Award win close to her heart

Winning an award for a parenting programme is "close to my heart" says REAP Tararua manager Claire Chapman.

The award for Community Based Programme of the Year Tangata Tiriti was presented at the ACE Aotearoa conference held recently.

REAP's parenting programme in wahakura wananga was in collaboration with Rangitane o Tamaki nui a Rua, Plunket and other organisations, to make a pepi, or basket for a newborn.

The teaching also included safe sleep messages.

"In the making of the pepi, whanau come together and learn to weave together and it's all about the love surrounding the baby in preparation for its birth and support when the baby's been born, not just for the mother but for the whole whanau, which is a beautiful way to prepare for a baby to enter the world," Chapman says.

It's clear that REAP are very passionate about adult and community education.

"When people come in to do ACE education and they may have had horrendous experiences at school, they have got no confidence with their ability to learn," Chapman says.

"You can hook them in and they realise they can learn and they love to learn because … it's relevant to them and it's delivered in a way that's informal.

"Under ACE education you can really listen and observe to what people may connect with."

Chapman attended the awards with the former whanau support co-ordinator, Haley Butcher, who helped devise the wahakura wananga.

"(At) the ACE Aotearoa conference (we were) surrounded by people who are not for profit and all about the community good," Chapman says.

"(It's) inspiring … to be within that community of people who operate throughout New Zealand with no other intention apart from helping people be the best they can be, grow their potential, and helping do community and individual good.

"It's a pretty privileged and exciting community to be within."