reflect on a successful 2025 programme, why this partnership is important and what opportunities lie ahead. 2025 highlights and the Good Food Journal project As Healthy Families South Auckland (HFSA) […]
Korero Mai closing the communication gaps in our homes
Kōrero Mai began at the grassroots with whānau not as a product, but as a response to what parents and rangatahi in South Auckland told us they needed: safer, more honest ways to talk with each other, says Systems Innovator, Veranika Seiuli from Healthy Families South Auckland The Cause Collective (HFSA). “Through wānanga and co-design, whānau shared the real barriers they face, role […]
Healthy Families South Auckland – 2025 Year in Review
Reconnecting people, purpose and prevention As 2025 draws to a close, Healthy Families South Auckland – The Cause Collective, reflects on a year defined by connection, to each other, to our whakapapa, and to the systems that shape our everyday wellbeing. Across every strand of our work, from Oranga Whakapapa to Mental Health & Wellbeing, Food Systems and Movement & Sport, […]
ImpactLab report highlights social value of Whenua to Whenua programme
A new report from ImpactLab provides comprehensive insights into the social impact of one of the initiatives created and implemented by the Food Hub Collective, an organisation supported by Healthy Families South Auckland. The GoodMeasure Foundations and Forecast Report focuses on the Food Hub Collective’s Whenua to Whenua experiential learning programme, a series of initiatives […]
Good healthy kai is not waste
Tons of fish products are being saved from waste through Kai Ika, an initiative spearheaded by local South Auckland community kaitiaki, Papatūānuku Kokiri Marae and Legasea. These initiatives are examples of partnerships that show what sustainable systems change can look like. Legasea , a nonprofit organisation dedicated to restoring the abundance, biodiversity and health of […]
Front row view to groundbreaking systems change in the heart of South Auckland
Last month a new initiative that aims to bring great tasting, healthy and culturally rich kai directly to the communities, was launched in the heart of South Auckland in the form of “Mā ngā hua, Ka Ora”; a shared food trailer created by the people, for the people. Led by local community driven champions, Papat��ānuku […]