About the Project

As often happens in the Charitable Sector, this project has come to fruition as a result of a number of different relationships and experiences.

In 2004 Balance NZ had the pleasure of bringing Mary Ellen Copeland to New Zealand to run several workshops around the country introducing people to WRAP and training people to run WRAP groups with their peers. Since then our relationship with Mary Ellen has grown and we've looked for ways to help spread the word about WRAP. From our experiences with Mary Ellen we felt that WRAP was applicable across different cultures and saw the way WRAP had been translated into other languages. This sowed the seeds of the idea to translate WRAP into a New Zealand context.

Our commitment to honour the principles of Te Tiriti O Waitangi through the work of Balance NZ was foremost in the minds of the Board of Balance NZ when we undertook our Strategic planning in 2005. When the Board of Balance completed a strengths and weaknesses analysis, the opportunity to work on translating WRAP into Maori was formally identified. Taking action to promote partnership with, and protection and participation of Maori and Tangata Whaiora in particular, has resulted in Balance NZ developing its relationships with Maori, in particular the tangata whenua roopu "Nga Tangata O Te A o Marama Roopu Ki Whanganui" (Peoples of a new beginning in Whanganui) , and making a contribution to the revitalisation of Māori Language was also a key factor in the idea to proceed with the translation of mental health recovery resources into Maori.

The Whanganui District Health Board was keen to support the project and so funding was offered by the Whanganui DHB to begin.

Then in 2006 Balance NZ received funding through the NZ Digital Strategy to build online communities by further developing the functionality of the Balance NZ websites and to increase the amount of New Zealand focused content online. This project in turn presented the ideal way to make a Maori translation of WRAP available to all by publishing the translation as a separate website on the internet.