We are a small yet sharp collective of lived experience leaders, policy advisors, community change generators, and dreamers.
Our kaupapa began with Te Poho Collective . A peer support platform for wāhine Māori- our kaupapa has evolved.
We wanted to launch an advocacy-focused platform to address the recurring issues impacting our whānau.
Our collective is made up of tāngata whai ora, tāngata whenua Māori, rangatahi, māmā, aunties, sisters, and now our tungane, pāpā and matua who are leading the way in their own worlds.
Our people bring worlds of wisdoms; we are a street-wise collective committed to inspiring and uplifting our peers, through grassroots peer support and systemic change propulsion.
We bring personal lived experiences of hardship, the heavy stuff, and our goal is to use it to uplift our people, uplift our communities and generate the changes required to protect our tamariki from the social determinants of poor mental wellbeing and inequitable life outcomes.
We pull all of what we know, through life, mahi, our culture, parenthood, into our lived experience leadership and advocacy.
You can trust us to get the right voices into the right spaces to generate the right kind of whānau-focused change.
Brontë Jefferies
Brontë Jefferies is our founding director, who accidentally found the kaupapa ‘peer support’, looking for ‘peer support’ as a teenager.
Brontë is a social justice advocate at heart, with over 14 years experience of peer support provision, she brings ‘systems approach’ to lived experience leadership, asserting that people are the experts in their own lives, and good leadership, policy and advocacy should dismantle all systemic barriers to wellbeing.
She is a māmā, to kids and dogs- a daughter - a granddaughter - a sister - a partner - and a fierce advocate for whānau, equitable social and health provision, and our taiao.
With an academic background in Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, Social Policy and Applied Social Work, Brontë has worked on multiple kaupapa, including;
Founding peer support groups Mindspace, and Te Poho Collective
Establishing the first peer groups for children with unwell parents with Supporting Families in Mental Illness in Taranaki
Designed and delivered Supporting Parents, Healthy Children workforce training in Auckland
Led youth-focused inputs for ADHB to He Ara Oranga the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction
Redevelopment of the Mental Health Act with the Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission
Former Board Secretary, Chairperson and Rakau Roroa Lead (following Tamara Waugh) for Changing Minds
User Experience, Quality and Innovation Designer with Ember Korowai Takatini
Manawa Ora- Tikanga for Lived Experience Story Telling
NZ representative for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists committees for Evidence-Based Best Practice and Community Collaboration
Policy and Advocacy - Tū Te Akaaka Roa, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists