Read the 2025 Annual Report

Read the 2025 Financial Statement

Tēnā koutou katoa

Our 2025 Annual Report is now available on our website. In a year shaped by uncertainty and adversity, this report tells a story of our resilience, shared purpose, and the collective impact of those who stood with us to deliver life changing outcomes for our most vulnerable tamariki mokopuna and whānau.

What we achieved together

• 1,465 families (6,667 individuals) supported this year.

• Our work continues to reach those on the edge of care, with 97% of tamariki exposed to five or more risk factors and 82% exposed to ten or more.

• Outcomes across home, school and community include:

• 74% of children showing reduced trauma (PTSD) symptoms

• 72% of families improving in overall family functioning

• Parents and schools feeling the difference (reduced stress reported by 78% of parents and 75% of teachers/learning support professionals)

Milestones we can be proud of

• We proudly opened new purpose-built regional centres in Manukau and Whangārei — vibrant spaces designed to foster healing, spark collaboration, and ignite hope for the future.

• We released the independent Changing the Trajectory research report, providing powerful evidence of the importance of trauma-capable services and reinforcing the national significance of our work.

• We received independent validation of our impact from ImpactLab, with measurable improvements for tamariki and whānau, including an average social value of $51,239 per family.

• We worked constructively with Oranga Tamariki and the Social Investment Agency, while continuing to focus on a sustainable, long-term funding solution.

Kelly Mahika of the Rotorua Daily Post attended our Kanohi ki te Kanohi Hui in Rotorua. Her story tells about a family Stand Tū Māia has supported, but it speaks to much more than that.

Stand Tū Māia is proud to have been operating for over 12 years, as a specialised service for over 6,000 children, and over 2,200 families in the Midland region.

There is “unwavering” demand for our services, and we have many families on our waitlist.

Thanks to everyone who joined us last week in Rotorua for the Midland region hui, as well as hui held in Gisborne, and Christchurch. Your support is hugely important.

Currently we are supporting 4,000 tamariki mokopuna and 1,000 whānau.

At Stand Tū Māia we help tamariki mokopuna and whānau live the lives their ancestors dreamed for them. These numbers are a reflection of the engagement and trust we consistently commit to for those we walk alongside. We are incredibly grateful to our Whare no Tū Māia of Pou Māia, allied professionals, supporters, funders, and our communities who believe in the service we provide.

Together, we are changing lives.

Our islands of this country are surrounded by water, we engage with wai constantly and we acknowledge and respect the power it has. We are so lucky to have Pou Māia so passionate about making a difference. Congratulations Tracy and Ben

This follow up interview discusses the new Changing the Trajectory report and ongoing funding issues

https://www.standtumaia.nz/s/Changing-the-Trajectory-Report-April-2025.pdf

We commissioned this report to facilitate discussion about a sustainable and effective funding and delivery framework for Aotearoa New Zealand’s social service provider sector.

It shows that adopting neuroscience advances, underpinned by data science and strong values, would make a significant difference to the tens of thousands of the most vulnerable children living in New Zealand, and deliver much better value for money in social services.

As our Board Chair David Boyle says: “Aotearoa New Zealand has a golden opportunity to drastically improve the lives of significantly at-risk children, and to get better value for money from investment in social services”.

We encourage you to read the report and share it widely.

#StandForStand

The work Stand Tū Māia has done for us is the best. We would recommend to anyone. Having the right person to connect with is important and we had the best. She was great. I take my hat off to you all.

The service was amazing and my child loved it. He connected well with [the social worker], she was a beautiful lady in and out. Anytime I rang she answered. There are not enough words. I have expressed this to Oranga Tamariki - saying we wouldn't have had it any other way than working with Stand Tū Māia. My child connecting was what I wanted and you did it. Thank you to everyone at Stand Tū Māia. 

This means that [there will be no change to current contract commitments until at least 30 June, 2025 / we will continue to pause on planned activities until we have a greater level of certainty].

Importantly, Oranga Tamariki has confirmed it is working with the Minister for Children on the scope and implementation of her announcement of 30 January 2025 regarding funding being extended to December 2025.

We remain hopeful we will be included in this group of social providers, and that we will be able to continue the ongoing delivery of our specialised trauma treatment, intensive family wraparound support and family therapy services.  Currently we are supporting 4,000 children and 1,000 families across the country.

As a ‘strong fence on the top of the cliff’ for significantly at-risk children and their whanau, we are committed to doing everything we can to protect the people we support.  We continue to explore all options available to us.

We will update you once we know more. 

Thank you for your ongoing support.

#StandForStand

#Standforstand

“My first thought and my heart went straight to the tamariki. All I was worried about was them,” Milner said. “How would we tell them that we would have to stop providing the support we do?

“We are often the last resort for a lot of tamariki and whānau. If we closed, where would they go?”

#StandForStand

..and follow-up comments post temporary agreement

Charity settles payment dispute with OT – Waatea News: Māori Radio Station

#StandForStand

Stand Tū Māia and Oranga Tamariki have agreed an end date for current contractual arrangements at 22 April 2024. The parties will meet early next year to discuss potential future Oranga Tamariki procurement and contracting processes.

Chief Executive Dr Fiona Inkpen says the resolution provides some immediate certainty for the high-risk children and families supported by Stand Tū Māia, but there is still uncertainty about the long-term future.

“The agreement gives us time to have a further conversation with the Government to determine if there is a desire to retain the service and what will happen to support these vulnerable children and their families in the future.

“We want to thank Andrew Bridgman, Acting CE of Oranga Tamariki for playing a key role in making this resolution happen.

READ THE FULL MEDIA RELEASE HERE

This will allow our service to remain open until April of 2025.

We will continue to need the support of our community and whanau to build a consistent future after that - so please, #StandForStand and make your voices heard.

In Northland, Stand Tū Māia works in partnership with iwi, hapū and other agencies as well as schools across the region from the Hokianga to Whangārei.

Northland regional manager Rosey Davies said she did not know what the news meant for the 230 children under their services.

Another 50 are on the waitlist.

“As we broke the news to whanāu that we were working with over the last few years, we’ve held our parents as they’ve cried,” Davies said.

“They’ve expressed their disbelief, their anger and their despair and questioned ‘who is going to help us now?’.”

#standforstand

Chief Executive Dr Fiona Inkpen said the Trust had been forced to bring court action to hold the Ministry to its contractual obligations and prevent the Ministry from acting as though the contract has been cancelled.

“We strongly believe Oranga Tamariki has committed an egregious breach of good faith in attempting to terminate our integrated contract at short notice, threatening our ability to provide specialist services to thousands of vulnerable children and their families.

MEDIA RELEASES

Media Release

PSA Media Release

MEDIA COVERAGE

Story in ‘The Post’

Story in the NZ Herald

Story in the times.co.nz

They’ve also established an information site to help with those conversations.

The Childrens’s Commission has released a handy pocket edition of the convention, including in te reo. You can find it here https://www.occ.org.nz/publications/resources/uncrc-30th-edition?fbclid=IwAR2Qn_qT59pl_2A1k7i5X_cTFc0XLABAV7OEEnUbm0208RE6d2yGQLLhFd0

Once again our Annual Report is lovingly designed and published by our friends and supporters at Insight Creative New Zealand.