Genesis Youth Trust offers a wraparound service for rangatahi referred by NZ Police and Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry for Children. Our services include Social Work, Youth Mentoring and Family & Counselling services.
The services that we provide to our young people and their families are based on our Genesis values of Manaaki tangata, (servanthood), Aroha mutunga kore (Unconditional love), Tika me te pono (trust and integrity), Wairuatanga (doing what it takes with a sense of calling and purpose), Whakamana Rangatahi, empowering youth and families, Whakakotahi (teamwork), and Kē eke ki te taumata, (excellence). Our organisational values underpin our practice and commitment to providing best practice services for those we work with.
We deliver our services from three different sites across Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland; Counties Manukau West (Mangere, Papatoetoe, Otahuhu), Counties Manukau Central (Manurewa), Counties Manukau South (Papakura, Pukekohe, Waiuku, Tuakau) and Auckland East (Glen Innes, Panmure, Mt Wellington).
Each of our sites has a team of dedicated Mentors, Counsellors, and Social Workers. Having our different services available at each site helps us to work collaboratively as a team and improves our relationship with our local stakeholders. It also allows our young people and their families to have better access to our services.
There are two main pathways into accessing Genesis services. A young person who is referred on a Police Alternative Action Plan receives different service provisions then those on an Oranga Tamariki the Ministry for Children Family Group Conference Plan (Youth Court), due to the funding structure we operate within.
NZ Police Referrals - Social Bond Intervention: A new targeted and enhanced way of working
For young people referred by Police Youth Aid onto the Social Bond, they receive an enhanced intervention that differs from what we have done previously in that they now go through a thorough validated psychological assessment to assess their risks, protective factors and needs. This psychological assessment tool (which Genesis is pioneering the use of within Social Work in New Zealand) then generates the key priority areas that our team will work towards addressing, through a multi-disciplinary approach.
Each young person referred under this service is assigned a Social Worker, Mentor and Counsellor. Through this multi-disciplinary approach, our team now have the opportunity to work holistically with the young people who has been referred and their family. This intervention is also unique in that it allows the young person to engage with our services for a minimum of six months, and up to two years.
Oranga Tamariki Referrals
Our young people referred to us by Oranga Tamariki the Ministry for Children Youth Justice are those who are more serious and recidivist offenders. These young people go through a restorative justice process which includes a Family Group Conference (FGC) plan, where we as Genesis are invited to present our different services.
It is the decision of the young person and their family if they want to engage with us. We are often brought on to a young person’s FGC plan to offer our Mentoring and Parenting Programmes. These FGC plans can continue for up to 4-6 months. Other components of the young person’s FGC plan could include other services in the community and are an opportunity for us to work in partnership with other agencies.
Who we work with
Social Work team – our drivers of change
Our Social Work team are central to the delivery and coordination of our services. Genesis has three Social Work teams, one at each of our sites. Our Social Workers reflect the communities they serve and many of them live and work within the same community. All of our Social Workers are either qualified or working towards their Social Work qualification.
Our Social Workers are the first people from our team to meet our young people and their families. They work on building rapport with the young person and also their family and help to introduce them to our support services. They play a key role in gathering the relevant information to inform our initial and ongoing validated assessments and targeted intervention plans. Our Social Workers have played a key role in driving our new psychological assessment tool, the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory, which was introduced late in 2017 under the Social Bond.
Mentoring team – our relationship and youth engagement specialists
Our Mentoring team are the experts in establishing and maintaining genuine relationships with our young people. A team of mentors are based in our three locations. They come from different types of backgrounds including: youth workers, psychologists, sportsmen and sportswomen, and musicians. Each of our mentors has a heart for reconnecting our young people with positive role models and pro-social activities.
Our Mentors run a number of mentoring programmes throughout the year including one on one mentoring and group programmes that are strengths-based, gender specific, and gender mixed where appropriate. Our one on one mentoring programme is based on the young person’s goals and key areas relating to reducing risks, addressing specific needs, and building protective factors. Our group mentoring programme is an opportunity to build a mentoring family, look at gender specific issues, learn life skills, cultural identity and is also developed to help address identified needs.
Counselling team – our heart surgeons
Our growing team of Counsellors are our heart surgeons and focus on getting to the root cause of our young people’s offending. They work with our young people through one on one counselling sessions, and they also work with our families through our whanau-focused programmes. Our Counselling and Family Services Programmes work on supporting our young people and their families to learn strategies for dealing with their emotions and experiences, and building on their strengths as a family.
In recent times Genesis has seen an increase in self-harming and suicidal ideation amongst our young people and their peers, and our Counsellors work to address these issues. Our Counselling team has a strong focus on the holistic well-being of our young people, including addressing their mental and emotional needs.
Whānau programme
Our team of Counsellors has recently partnered with the Parenting Place to run the Building Awesome Whanau Programme for our young people and families. This programme is tailored to Maori and Pasifika families and delivered in a way that is non-judgmental and easy to engage with.
Genesis has also partnered with the Parenting Place to develop a co-designed whanau programme which is specific to offending young people and their families. This is an exciting project with the potential to have real impact amongst vulnerable whanau and those who historically have been more difficult to engage with, and it also has the potential for much greater reach in future. Language-specific programmes will be developed in future to ensure that we are being culturally responsive and able to appropriately engage with all the communities we work with.
Genesis Youth Trust works with children and young people aged 10 years to 16 years who are apprehended by Police for offending. Offending severity can range from entry level offences such as Shoplifting and Wilful Damage through to more common youth offences such as Burglary or Unlawfully Taking Motor Vehicles. At the more serious end we may work with high risk young people who have committed serious Assault or Aggravated Robbery.
Once the offence is proven, the Police Youth Aid Officers from various Counties Manukau and East Auckland Police stations refer the young people through to our teams for a comprehensive assessment followed by a focused multi-disciplinary team intervention.
As well as working with the young person who is referred, Genesis is also able to work with the wider whānau. This is crucial, given that many of our clients come from lower socio-economic families with issues that can include generational dysfunction, generational offending, gang affiliations, alcohol and drug addictions, anger issues, low literacy and numeracy levels, truancy, broken families, unemployment and mental illness.
The introduction of the Social Bond in September 2017 has seen a slight shift in the type of young people that Genesis engages with. While in the past Genesis tended to work with lower-risk youth offenders, under the Social Bond Genesis is contracted to work with young people who are higher risk. To be referred to the Social Bond, the young person must have a medium or high YORST score (YORST is the Youth Offending Risk Screening Tool that Police use) and be referred on a specific offence they have committed. The majority of clients who Genesis work with now come under the Social Bond.
Programme and Service Information
Child Protection Policy
View our Child Protection Policy which is applied across all Genesis Youth Trust services
Brochure for Young People
Read and print our Brochure for Young People outlining what young people can expect during their time with Genesis Youth Trust
Children and Young Person's Charter
Read and print Genesis's Children and Young Person's Charter