Te Whatu Ora's strategic direction and focus is on Ti Tiriti and equity. Te Whatu Ora's framework describes five levers with two of these levers being ‘communities at the centre of governance, leadership, design and delivery’ and ‘partnering with others to build trusted, reciprocal relationships. It is for these reasons that Mapu Maia has partnered with Te Whatu Ora to establish and distribute the Tanoa Community Grants programme.
Historically, some funding for communities has favoured larger organisations that have the capacity and capability to write convincing funding applications. This may mean smaller providers, while just as impactful and trusted in the community at improving wellbeing, miss out.
The Tanoa Community Grants programme will provide a pool of funding to local Pasifika communities across the country who are well connected, trusted and well placed to improve health and wellbeing outcomes and address inequities.
This grant scheme recognises the important and valuable contribution small community groups make to building strong communities and positively engaging families and groups on health and wellbeing in a meaningful way that meets their needs. This type of engagement was evident during the community action to increase access to COVID 19 vaccination, food and other social supports.
The overarching goal of the grant scheme is to acknowledge and support grass roots Pasifika communities to sustain the effective work they do to improve health and wellbeing in ways that resonate with their communities. The outcome the Tanoa Community Grants programme is seeking to achieve is well supported communities with access to funds that can respond intuitively to the health and wellbeing needs of their communities.