Shining Star Awards

To:  Marion Heeney, Regional Director Northern, of Child Youth and Family;  to social workers and staff from Child Youth and Family;  to distinguished guests;  greetings, kia ora, kia orana, fakalofa lahi atu, taloha ni (sign ‘good afternoon').  These are the languages of the Realm of New Zealand. 

Thank you for inviting me to attend and speak at this year's Shining Star Awards ceremony as a part of National Social Workers Day.

I would like to take this opportunity to talk a little about the role you play in society, particularly in protecting our children and young people, the changing face of New Zealand's families and the value of social work in building strong families and communities.

I come to this gathering with a number of different points of view.  On a personal level, I am a the mother of three.  Our family has grown in this year, with the arrival of two grandchildren.

In my time, I was involved in a number of community organisations, many of them with a connection to families and children.  I first joined Plunket and later was on kindergarten and PTA committees related to our children.

When our children were older I completed a Diploma of Teaching in Auckland and taught for a time at an intermediate school before we moved to Wellington.  There, I was involved in such community organisations as the Wellington Citizen's Advice Bureau, the Benefits Rights Centre and UNICEF.

After Anand was appointed Governor-General in August 2006, I support him, and I seek to promote three key themes of my own, one being relevant to this gathering.  They are children, protection of the environment and volunteers.  I make a constant effort to look at opportunities to hightlight them.

I am patron, through my role, of the National Children's Day, the National Council of Women,  Rural Women New Zealand,  the Foundation for Youth Development,  GirlGuiding New Zealand,  the New Zealand Federation of Women's Institutes  and  the YWCA.

My background as mother, grandmother, community worker, teacher and patron have given me a wide view of New Zealand families, communities and society.  I have seen the strength of families and communities and would argue against the outlook, often suggested in the media, of "decline".  I agree with former Waikato University Vice-Chancellor, and one-time British Member of Parliament, Professor Bryan Gould, who wrote: "Everyone should have a New Zealand childhood."

There is strength in New Zealand families, however, children and families of today are markedly different from those of fifty years ago.  Families face many challenges that did not once exist, but that does not mean they are necessarily worse than they once were.  It is so easy to view the past in an unreal way.  An American journalist, Franklin Adams, once said:  "Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory."

In just the same way that increased migration has seen New Zealand become culturally, religiously and ethnically diverse, New Zealand's families and New Zealanders' personal relationships have become increasingly complex.  There are more single-parent families and more blended families.  Not all couples choose to marry, some remain in de facto relationships and others, including same-sex couples, choose to enter civil unions.

These new forms of relationships challenge traditional norms.  While Anand and I chose to get married-which was very much the norm in 1970-I am very conscious that it is the quality of the relationship, and the love that infuses it, rather than its legal form, that should always be paramount.  Relationships are also occurring increasingly across ethnic, cultural and religious divides that once kept people apart-my own marriage being a case in point.

I base a positive outlook, not only on the positive initiatives we constantly see that are making our country a better place in which to live.  I also base that view on what is being done to put right those things and facets of our society which are not so positive.  In our interactions with a host of community groups, and many of them are run entirely or largely by volunteers, we see New Zealanders working to improve, for example, literacy, health and housing in our communities.  Recently we visited Dunedin and saw the 13th home under construction by that city's Habitat for Humanity branch.  The family that will move into the home-and they are also helping in its construction-is one of more than three hundred families the charity has helped in New Zealand.

In  the last few weeks we have hosted a series of investiture ceremonies in Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland where a wide range of people are invested with New Zealand Honours.  Those ceremonies highlight the work of New Zealand achievers.  Many have given much of their life to community work.  It is work that varies from encouraging te reo and health through to dealing with young people with learning and social difficulties.

What do I think this all means for social workers?  Historically, social work had its origins in charitable work, particularly of religious organisations, to ameliorate poverty and the problems that flow from it.  Today social support is essentially based more on increased professionalisation and is to a greater extent paid for by the taxpayer.  Social workers increasingly seek registration under the Social Workers Registration Act,  despite it being voluntary, and the largest number is from Child Youth and Family.

Modern social work is also grounded on the philosophical view that the roots of poverty and dysfunction, and solutions to social problems lie less with individuals and more with the wider community.  As the International Federation of Social Workers states in its definition of the profession:  "The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being.  Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments.  Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work."

It is in the nature of your work-unlike that of a Governor-General's wife-that you often see people, families and communities at times of great stress and suffering.  It is inevitable that your work takes an emotional and physical toll.  For all the positive work you do in helping so many people and families regain their equilibrium, there looms the public and media criticism that more could or should have been done to prevent a particular tragedy.  Professionals should look to improve standards but I suspect that much criticism is based on misunderstandings or expectations that are ignorant of the facts.

I believe that as professional social workers, you play a vital role in assisting families that need assistance and in particular protecting the most vulnerable members of our society, our children.  It is a complex role that would test the best of us.  By working with individuals and families, and also communities and community organisations, you strengthen the "glue" that holds the fabric of our society together.

I want to congratulate Child, Youth and Family for promoting the Shining Star Awards, as a part of National Social Worker's Day.  Now in their second year, these awards celebrate the work of those who are nominated and those who win awards, and provide an aspirational benchmark

More than anything, these awards provide an opportunity to celebrate the inherent value and worth of social work as a profession.  American Jane Addams, who won the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize, and is regarded by many as the founder of modern social work, summarised the spirit of your work well when she said:  "...what after all, has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities, and courage to advocate them?"

To the winners of the Shining Star Awards-people who have faith in new possibilities-I offer my congratulations and urge everyone here to continue to have the courage to advocate for a better future.

No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.