Thresholds

Thresholds are how easy or hard it is for rangatahi to access services and how long they have to wait.

Managing thresholds is supporting rangatahi when they are waiting or when they come up against service barriers and then advocating for their needs to be met.

Rangatahi also have their own limits and boundaries that we need to respect. Sometimes our expectations of what they will do can create thresholds that they may not feel able to reach.

Kaimahi also need to manage their own personal and professional thresholds and boundaries.

 

Thanks to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for funding the research that created these resources (MAUX2006).

This work by J. Sanders, R. Munford, J. Webster, J. Mercier, D. Abbott & L. Liebenberg is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Effectively managing thresholds involves:

  • Offering alternatives and looking for creative solutions if there is a waiting list,
  • Advocating for resources,
  • Being honest about limits,
  • Reflecting on mahi and being aware of the impact we may have on rangatahi.
  • Managing boundaries between personal and professional life,
  • Seeking support when we are reaching our limits.

 

To explore this element in more depth go to the PARTH in practice reflection sheet.

"Thresholds" orientated rangatahi voices

Tami's voice

Tami describes how collaboration between services created a positive result.

All Thresholds voices

Moana's story shares how their agency prioritised the needs of the rangatahi while working through the barriers of programme criteria.

Kaimahi stories have come from the youthsay partners. Te Aroha Noa Community Services, INNOV8, Dingwall Launch Programme, VIBE, Tuilaepa Youth Mentoring Services (TYMS), Reconnect Family Services, Kapiti Youth Support (KYS) and other kaimahi shared these stories from their mahi. They have been anonymised to protect identities. A big thank you to the organisations and kaimahi who have generously shared their wisdom and experience.

A rangatahi didn’t yet meet the criteria for our services because of her age. So her referral hadn’t been processed nor accepted.
But we saw a potential issue with her needing support that no-one was providing. I asked the leadership team within our organisation if we could just start making contact with her.

In this case we didn’t consider the threshold we just saw a need. This young girl was absconding, she wasn’t making any connections with the support people who were around her. So, I thought, well our programme is quite different, can we just jump in and make contact.

I asked one of the kaimahi to casually introduce herself and say this is what the programme is and just start that relationship with her before she left her residential placement altogether.

I also brought the case to our funders and said can we do this? As this wasn’t going to be counted on our contract, and they said of course because they could see the benefit at the end of the day.

The rangatahi was 15 years old so we just started visiting her placement to start the relationship.

This turned out to be critical because she then absconded permanently. But there was enough of a relationship or a connection that the kaimahi could pull her into our programme.

Read more

Hohepa talks about the referral process at their organisation.

Kaimahi stories have come from the youthsay partners. Te Aroha Noa Community Services, INNOV8, Dingwall Launch Programme, VIBE, Tuilaepa Youth Mentoring Services (TYMS), Reconnect Family Services, Kapiti Youth Support (KYS) and other kaimahi shared these stories from their mahi. They have been anonymised to protect identities. A big thank you to the organisations and kaimahi who have generously shared their wisdom and experience.

We don’t decline rangatahi, as they are entitled to the service.

But on occasion we have put referrals on hold only to ask OT for more information.

Our goal to ensure the rangatahi is matched with the best provider, this means we might need a bit more information.

This can be to clarify if there are any safety issues, and also be related to capacity and matching the rangatahi with an appropriate kaimahi.

Read more

Thresholds indicators

You know you are managing Thresholds when you:

  • Are prepared to face obstacles and pre-empt communication about waiting periods with other organisations.
  • Build good relationships with stakeholders to understand their thresholds and then adapt and be open to change.
  • Have different options and avenues for rangatahi while they are waiting for other services.
  • Continue to motivate, encourage and educate rangatahi while they are in a waiting period.
  • Think about the barriers that might come up while the rangatahi is in your service, such as funding for certain activities, or timeframes. Talk with rangatahi about these early on and make plans to manage them.
  • Use your connections and resources to young people’s advantage to work around thresholds and barriers.
  • Involve whānau and others around rangatahi so that they can support during waiting times.
  • Are an agent of change, advocate, make links and help to create change.
  • Help your organisation to advocate for wider systemic change.

See the full set of PARTH Indicator Cards here

Thresholds reflection cards

This work by J. Sanders, R. Munford, J. Webster, J. Mercier, D. Abbott & L. Liebenberg is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. 
This site was created as part of a research programme (MAUX2006) funded by MBIE. We thank them for their support.

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