C.A.R.E. stands for Connecting with compassion, Asking with courage, Responding with confidence, and Engaging with services and support for those at risk of suicide. The following list of people and organisations names the C.A.R.E heroes Le Va has chosen to honour in 2023 for their commitment to those actions, and to equipping themselves and their communities with the skills and knowledge to prevent suicide.
Silver Kiliva is a fearless yet humble advocate in his South Auckland community, ensuring whānau are being met where they are at and in a space that is comfortable for them.
Teresa Morgan and Joseph Rao are both passionate community engagers in the West Waikato community, selfless working to keep their community safe and thriving.
Lil Leeper of the Wairarapa goes above and beyond to provide tāngata whaiora and their whānau with manaakitanga at all hours of the day and night.
Shaness Parkinson is a bold, creative and loving Northland community wahine providing culturally relevant resources, empowering taiohi and whānau.
Matt Oakley and Ivan Maurirere are two Tairāwhiti tāne, tirelessly connecting with their community to prevent suicide.
Pup Chamberlain refocused his long-term Police career to preventing suicide in his Canterbury community, supporting individuals to recognise their strengths and enhancing their individual skills to help themselves and others.
Wendy Mildon and Ken Haines from Lifting the Lid on Youth Suicide, Hawkes Bay are community driven visionaries enabling taiohi to seek support in ways that traditionally have not been as accessible.
Ngaro Hape is a humble Hawkes Bay hero who has made significant local and national contributions to suicide prevention by supporting community and whānau experiencing psychological distress.
Eight organisations have also been recognised as 2023 LifeKeepers C.A.R.E. Heroes – Anxiety Trust NZ, Victim Support, Surf Life Saving NZ, NZRL, The University of Auckland, Victoria University of Wellington, Lincoln University, and Auckland Council.
On behalf of Le Va LifeKeepers, we thank all of our 2023 LifeKeepers C.A.R.E. Heroes for their heart, commitment and passion to preventing suicide within communities across Aotearoa.
Also in September this year, Le Va’s national suicide prevention training programme – LifeKeepers – reached the milestone of six years in action, working tirelessly to equip Kiwis with the knowledge and skills to prevent suicide.
Tiana Watkins, Senior Manager Suicide Prevention for LifeKeepers, paid special tribute to Le Va’s Chief Executive, Denise Kingi-Uluave, for her significant contribution and leadership in this space.
Tiana added, “Six years in the making, six years of working passionately to prevent suicide, six years of celebrating ordinary people doing extraordinary things in suicide prevention, right across the motu. We all have the power to inspire hope – to simply ask others if they’re okay, lend a listening ear without judgement, and let them know you genuinely care.”
What began with a handful of individuals in 2017 has now grown to almost 15,000 people certified as LifeKeepers, having completed in person or online training.
To learn more about LifeKeepers, visit www.lifekeepers.nz.
Helplines
If you need to talk, you can call or text 1737 for free anytime, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to speak or text with a trained counsellor.
- Depression Helpline 0800 111 757 – When you’re feeling down and would like to talk to a trained counsellor.
- Healthline 0800 611 116 – If you’re feeling unwell, sick or need advice.
- Samaritans 0800 726 666 – For callers from the lower North Island, Christchurch and West Coast. For callers from all other regions phone (04) 473 9739.
- Youthline 0800 376 633 – Free text 234 or email: talk@youthline.co.nz.
- What’s Up 0800 942 8787 – For 5-18 year olds; 1pm to 11pm.
- Kidsline 0800 54 37 54 (0800 KIDSLINE) – For children up to 14 years of age; 4pm to 6pm weekdays.
- OUTLine NZ 0800 688 5463 (0800 OUTLINE) – Support for sexuality or gender identity issues.
We must equip our communities with the knowledge, skills and confidence to prevent suicide.
– Denise Kingi-‘Ulu’ave
Leilani Clarke, Le Va’s senior manager for Pacific suicide prevention, said, “The fund supports our Pasifika communities to create innovative, safe and culturally relevant solutions to help prevent and respond to suicide. It’s encouraging to see our groups exploring new approaches, new ideas and new connections with the calibre of applications we see each year.”
Le Va, a Pasifika-led non-government organisation, administers the Pasifika Suicide Prevention Community Fund on behalf of Te Whatu Ora. The rigorous selection process is led by Leilani with support from an external panel. Le Va also delivers two national suicide prevention programmes – FLO: Pasifika for Life aimed at Pacific people, and LifeKeepers for all New Zealanders.
Denise Kingi-‘Ulu’ave, Chief Executive of Le Va, said, “While specialist services provide a vital role, our families are critical in supporting someone in the early stages of distress. We must equip our communities with the knowledge, skills and confidence to prevent suicide. I wish all the successful recipients a heartfelt congratulations and all the best with their projects.”
With a mission of igniting communities and creating change, Le Va takes an evidence-based approach to its work. This spans the areas of suicide prevention, mental health and addiction, disability, public health, violence prevention, and youth wellbeing. 2023 sees the organisation celebrating its 15-year anniversary.
The recipients of the Pasifika Suicide Prevention Community Fund for 2023 are:
- Bay of Plenty Youth Development Trust – AIGA Youth Resilience and Suicide Prevention Programme
- Brown Pride – Yeah the Boys project
- Campfire Studios – Let’s get Pre-Sifik Season 2 project
- Kila’s Style Trust – Dressed in Confidence Wellbeing Workshops
- Life-Supporting Communities Trust – Pasifika Prefect Leadership Training
- Love Somebody Charitable Trust – Tama TOA/Teine TOA programme
- Martin Hautus Foundation Trust – Mafoufou Maloloina – Healthy Mind project
- New Zealand Rugby League – NZRL Wellbeing Waka 2023
- SHE IS NOT YOUR REHAB LTD – InnerBoy Mental Health project
- YES Disability – Fala Talanoa project
- Zeal Education Trust – Lupe Photography Programme
Positive relationships are the tides that carry us to safer shores in tough times. For Pasifika, good health and wellbeing are deeply interwoven as we respond to each other’s connections to build trust, a sense of belonging, acceptance and purpose. Suicide prevention within our Pasifika communities starts with these connections.
This is one of the key areas we focus on in our FLO Talanoa suicide prevention training through our Top 5 Tactics to Pasifika suicide prevention. To understand how this training lands within our communities, we share the following statement from a recent participant to understand its impact within the community.
Immediately after the session I called three of our students that I felt displayed signs of risk discussed in the workshop. As a result of those conversations, all three students are now receiving the support they need. All three admitted they would never have reached out had it not been for those calls.
Understanding the diverse needs of our youth requires innovative approaches from Le Va to connect in the differing spaces that they may dwell. Le Va has been afforded a range of opportunities to connect in these different spaces, from Mental Wealth workshops in the grassroots basketball clubs to the ASB Winter Armageddon 2022 expo, promoting Mana Restore, the mental wellbeing tool for online gamers to over 40,000 people across the 3-day event.
We are living in a tech world and our children are growing up in this tech world, and it’s pretty scary. It’s boundless, you can get lost, even me, in my adult life I get a little bit lost; but that just means we need to put more time and effort into our younger generations. – Armageddon patron
One of the barriers to offering assistance can often be lacking the confidence or knowledge to safely step in or show support. With a kete (basket) of tools to help us identify signs of mental distress, we will hopefully be able to make a difference by creating communities of C.A.R.E.
With over 13,500 people equipped with skills from LifeKeepers to prevent suicide, we know that over 2,000 of these extraordinary individuals have intervened and supported someone thinking of taking their life and engaged them with the right supports to ease their distress. Reducing the number of lives lost by equipping everyday people in suicide prevention is our aim. With this in mind, we take a moment to speak with one of our LifeKeepers who shares their story about the impact the programme has had on them personally.
I was scared to participate in LifeKeepers initially. I thought it might be all doom and gloom but that couldn’t have been further from the truth! From the moment I walked into the room, the aroha, the manaaki and the genuine safety I felt is something that I continue to carry with me. I’ve never had that experience before. I wish I had done LifeKeepers 10 years ago! Since becoming a LifeKeeper, I am more aware and have the confidence to support my loved ones when once I was scared. By communicating with compassion and without judgement I have been able to support people in my life. I’m not a mental health professional, I like to think of myself as a bro-fessional because of the courage I now have to ask somebody if they’re thinking of taking their life. I now realise that there is a lot of support in the community, something I had never seen or thought of before becoming a LifeKeeper. I’m not too small to make a difference. I’m just me and I know that I am part of a bigger picture, this community of LifeKeepers. -KS, LifeKeeper, 2022
Become a LifeKeeper, you never know, you may just save a life – visit www.lifekeepers.nz
The Ribanaia Women’s Group is a Wellington-based Kiribati women’s club that meet regularly and acknowledge the importance of their role as mothers and grandmothers who are instrumental in keeping their Kiribati language and heritage alive for their families and Kiribati communities.
Ribanaia Women’s Club were a successful recipient of the 2021 Le Va Pasifika Suicide Prevention Fund to provide a mental health and wellbeing programme for the Kiribati community in the Wellington and Horowhenua areas.
Le Va had the opportunity to connect with Teramira Schutz (Training Coordinator) who shared her explanation of the Kiribati mental health and wellbeing programme, and its impacts in the community. The following account is written by Teramira.
It all started when twe saw the Le Va Pasifika Suicide Prevention Fund advertisement and knew there was nothing out there for the Kiribati community. From our observations, people just swallow it (their struggles), it isn’t something we talk about in our culture. We wanted to increase awareness in our wider community to help prevent suicide.
Our women’s group is made up of women from different backgrounds including those within in the physical and mental health spaces. We met and over time, we developed a comprehensive awareness programme that covers a range of different topics tailored to our Kiribati community. Topics include safe communication and behaviour, parenting styles, parent roles, the impact of drugs, alcohol and gambling, puberty, signs of mental distress, caring for our elderly and the impacts of high blood pressure and sugar levels.
Under the Fund our target audience was Kiribati people within the Wellington and Horowhenua areas, aged from 15 years and over. We linked in with the Wellington Kiribati community group as well as local churches and attendance of our workshops have been a great success! We have run four workshops with just over 100 attendees. Following the first two workshops, we have had requests from family and friends outside our intended areas flooding in. Due to the impacts of COVID-19 we were able to run our workshops over zoom making it more accessible for our Kiribati communities across New Zealand to attend.
The community testified that “we are great role models and have delivered culturally tailored topics to foster positive mental health and wellbeing for the Kiribati communities in New Zealand. The topic is very sensitive however the women have simplified it to suit the Kiribati culture.”
The demand is growing for the workshops as like the collective connection of our Kiribati community.
Photo: RIBANAIA WOMENS CLUB FACILITATORS – Top row from Left to Right: Ruta Teburea, Tiantaake Taoaba, Taemaaka Kaitara, Tiiki Kabiriera, Teramira Schutz, Sailosa Kabiriera. Bottom: Julliet Toma, Rereao Tabokai, Denise Ratieta, Maria Tioti
Suicide is a ‘whole of society’ problem and we all need to be involved, from government agencies to employers, friends and families. Everyone has a role to play in fostering emotional resilience so people can cope with challenges in healthier ways.
– Leilani Clarke
Raising awareness, breaking down stigma, increasing connection and responding compassionately can save lives. Evidence suggests that local grassroots projects like those supported by Le Va’s Pasifika Suicide Prevention Community Fund play an important role in helping to prevent suicide.
As a longstanding advocate for Pasifika, Le Va is honoured to once again be selected by the Ministry of Health Suicide Prevention Commissioning Office to administer part of a $3.1 million community fund which supports communities to create innovative solutions to prevent suicide.
Le Va senior manager for suicide prevention, Leilani Clarke said, “suicide is a ‘whole of society’ problem and we all need to be involved, from government agencies to employers, friends and families. Everyone has a role to play in fostering emotional resilience so people can cope with challenges in healthier ways.”
“The grassroots work of our communities addresses the loss of life due to suicide by delivering innovative prevention programmes that enhance community connectedness. Reaching out to individuals is a critical first step towards an authentic conversation and connection that saves lives.”
The Le Va Pasifika Suicide Prevention Community Fund initiative uses a strengths-based approach to enhance existing programmes and tap into the resiliency and relationships in Pasifika families and communities. The initiative has a particular focus on Pasifika in New Zealand’s rural, men, rainbow and youth communities, as well as people with lived experience of suicidal behaviour.
The Community Fund seeks to support Pasifika communities to effectively implement community-based suicide prevention initiatives so that families and communities are:
• strongly connected
• equipped with the skills to cope with distress
• actively building resilience and reducing the risks of suicide
• assisted in accessing support services and
• supported to build a strong cultural identity to enhance mental wellbeing
The Suicide Prevention Office has awarded funding of three annual rounds for the Māori and Pacific Suicide Prevention Community Funds. Administered by Te Rau Ora and Le Va, respectively, these funds go to community initiatives that support these communities.
Applications for the Le Va Suicide Prevention Community Fund will close 6 May 2022.
For more information, and to apply for funding, visit www.leva.co.nz/suicide-prevention-fund
Le Va is New Zealand’s leading not-for-profit Pasifika organisation whose work spans mental health, suicide prevention, addictions, violence prevention, public health, disability support services and cultural competency.
ENDS
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‘Within our ancestral voices are some true answers to healing’
– Rob Williams
The FEEL App is an emotional awareness platform that shows you how to safely share your feelings, bring about balance, understand more about yourself and then connect with others to create a community of care and trust.
Le Va had the opportunity to connect with Rob to ask him a few questions about his fearless steps during the app’s development.
What fueled your interest in this field of work?
I was inspired by a meditation methodology developed by my mentor Bert McCarthy. It helped me form a more positive relationship with my negative talking self. It helped establish equilibrium and balance within and I felt a strong desire to help others find this same balance.
Share with us the collaborations you have made to bring this dream to life?
This has been the most amazing journey of collaboration. The meditation has been translated and recorded into six different Polynesian languages: Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island, Tahitian, Hawaiian and Māori. It has also been recorded in French as well as English. So that means at least six to eight translators and 12 to 14 voice artists.
I collaborated with Bert McCarthy, my Mentor, who was influential in helping me on my mindfulness journey. Bert and I worked to form ideas around the meditation methodology and delivery.
Finally, I collaborated with Opetaia Foa’i who is recognised for his music in the Moana movie. Opetaia is one of the South Pacific’s most influential cultural and musical ambassadors.
I will say, just quietly, that each meditation track is like listening to part 2 of the Moana movie so you’re in for a truly special experience.
Why do you feel this work is important?
Creating a Polynesian meditation series with uniquely Polynesian sounds, voices and instruments opens the door to meditation for our Pasifika and Māori communities. To journey back to a true sense of home and to experience the resonance through the notes, music, voices, and words.
With this project, how might you say you have journeyed from being fearful, to fear less, to being fearless?
Applying for the Le Va Pasifika Suicide Prevention Fund was relatively straight forward and like all applications your project must fit the funding criteria. It took a little bit of time to complete but all worthwhile when you receive the call that your application was successful. The fund allowed me to bring the concept to life through creating the music and recording the narrators. I say, look at the funding criteria and if your project fits inside the criteria, then GO FOR IT!
I remember being asked once, why you are doing this? The answer is quite simple. Many years ago, I had an experience in the Cook Islands as I was standing at the base of Te Rua Manga by a rock outcrop. As I turned toward the rocks, I instantly had a moment of déjà vu . It was as though I had been there long before.
It is undeniable that we as Māori whakapapa to the islands. Therefore, I feel a calling to this work, to collaborate with our beautiful Polynesian cultures in this meditation series, with the intention of developing positivity, stability, and a balanced sense of ‘home’ within.
I think when you find a project or a ‘why’ that inspires you, that carries the weight of your ancestors, and brings about positive change then you have a responsibility to become fearless.
The Feel app meditation series is set to launch very soon! Register now to get early access at: https://thefeel.app/register-your-interest
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini!
The success should not be bestowed onto me alone, as it was not individual success, but the success of the collective.
As we approach the conclusion of another full year, the Le Va LifeKeepers team reflect on the year that has been.
Having travelled from the deep South to the top of the North, the LifeKeepers team have had the privilege and honour to connect with thousands of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in their communities.
It is a momentous occasion to share the collective efforts of many, bringing us now to over 8,000 certified LifeKeepers across Aotearoa New Zealand, trained in suicide prevention. This means that these incredible individuals are nestled amongst our communities supporting whānau in distress, to prevent suicide.
Preventing suicide is everybody’s business and our team of 8,000 recognise that one life lost is one too many! It is for this reason that we all work diligently to enhance and increase our Communities of C.A.R.E across the motu:
Connecting with Compassion,
Asking with Courage
Responding with Confidence and
Engaging with Community Supports
On behalf of our LifeKeepers suicide prevention team here at Le Va, we want to take the opportunity to thank each and every single one of you. We thank you for your aroha, your compassion, your care, your resilience and your mana enhancing messages of hope to protect the whakapapa of our many, here in Aotearoa New Zealand and across the Pacific.
“I just wanted to let you know how profoundly grateful I am to you, for allowing me to do this course. It has certainly changed my outlook and given me the confidence to address these difficult issues with compassion and confidence. I wish I had the opportunity to do this course a couple of years ago and also wish that others struggling with these issues were aware of it and able to access it. Thank you so much”.
Participant feedback (2021)
On behalf of the Le Va LifeKeepers team, ngā mihi o te wā, mā te atua tātou e manaaki!
• Love Somebody Charitable Trust
• Zeal Education
• Positive Vibrations Ltd
• South Waikato YMCA
• New Zealand Rugby League
• Hawkes Bay Fijian Christian Fellowship Trust
• You Thrive NZ Ltd
• Bay of Plenty Youth Development Trust
• Failoa Famili Trust
• Ribanaia Women’s Group
• Gateway Community Trust
• Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group
• Shore Junction – PHAB Pasifika
• Takatakai Moana Ltd
• Life supporting communities NZ Trust
Once again, we received an overwhelming response from Aotearoa. Through the high calibre of applications from our wider Pasifika community, we can see a diverse range of suicide prevention initiatives taking place.
Le Va is part of the Wise Group. Copyright ©2025
