Dwayne Fore leads a haka at the Grace Foundation Gratitude Day, held every Saturday morning at the Ōtara Community Center. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Dwayne Fore leads a haka at the Grace Foundation Gratitude Day, held every Saturday morning at the Ōtara Community Center. Photo / Dean Purcell.
The Grace Foundation is New Zealand’s biggest rehab service - caring for up to 500 people at a time.
It takes people on bail, people serving community-based sentences, and those who have self-referred. Last year it received 3488 referrals.
It also caters for the homeless, gang members, people with addictions, children without parents, and former prisoners - in 80 community homes mainly in South Auckland.
The Grace Foundation was founded by Dave Letele snr, who says its residents had a recidivism rate of 6% last year.
Every Saturday at 8am, metres from the thousands of shoppers at the Ōtara Markets, around 300 members of the Grace Foundation congregate at the community centre for Gratitude Day.
It’s an opportunity for those who have recently been released from prison, or paroled to one of 80 Grace Foundation community homes to gather and give thanks for the changes they are making to their lives.
Some are grateful to have a second chance at a good life. Others that they now have access to their children.
It’s a church service minus the minister and the Bible - and the majority of the parishioners are wearing the same jewellery: ankle bracelets.
They sing waiata, perform haka and have plenty of laughs over the two-hour session. No one hides behind the anonymity of their crimes - they are open and frank about why they are at the Grace Foundation. Dave Letele snr, who established the Grace Foundation in 2007, believes showing humility is a step towards change.
Dwayne Fore is a regular.
He’s a 1.91m, 110kg Black Power gang member who told the Herald he used to be on a mission of “smash destruction”.
Dwayne Fore attends the Grace Foundation Gratitude Day in Ōtara. Photo / Dean Purcell
“I did some bad stuff and liked to hurt people,” said Fore, 39, who has been in the prison system for 21 years.
“I was looking at a long lag [prison sentence] and was paroled to the Grace Foundation. Coming here has changed my life. It has given me purpose.
“I can now be a father to my two daughters who live with their mum in Taupō. I am feeling the best I have ever felt,” he said.
Fore completed his sentence in October last year and he is a free man but wants to complete more programmes to help him start his own rehabilitation centre in Taupō.
Ulalei Letele (left) with his brother Dave Letele snr from the Grace Foundation during a gratitude day in Otara. Photo / Dean Purcell
“Dwayne has come a long way and is just one step away from being one of our leaders at the Grace Foundation,” Dave Letele snr told the Herald.
“He is walking the walk but he knows he can not serve two masters,” Letele said, referring to the Christian kaupapa of the foundation - versus the pull of gang life.
The Grace Foundation has been reintegrating inmates for 18 years.
It provides 25 programmes catered to build and develop individuals towards transformative life change. They include Alcohol and Drugs programmes, therapy, counselling, Safe Man Safe Family, kapa haka, te reo, Muay Thai, Future Skills, Recovery Church, Community Garden and many others.
In 2024 Grace Foundation received 3488 referrals; around 1500 come from Corrections via prison remand, the courts, parole board, probation service and Corrections. The rest came from the foundation’s website where people apply for Electronic Monitoring Bail, Bail, Parole, Sentencing, MSD, Social Housing, Homeless or just help to make big life changes.
Letele said no one is turned away.
Residents pay $400 a week. That covers accommodation, transport, the programmes, food and general costs of living, which are deducted from their benefits.
In 2024 there were 239 occasions where Grace Foundation residents breached their bail conditions and police called.
“While any breach is a concern, you have to look at the people we receive and the circumstances they have come from,” he said.
One of the 80 community homes managed by the Grace Foundation in South Auckland.
“We do a lot of work with parolees, who have served long sentences and many don’t have places to reintegrate back into society.
“Because I have done long sentences, I know what they are thinking and what they are going through,” Letele said.
Letele said Grace Foundation residents have an average recidivism rate of 7% per year, and it was down to 6% last year.
Grace Foundation bail breaches for 2024.
“Some fall a number of times before finding their road that keeps them out of prison. We can only sow the seed. We can’t change people if they are not open to change,” Letele said.
The men perform a haka at the Grace Foundation Gratitude Day at the Ōtara Community Centre. Photo / Dean Purcell
“If they keep relapsing, we say ‘Look, we are not helping you. We are actually hurting you’, and we try to find an alternative place for them,” Letele said.
The kaupapa of the Grace Foundation according to Letele is “aroha and awhi, kōrero and talanoa. Good old fashioned Māori and Pasifika whanaungatanga.”
Christianity is optional - only one of their many workshops is Bible-based. But karakia - traditional Māori incantations and prayer - is woven into all gatherings.
“Many arrive at the Grace Foundation as lost souls, but find their space in the world through tikanga and faith. Reconnection to their Māori or Pasifika culture helps them restore their mana” he said.
Letele met Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell last year to talk about the Grace Foundation.
He said Mitchell is interested in all programmes that help people make better choices.
Not all those who go to the Grace Foundation - which does not receive direct Government funding - are forced to go there.
Jayson Katipe attends the Grace Foundation gratitude day in Otara. The Grace Foundation is the largest bail house in New Zealand and supports inmates’ reintegration, managing over 80 homes and helping thousands annually. Photo / Dean Purcell
Jayson Katipe - who has children to six partners - referred himself after being jailed on drug-dealing charges. He knew he needed help to make changes.
“I have 16 children and 20 grandchildren. I’m here trying to better myself so I can help my family.
“They all look up to me and that’s why I’m here.”
Katipe’s story is like the hundreds who arrive at the foundation looking for salvation.
“I was in jail for marijuana charges and released on home detention and contacted the Grace Foundation,” he said.
“I’m 54 this year and too old for that s***. I’ve been coming to jail all my life and not sure how I fitted in all those kids.
“The foundation has made me see things more clearly. It has given me the ability to talk. It has changed me for the positives and if I am with the wrong people, I can feel myself being pulled back to the old ways but I know how to get myself out of those situations.
“I want to go back to Hamilton and be the dad and grandad my children deserve.
“One of my daughters is on the drugs and I can’t help her heal until I heal myself first. That’s why I’m here.”
“The Grace Foundation provides services to people on bail, community sentences or who have recently released from prison, such as accommodation, cultural support and pastoral care services.
“These services support people to address the causes of their offending and provide a strong foundation to help them establish a positive future,” Mason said.
Fred Tanuvasa in a past life as a Head Hunter. Photo / Supplied
One man who has gone through the prison and Grace Foundation systems is Fred Tanuvasa - a former patched Head Hunter - who is now operations manager at the Grace Foundation.
“I was in jail on remand for a shooting where I was acquitted at the High Court. Two days later, cops got me on driving and on drug supply charges,” Tanuvasa told the Herald.
“I had tried to get into a rehab place but was constantly denied.
“Then I was accepted on e-bail to the Grace Foundation. The judge looked at me and gave me a chance and from that moment, I made a choice to do it properly.
“I gave up drugs, the gang lifestyle. I cut everything - including the club [Head Hunters]. I didn’t reach out to anyone from the club. I had to focus on myself.
Fred Tanuvasa gave up the gang life. Photo / Supplied
“In prison, I had hit rock bottom. My kids, my partner, my mum had all had enough with me going to jail all the time.
“I found a Bible and started reading it and promised I was going to serve God wholeheartedly.”
Tanuvasa said when he arrived at Grace, he met another former Head Hunter Sam Rasmussen - who died last year in a motorcycle crash - who had also made changes in his life.
“Knowing what Sam was like, he was staunch as, and here he was one of the staff at the Grace Foundation helping others get straight.
“Seeing him clean for two years inspired me. I put my head down, did the programmes, graduated and became a team leader.
“I started serving, giving back and mentoring men and started reconnecting with my own kids, my family, my mum.”
Tanuvasa progressed up the Grace Foundation ladder and after completing his sentence, was offered a fulltime position with the Grace Foundation.
“This job is a calling and they say it needs me but I need the job as well now. Take away my salary, I would still be here doing what I’m doing.”
Joseph Los’e is an award-winning journalist and joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and prior to joining NZME worked for urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira.
