The breakdown of a family, parental drug abuse, bereavements, or family harm can result in grandparents and other whānau caregivers taking children into their care. Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (GRG) provides specialist support to these caregivers so they can raise resilient and healthy tamariki and rangatahi.

We first funded GRG in 2021 to measure and understand the social value of their programmes, and have since made additional grants to enable the expansion of one of the most requested offerings — Advocacy Services.

The Advocacy Services team provides advice on parenting, guardianship, care and protection, housing, special needs, mental health, education and accessing income support entitlements such as the Unsupported Child Benefit.

In 2021, this team helped 36 families access over $500,000 in arrears payments. In 2022 the payments were more than $620,000 and in 2023 this increased to $1.2 million.