We look to engage with communities in a range of ways so people can participate in a way that is accessible and mana-enhancing for them.

We have an ongoing dialogue with survivors who are Disabled, Deaf or live with mental health conditions through private sessions and written accounts.

We have held or are designing engagement opportunities that are led by Māori and Pacific communities, to affirm their self-determination.  Further, we are going to be engaging face-to-face with communities shortly through at least four regional haerenga.  

To remove barriers to accessibility for disabled people or those with mental health conditions, we are running a series of 90-minute online group “community conversations”.  These are conversations with people who identify as having lived experiences of abuse in care, who have a disability, are Deaf, and/or have lived experience of mental health conditions.

These events give us a chance to connect with survivors, community organisations and local iwi and hapū leaders on the impact of abuse in care over multiple generations. We hope to learn about what is important to each community about State and faith-based care of children and vulnerable adults in care to help inform the findings and recommendations we will make to the Government.   

Survivors are not asked to share their own personal experiences if they don’t want to.

We will talk to the groups about what we’ve heard so far, what impacts it had on survivors and their communities, and what needs to change for the future so that people can be safe in care.

Following these sessions, we will provide summaries on our website under the engagement tab.