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Te Hurihanga is a pilot residential programme for young male offenders in Hamilton. Te Hurihanga loosely translates as "the Turning Point" as it is a new approach aimed at turning young offenders away from more serious offending.

The pilot is a longer, more intensive, option for managing local young offenders. The longest sentence currently available to the Youth Court: three months in a Child, Youth and Family residential facility, followed by six months supervision in the community.

Te Hurihanga is located in Te Ara Hou Village in Hamilton and will take up to eight local boys at a time from homes within an hour’s drive of the residence.

The pilot will run for three years and will be continually evaluated so lessons learnt can be applied to other programmes for managing youth offenders.

Te Hurihanga is an intensive therapeutic residential programme for young offenders.

The programme is tailored to meet the specific needs of each young person and is delivered by staff trained to provide a graduated, intensively supervised reintegration to the community.

The programme can take up to 18 months to complete as it goes through three phases, each lasting three to six months:

1. Residential phase: the young person lives on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week and specialist staff will help them tackle their biggest problems, for instance, illiteracy, drinking problems, or anger management.
2. Transition phase: once the young person has settled into healthy routines and is learning new skills, he is given the opportunity to try skills in different places; like at home with their family, on work experience, or back at school.
3. Home phase: the young person lives at home under close supervision of the same programme staff supervising them in the first two phases.

Participants are local young males aged 14 to 17 years old who have appeared before the Youth Court and are at risk of re-offending.

Participants are young males whose offending has been serious enough that they risk going to prison.

Participants must be from homes within an hour’s drive of the programme so their transition back into the community can be managed and monitored.

The programme is delivered by two providers: Youth Horizons and Maatua Whangai.

Youth Horizons Trust

Youth Horizons Trust is a non-profit organisation providing a range of services in residential and foster-care settings and intensive clinical support services. Youth Horizons Trust provides sustainable evidence-based solutions for family and young people with complex behavioural or mental health needs, including antisocial behaviour.

Maatua Whangai

Maatua Whangai provides social support, advocacy, counselling, and education services. It has expertise in dealing with young people in Hamilton and was instrumental in setting up the Hamilton Youth Offending Team.

For more information visit the Ministry of Justice website: www.justice.govt.nz