Supporting families through the Breaking Ground Programme

The Anglican Trust for Women and Children (ATWC) is an Auckland social work agency that provides social services and programmes for South Auckland families and the community.

Breaking Ground is a pilot project run by ATWC in conjunction with Oranga Tamariki. It is an 18-month intensive intervention programme that supports up to 16 families who are at risk of losing custody of their children. Two social workers, who will also work closely with counsellors and psychotherapists, are assigned to work with the families.

In 2019, ATWC approached MIT's school of social work's Dr Melanie Wong to be the lead researcher into a project exploring the voice of social workers who are working with families in the Breaking Ground programme.

Expected outcomes of this project are an evaluation of the programme to ensure families are receiving the best support and a plan for Oranga Tamariki to run similar programmes at other South Auckland sites.