Raising Children brings together the work of New Zealand’s leading early childhood welfare organisations into a comprehensive audio-visual multi-platform resource for parents, focussing on the first three years.
It is a 10-part television series, a website and a DVD, jam-packed full of information about parenting the under-threes. All our stories have been robustly reviewed by an Advisory Group consisting of representatives from Barnardos, Plunket, The Office of the Children’s Commissioner and Family and Community Services. We further consulted with many others including, The University of Auckland’s School of Teaching, Learning and Development, The Ministry of Health, NZ Breastfeeding Authority, Centre for Attachment, Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE), Brainwave Trust Aotearoa, Change for our Children, National SIDS Prevention for Maori, Post Natal Distress Support, St John, Safekids, as well as the 21 different experts interviewed on camera .
It is a joint initiative between Barnardos, Plunket, Family and Community Services (The Ministry of Social Development), TVNZ 7 and the Lion Foundation.
Our Vision
The vision of Raising Children in New Zealand (the project) is to bring together the work of New Zealand’s leading early childhood welfare organisations into a comprehensive audio-visual multi-platform resource that will be freely available to all new parents and caregivers through a trusted health professional.
The messages will be delivered in an honouring way, implicitly elevating the role of parents to social change agents. Parents will feel that the job they do has a direct impact on the way New Zealand society is being shaped for the future. It’s the concept of knowledge is power.
Our Values
- Respect for everyone regardless of race, creed, socio-economic status.
- Acknowledgement that differences in the kinds of families in New Zealand – family makeup, lifestyle choices – creates a vital, healthy society.
- Belief that our children are our greatest investment.
Our Objectives
- The resource will be universal – for all New Zealand families regardless of socio-economic status, ethnicity, class.
- It will be supportive – providing parents and caregivers with well-researched, unbiased, realistic information from qualified people.
- It will be inclusive – real-life people in real-life situations will talk about how they manage issues; there will be no targeting therefore stigmatising of under-privileged or at-risk population groups.
- It will be inspirational and aspirational – one of our greatest goals is to inspire parents and caregivers to be good people and have great aspirations for themselves and their families.
