A proposal to establish a new behaviour change and mentoring service for young people in, and on the edge of, the youth justice system — built by an organisation that has spent six years working with their fathers.
Prepared for Oranga Tamariki — Ministry for Children · September 2026
fall in the number of children and young people with serious and persistent offending behaviour since June 2023, against a 15% target for 2030
of young offenders up to age 20 are re-imprisoned within twelve months of release; 62.6% are reconvicted
of criminal justice apprehensions are people aged 15 to 24, who are 14% of the population
A young person can change while the community he returns to has not. The gain that remains is in holding him there — long after the intervention has ended.
of child and youth offenders under 17 had evidence of family violence in their homes
of young offenders aged 14 to 16 had prior care and protection reports already made to Oranga Tamariki
Fathers for Families works every week with the men whose behaviour in the home the evidence identifies as the entry point to that pathway. Many of those men were themselves the young people this proposal is about. All of them are fathers, with rangatahi in their own homes, already trained to work with them.
This is not a provider entering an unfamiliar population. It is the same population, met earlier.
| Year to 30 June 2026 | Result |
|---|---|
| People through intake | 860 |
| Actively supported across the service | 360 |
| Commenced the fourteen-week programme | 112 |
| Graduated | 110 |
| Completion rate among those who commenced | 98% |
| Service delivery engagements recorded | 3,469 |
| Participants identifying as Māori or Pacific | 78.7% |
Delivered in Manurewa, Papakura, Papatoetoe, Māngere, Ōtara, Manukau, Ōtāhuhu and Flat Bush — the same catchment as Korowai Manaaki and Whakatakapokai.
A new provider spends its first year building what this organisation already runs.
Rangatahi would be in a room in term one, not in a design phase.
One man entered the programme in 2024, was co-facilitating by Term 2 of 2025 and leading groups by Term 3. Another arrived in February 2025 on a court requirement and was co-facilitating by Term 2. Three now lead service areas and completed their first semester of the AUT Certificate in Community Health with a B+ — their first return to formal education since leaving school.
Every cohort produces the people who deliver the next one. The capability compounds, and it stays in the community it came from.
| The Gate | Referral, engagement, consent, risk and needs assessment, allocation |
|---|---|
| Core intervention | The fourteen-week group programme |
| Whānau support and mentoring | Case management, safety planning, court and family group conference support, agency navigation, home visits |
| Health and wellbeing | Gym, walking groups, peer connection |
| Whānau and children | School holiday programme, parent–child activities |
| Leadership and development | Prevention and leadership to employment, co-facilitation, restoration and mentoring |
| Alumni and legacy | Gatherings, peer mentoring, marae wānanga, training the trainers, tertiary study |
A young person does not exit into isolation. He transitions into the next pathway, and the organisation is still there in five years.
| Primary cohort | Rangatahi aged 14–17 — in residence, on bail, under supervision, or known to Police and the Youth Court |
|---|---|
| Continuity group | 17–20, where young people leave youth justice and where the re-imprisonment risk concentrates |
| Shape | A group intervention inside a twelve-month mentoring engagement, referred by your social worker or family group conference coordinator |
| Delivery team | New dedicated positions, drawn from and supervised by the existing lived-experience workforce, with youth specialists recruited alongside |
| Setting | Room, marae and bush — recorded by setting so the question is answered with data |
92% of young people in youth justice residences show significant learning difficulties, with mean reading ability at the fourth percentile. These are young people who have disengaged from every classroom they have sat in.
The Ministry of Social Development invests $17.8 million a year in specialist behaviour change delivery, which it states equates to 121.5 full-time equivalents nationally — an implied $146,502 per position. This proposal is priced on that figure rather than our own.
| Full-time equivalents proposed | 8 |
|---|---|
| Indicative rate per position | $146,502 |
| Indicative annual investment | $1,172,016 |
| Term proposed | 3 years |
| Indicative total across the term | $3,516,048 |
One thing we would ask of you. The cost per young person per day in a youth justice residence, and the equivalent in the community. Oranga Tamariki holds it. It is the single figure that would most strengthen this case, and it cannot responsibly be estimated from overseas data.