Awerangi Tamihere, Chief Operating Officer of the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, has spent the last three decades working with Māori communities.  Understanding and measuring social returns has become an effective framework for Whānau Ora to assess how to invest in the strength of whānau – the “family unit” – and to assess lasting change over time.

For Awerangi, whānau is first and foremost. She promotes an integrated and collaborative model of care, creating space for whānau to co-produce what services look like and that take a diversity of stakeholders into account. Awerangi is at the forefront of developing new approaches with Te Whānau o Waipareira, a service provider for whānau across the West Auckland community offering one stop to health, social, justice and education services. As an initiative of Te Whānau o Waipareira, Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency work is clearly focused upon improving overall well-being for communities.