About E Tipu E Rea

E Tipu e Rea was first known as “Thrive”, established after research undertaken highlighted the need for an independent, Auckland-based teen parent support service.

Officially opened in 2011 as a dedicated teen parent service in Tāmaki,  Niamh Wingate became the first manager of the service. Niamh Wingate had lived the experience of being a teen māmā.

Thanks to the support of The Tindall Foundation, a range of new support groups for māmā and pāpā were set up- childbirth education, parenting workshops and one-to-one tautoko.

Cinnamon Whitlock becomes the CE, with 15 kaimahi employed. Thirteen of them have lived experience of being young parents. Our early board members include Marama Davidson and Carmel Sepuloni.

We have over 300 young parents on the database that they connect with via newsletters, Facebook and the range of programmes provided to tautoko young parents.

Cinnamon puts a strong focus on maternal mental health and works with mental health providers to acknowledge the impact that mental health on young Māori hāpu māmā and their tamariki.  Cinnamon advocates for the rights of young hapū māmā and their tamariki at a variety of levels.

Josie Smith a well-known Māori Health leader in Tāmaki,  joins the Board and supports its focus on maternal mental health.

We gain social service accredited (Level 2) and obtain our first Government contract for teen parent support.

The majority of  hapū māmā and mātua taiohi E Tipu e Rea support whakapapa Māori.  We transition all our work into a kaupapa Māori framework.

We receive a new name from kaumātua –“E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services”. The name was chosen to highlight the organisation’s belief in mātua taiohi and their ability to also support their tamariki to grow and thrive.  Cinnamon and the board start to plan for an iwi relationship for E Tipu e Rea.

Zoe-Witika-Hawke (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Pāoa) becomes new CEO of E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services.  Board members include Natalie Vincent, Selah Hart, Charlene Fitisemanu, Te Miria James-Hohaia.

Zoe and the board continue to plan for a relationship with iwi.  Zoe reaches out to Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust to form a partnership.

Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust supports E Tipu e Rea, we become their accredited health and social service. E Tipu e Rea expands its focus to include a range of health kaupapa, employment and training, cultural development, and community events and outreach. The E Tipu e Rea relationship with Ngāti Pāoa continues to strengthen. E Tipu e Rea welcomes Rangitahi Pompey as our Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust representative on our board.
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We work with over 400 mātua taiohi, hapū māmā and tamariki. We employ our first ex-clients as kaimahi for E Tipu e Rea.

E Tipu e Rea continues to grow with the addition of our first clinical team with midwifes and nurse’s delivering Midwifery and Early Years Services (Well Child/Tamariki Ora and Childhood Immunisations). We also gain Mātauranga Māori services supporting hapūtanga wānanga, tūpuna parenting, leadership, and connecting with Te Ao Māori.  We open a new office with Ngati Pāoa Iwi Trust in Mauinaina (Panmure) - heartlands of Ngāti Pāoa.  E Tipu e Rea welcomes Te Wai Unasa-Barbarich as another Ngāti Pāoa representative on our Board, and Felicity Ware as Chair.

We employ over 30 kaimahi and growing– the majority have lived experience of being young māmā or pāpā.  We also employ many kaimahi who whakapapa to Ngāti Pāoa.  The E Tipu e Rea Trust Deed is updated to include our relationship with Ngāti Pāoa. We open our first transitional housing complex.

We begin a process of renaming our service to better align with Ngāti Pāoa.  We start planning for service expansion to include services for Ngāti Pāoa kaumatua, kuia, koroua, pakeke with Oranga Whānau, Oranga Mokopuna  as our driver.  When the whole whānau are well, our young parents will be supported more, and our mokopuna will be well.