Our governance Board reflects that we are a resettled community organization working towards positive settlement and integration, with five of our eight members from the resettled community, including our Chairperson, and the other three members from outside the resettled community but bringing particular strengths to contribute to the organization’s effective governance. The Board’s role involves setting the organization’s direction, overseeing the arrangements and practices that lead to the effective management of the organization’s operations, and ensuring accountability.

We’ve built a strong, diverse team with a broad spectrum of experience, expertise and skill-sets, brought together under our vision and values. To uphold our ethos of integration, we maintain a balance between those with forced migrant lived experience and those without but who possess the skills and expertise to strengthen our mission.

The Tūmanako – Table of Hope model of practice is an approach that ensures resettled community voices are heard, understood, and recognised. This model of practice is the foundation of ARCC, and guides who we are and what we do.

Tūmanako, in its essence, means to hope for a better future for the families and communities of resettled people in Aotearoa New Zealand. The model of practice provides a framework for a resettlement process that actively promotes wellbeing. It guides us to work together and listen to resettled communities’ voices on the issues that matter to them and affect their lives. This is the best way to encourage a sense of belonging. The model was informed by the collective voice of the resettled community, resulting from four consultation sessions that captured the views of 166 people from the community, including youth, women, elders and leaders across ARCC’s 24 member organisations.

The philosophy underpinning the model is the indigenous way the kaumātua of traditional Māori communities in Aotearoa New Zealand used to congregate in one place to deal with unresolved issues in the community. The model of practice encompasses three interrelated dimensions:

• The past (table base) signifies resettled community members’ backgrounds, their extended families, ancestry, land and country of origin.
• The present (table leg) signifies the resettlement journey and what needs to be achieved through community-led organisations and key stakeholders working together.
• The future (tabletop) signifies resettled community aspirations for better integration and a sense of belonging in their new home.

A resettlement process that actively promotes wellbeing will be possible when resettled community members’ voices are heard and understood, and key barriers such as education, employment, housing, language and wellbeing are addressed.