Flourishing financial skills for Pacific peoples

Meeting the health and social needs of Pacific peoples in Aotearoa is the work of Vaka Tautua. Human Resources takes a look at this organisation’s award-winning financial capability training programme.

In Aotearoa, Pacific peoples are a diverse population made up of people from many different cultural and ethnic groups. Samoan, Cook Islands Māori, Tongan, Niuean, Fijian, Tuvaluan, Tokelauan and Kiribati comprise the eight main Pacific ethnic groups in New Zealand. It is worth noting that most of the Pacific population is New Zealandborn and not from the Islands. No one unique language is spoken. As an ethnic group, Pacific peoples is the fourth largest in New Zealand, behind European, Māori and Asian, with 7.5 per cent of the New Zealand population identifying with one or more Pacific ethnic groups in 2013.

Vaka Tautua is a national Pacific health and social services provider, the only such provider in Aotearoa. The services it delivers include disability support, mental health support, financial capability and other social services across the greater Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury regions.

Established by the amalgamation of the Pacific Information Advocacy Support Services Trust (PIASS Trust) and Malologa Trust in 2007, Vaka Tautua has been proudly serving Pacific peoples and communities since then. COVID-19 further exacerbated the dire health, social and financial issues for Pacific peoples, and demand for the services of Vaka Tautua has grown exponentially. Particularly in demand has been a financial capability course, aimed at building confidence, knowledge and skills in managing money and achieving financial wellbeing. The eight-week programme involves budgeting fundamentals and practical skills, followed by one-onone financial coaching for extended programmes. The sessions are delivered in English, Samoan, Cook Islands Māori and Tongan.

But this is not just a COVID-19 initiative. Vaka Tautua has been delivering financial capability and literacy programmes in the greater Auckland and Wellington regions since 2016, with over 620 families benefitting from the programme.

Herne, a full-time carer for his elderly mother, signed up for the programme last year because he felt he had “nothing to lose”. Since then, his life has never been the same.

“I learnt the true meaning of a ‘want’ and a ‘need’ early into this course,” says Herne. “What I thought I needed was just what I wanted. Now I stick to a budget that I’ve set, and I have been able to achieve my goal of putting enough money away to fix my teeth, which is something I have always wanted to do.”

A recent evaluation report of the financial capability programme revealed that 65 per cent of the families on the programme had begun to reduce their debt and 63 per cent were on savings plans to purchase their own home.

“These findings are particularly pleasing … and confirm that our programme, with its family-focused, ethnic and language-specific and mentoring and coaching approach, works for our Pacific peoples … it achieves positive results and outcomes,” says Vaka Tautua Chief Executive Dr Amanda- Lanuola Dunlop.

Moving from improving to thriving, this is an organisation that brings together its diverse knowledge, cultures, skills and experience to promote and advance the physical and mental development and wellbeing of Pacific peoples in Aotearoa.