Improving the wellbeing of all in Aotearoa New Zealand
In the early 2000s, community social service providers around Aotearoa New Zealand realised the need to take collective action and start working better together. A committed group of kaimahi brought a range of skills to the table to work together for better outcomes for us all. Relationships and the act of whakawhanaungatanga has always sat at the heart of Te Pai Ora SSPA as an organisation, and that continues today.
Early beginnings
In 2002, a formal step was taken and Social Service Providers Aotearoa was registered under the Incorporated Societies Act. Membership quickly climbed from 130 members in 2003 to 192 in 2004 and 255 in 2005, and the focus changed from pure advocacy to also offering learning and development opportunities through regional programmes and an annual conference. This reflected the ongoing need to continue to build capacity and capability across the community-based social services sector, to meet the needs of children and whānau.
Strengthening our collective
In 2012, Te Pai Ora SSPA moved from Ōtautahi to Te Whanganui-a-Tara and a national manager was employed. Through these developments our relationships evolved. Te Pai Ora SSPA deepened its mandate to speak on behalf of the sector. Using a mātauranga and relationship-based approach, we built credibility and respect, becoming a recognised voice for our sector.
Continued evolution
Supporting a thriving, sustainable community-based social service sector remains the focus of Te Pai Ora SSPA today. The origins of our organisation continue to inform today’s mahi. Collective, constructive action as a national organisation continues to be our focus as we champion the community-based social services sector and their work alongside children and whānau.
Our mahi today
In 2022, Te Pai Ora SSPA celebrated 20 years of service, and began the journey of evolving the organisation’s identity to reflect and connect with the times we are in. Our name was changed to Social Service Providers Te Pai Ora o Aotearoa, with the rerenga kōrero, Te Pai Ora o Aotearoa gifted by Ngāti Toa Rangatira.
Our name and visual identity
Te Pai Ora o Aotearoa indirectly translates as ‘to improve the wellbeing of Aotearoa’. It reflects our mahi as an organisation over the past 20 years and the continued aspirations and goals of our collective membership. It represents our advocacy for whānau and communities, the innate potential of our children, and for government support of the people of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Te Pai Ora SSPA is grateful to Ngāti Toa Rangatira kaumatua, Dr Taku Parai, for his awhi, manaaki and tautoko and for the gift of the rerenga kōrero, developed in partnership with the talented team at Ocean Design.
Recognising the evolution of SSPA and seeking to reflect the value of SSPA members’ mahi, SSPA’s visual identity has evolved, to better express and bring to life the essence of the organisation’s mahi, as an inclusive, progressive membership-based organisation, championing children, rangatahi and whānau and Aotearoa New Zealand’s community-based social services. SSPA’s evolved tohu continues to feature the koru and rau tākiri (fern buds), but in a new stylised form. Different stakeholders are represented by the different forms, and SSPA is expressed as wrapping around our communities and hapori. Our tohu represents new potential, growth and unfurling development amongst SSPA’s membership and the families, whānau and hapori SSPA members work with and in.