Roxanne Adams
Roxanne Adams, also known as “Aunty Roxy” around Tāmaki, is a family worker at Tāmaki Community Development Trust. You may have seen her driving a white van filled with people getting them to various local activities and places. Or out in the community talking to people, connecting and inviting them to join in with whatever she is doing. She has been a family worker for TCDT since 2009, but she has been working with families as long as she can remember, helping and supporting them to thrive.
Roxanne attended a hui in 2012 held at Te Waipuna Puawai where she learnt about HEART. She found the stark facts and statistics on domestic violence confronting, but saw the shift to a focus on healthy relationships and prevention as a way forward. Not long after learning about HEART she felt empowered to stand up for healthy relationships especially in her role as a family worker. She recalls calling the police in response to witnessing a domestic violence incident. She says it was her tino rangatiratanga moment for healthy relationships and not accepting violence.
Roxanne has attended several HEART training workshops facilitated by Peter Thorburn. She says Peter tells it like it is, but still presents with aroha and empathy. She passes on her knowledge from these spaces to the whānau she works with and this helps to create ripples of change. An insight from Peter Thorburn is that people are not the problem - the problem is the problem. Roxanne identifies with this seeing the effects of substances like alcohol on communities. Roxanne also takes knowledge learnt from HEART workshop trainings home to her own whānau. Conversations with her children around alcohol are normal to ensure their safety and wellbeing.
Her enthusiasm and support for the HEART Movement kaupapa has gone beyond the Tāmaki community. Roxanne has taken the HEART kaupapa to the Māori Women’s Welfare League and the Kohanga Reo Movement where she is a member and as well as incorporating HEART values into her third year of study for a Bachelor of Social Work with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.
Healthy relationships for Roxanne embody Te Ao Māori values of whakawhānaungatanga, manaakitanga, aroha, tautoko, wairuatanga and āwhina to work through any raruraru (problems). She also acknowledges that her Christian faith provides a strong and supportive foundation to her work.
Having lived in the Tāmaki community for over 20 years Roxanne knows her community well and says that HEART is about community and is the community. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help, or to accept it when it is offered to you. Don’t do it own your own, it doesn’t work. Our organisation (TCDT) and HEART are here for our community, and we are here for the long run.”
Ngā mihi nui Aunty Roxy for everything you do.