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— Charity
Te Rangihaeata Oranga Trust - Hawkes Bay Gambling Services operates on the front line of a significant public health issue – providing gambling harm services, clinical interventions, and public health initiatives to the Hawkes Bay Community.
A Kaupapa Māori service, the team operates within a te ao Māori approach – grounded in relationships and the values of manaakitanga. This means, although they are funded only to support Māori, they find a way to help everyone who comes to them in need.
General manager Cath Healey says gambling is a multi-billion-dollar industry that impacts our most vulnerable, with Māori disproportionately experiencing gambling harm.
“Gambling harm is quite a hidden addiction – and it can take anyone, it doesn’t discriminate,” says Cath. “So we pick up a lot of mahi through people that really need help, and we respond to that need pragmatically and with swiftness.”
“Where we find our strength and our power on the ground is at a grassroots level,” says Cath. “And really that’s just focusing on helping one whaiora – which is a client – and one whānau at a time. It really is beautiful, beautiful mahi.”
As well as direct support, the organisation also provides education and creates awareness, presenting at events and through local venues, to highlight the dangers and potential harms of gambling.
Te Rangihaeata Oranga Trust first connected with Now Business through Māori business development lead, Te Moana Bartlett, who is originally from the coastal community of Waimārama in the Hastings region.
As you know, for Māori it is always about connection, so Te Moana organised a bit of a meet and greet to come and say hi to us – he bought some kai, because that’s how we roll, and we just connected.
Cath says the Trust’s phone system needed an upgrade, and their previous provider, based out of Auckland was ‘a very removed business connection’.
“But if Te Moana hadn't had approached me the way he did, we would’ve most likely just rolled over the service. It was because of his care, and the way he came in to meet us.”
“I know Now's a business, but it didn't feel like we were making a business deal,” says Cath. “It felt like we were making a connection. It felt like we were building a relationship together.”
Building that relationship meant understanding the way the service operated and finding the right solutions to support the organisation’s mission and values. This included developing a phone system that forwards through each department to ensure a caller can always reach a contact within the service.
“In general, when people are calling, they're wanting help,” says Cath. “They want to talk to someone that can help – if we miss them, it's just a missed opportunity and we might call them back, but they might not answer.”
To continue to make access to the service as broad as possible, it was vital that Now could provide support for the established 0800 number, which they were able to do.
“We've established a beautiful 0800 number through NOW, which actually allows our people to contact us for free,” says Cath. “Because if we're thinking about our clientele, sometimes there's that resource constraint.”
Te Rangihaeata Oranga Trust also connects with the community through its website and social media, making the internet services provided by Now also important.
“There was a bit of navigating that had to happen with the Now team, which they did successfully, because we also have a secure piece. So we were able to have our systems running, but also to ensure that we had this secure database protection over the confidential information.”
Cath says with the focus of the service on helping their clients and community, there isn’t a lot of time to consider rapidly evolving technology.
“So, these things – as a service and as an organisation – we don't see or understand, and this is where Te Moana’s support kicks in, because he's got that expertise. He's able to provide that knowledge before we've even considered it or to provide options – he's kind of thought about everything.”
From Now’s perspective, the focus is on ensuring its solutions continue to give Te Rangihaeata Oranga Trust the tools its needs to make a difference in the community.
“It's a real privilege for me to be able to be in this space,” says Cath, “We sit with people in their most vulnerable times, and to be able to be a little piece or a glimmer of hope, or to even just provide a listening ear and a safe place for people to talk is a huge privilege.