(Picture caption: Positive Vibrations has used funding from Le Va's Pasifika Suicide Prevention Community Fund to sponsor a sevens event in Wellington for the Fijian community.)
The problems being faced by our young people, youth and Pasifika families are evolving by the year, and this is something organisations need to respond in kind to, says Positive Vibrations Founder and Executive Director Jope Berwick.
When these issues and problems become too burdensome, often the consequences are dire.
Current rates of Pacific suicide in New Zealand Aotearoa makes for grim reading – according to Le Va, the rate of confirmed suicide for the Pacific population in 2018 was 7.8 per 100,000 people, while Māori had the highest rate of 18.2.
Drawing on his varied experiences across private and public sectors, and youth development work, Jope is a champion of Pacific youth, and creating positive pathways and alternative solutions for them.
Of Fijian descent, Jope says talanoa and programmes governed in institutions in the past such as churches, are becoming irrelevant.
“Old approaches and attitudes are tiresome in trying to keep up with the technological advances of our Pacific communities, and our specialists need help to implement innovative approaches to intervention.”
Jope says the aim of his organisation is to bridge the social agency gap for Fijian communities in New Zealand, by for example, working with young people around self-leadership and its importance in today's successes.
“Also, our programmes focus on the transitional state of affairs for our regional seasonal employees and how we can be an advisory to employers around cultural competency.”
Last year, Jope and his team successfully applied for the Le Va Pasifika Suicide Prevention Community Fund, which is designed to prepare Pacific families and communities to respond effectively to prevent suicide within communities, if a suicide occurs.
Le Va supports Pasifika families and communities to unleash their full potential, believing solutions lie within Pacific communities – and the thinking behind its Pasifika Suicide Prevention Community Fund is no exception.
For Positive Vibrations, this fund has been an opportunity to work with more people as well as having the ability to bring on more experts in a co-opted role in its service delivery, Jope says.
“We mainly used the funds to build our portfolio of community networks in New Zealand.
“This assistance gave us the opportunity to engage in-person areas of the country we would have not been able to reach in our scope of assisting our communities.
“One major one was the sponsoring of a major rugby sevens tournament in Wellington where were able to engage 12 different Fijian communities in the one location and begin dialogue around our implementation of our Suicide Prevention Framework for 2022-23.”
His team’s findings in the suicide space have been mind-blowing, with the lack of support most Fijian communities are facing in urban areas, let alone the regional communities, Jope adds.
“It is the taboo factor as we all know for most of our people, but also the big variance in ethnic groupings of our diverse Fiji communities, and we have looked at catering for groups not included in the scope of Pasifika such as our Chinese and Indian communities.”
The problems we keep hearing about with our Pacific peoples are nothing new, however, Jope says .
“I really believe the beginning is where all the stones lay - to create secure foundation for our millennials.”
Visit the Le Va website for more information on suicide prevention.