Aro ki te Hā Navigator

• Full Time
• Application Closes 03 Dec 2025
• Auckland - Auckland
• Community and Social Service Specialist

Aro ki te Hā Day Programme - Navigator

About the role

Aro ki te Hā Navigator  is part of a team responsible for delivering the  Aro ki te Hā Navigator Day Programme. The role involves facilitating group activities where street whānau can learn, grow, and reconnect through creative practices, wānanga, self-development, and cultural reconnection.

Navigators also provide one-on-one support, helping whānau identify their strengths, aspirations, and next steps, and connecting them to appropriate health and social services through warm handovers. The role plays a vital part in creating safe, inclusive, and mana-maintaining spaces that foster engagement, wellbeing, and reconnection with community and culture.

We value team development and our people's career growth; we will mentor you on your unique journey to do meaningful work in a supportive environment. This role is a great starting point where you can learn on the job and work towards a longer-term career at Te Tāpui Atawhai Auckland City Mission.

Duties

• Facilitate group activities where street whānau can learn, grow, and reconnect through creative practices, wānanga, self-help, personal development, and cultural reconnection.
• Support street whānau to identify their strengths, hopes, and aspirations.
• Demonstrate through actions commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Mission’s values of Manaakitanga, Atawhai, Rangapū and Mana Tika, Mana Ōrite.
• Demonstrate Cultural Safety principles when engaging with Māori: (Reflective Practice; Minimise Power Imbalance; Awareness of Colonisation; Appropriate Communication).
• Respond to complex behaviours with compassion, patience, and professionalism.

Skills

• A relevant qualification in Addictions, Mental Health, Social Work, Counselling, Education, or a related field (Level 7 or higher desirable).
• Demonstrated experience in health, social services, or community-based organisations, ideally within the not-for-profit sector.
• Understanding of Kaupapa Māori principles, including awareness of culture, power, and how these relate to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
• Empathy and understanding of issues affecting whānau, including colonisation, trauma, mental health, addiction, food insecurity, and homelessness.
• Full clean New Zealand drivers’ licence or working towards this.

Skills, experience and knowledge may also be obtained from a number of different experiences. For example, from paid work, voluntary work, work undertaken within your Church, Marae, or from specific iwi/whānau responsibilities. 

Benefits

• 5 x ‘Mission leave’ days, additional to annual and sick leave.
• Access to EAP & external supervision.
• Access to kapahaka, and weekly waiata.
• Ongoing training and development.
• 15% discount at Auckland City Mission Op Shops.
• Access to low cost, farm fresh produce on a weekly basis.
• Close to public transport.
• Discounted parking at SkyCity.
• Career progression opportunities.

About the organisation

Te Tāpui Atawhai - Auckland City Mission supports Aucklanders in greatest need. Our services have evolved as the city’s social needs have changed, and we respond to these needs with care and compassion while advocating for a reality where there are: enough suitable homes, enough money for nutritious food, and easily accessible health care for all. Since our doors opened more than 100 years ago, this has been our ‘why’. Today, we operate across 9 sites in Tāmaki Makaurau. We offer support for however long and in whatever way is needed – for some people, that’s simply accessing one of our many services, for others, it’s a complex journey with our full support. 

Over the past 12 months, the Mission has provided 200 people with permanent homes, conducted over 20,000 consultations at the Calder Health Centre in HomeGround, cared for 462 people in our residential social detox facility in HomeGround, distributed almost 50,000 food parcels to families and individuals, and served over 80,000 warm meals in our community dining room, Haeata. 

Last year we were proud to win the Nga Āhuatanga o Te Tiriti Tohu (Award), and the Supreme Award at the 2023 Diversity Awards. These awards recognise our mahi to create a workplace which empowers Māori, and where Māori solutions can be developed and offered to the people who we support. If you are interested in this role, please apply with your resume and a cover letter outlining your interest in the role and the Auckland City Mission.