Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission received funding from the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) to build the financial capability for 1,200 Pacific households, with a focus on pathways to home ownership. The aim is to equip Pacific households with the financial capability skills and resilience to work towards home ownership and cope with economic shocks such as COVID-19. MPP’s Pacific Aotearoa Lalaga Fou goals seek a different approach for Pacific Peoples, with programmes needing to be grounded in Pacific values and culture, and holistically integrated around families and community.
The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) was contracted by Te Ara Ahunga Ora to evaluate Sorted PPPH. Te Ara Ahunga Ora expects evaluation to be an annual activity until 2024, with the specific evaluation focus agreed each year. This evaluation report presents findings from the first 6 months of the programme, from January to June 2022.
The purpose of the evaluation in this first phase was to understand whether the programme was being implemented as intended, and to collect early evidence about quality and impact. The experiences of the first cohorts of participants were central to the evaluation. Key findings include:
- The programme is of high quality and its success comes from the interweaving of Pacific values and culture, strong facilitation and high-quality content
- Facilitators created a safe space for participants to share their experiences about money, and supported and valued intergenerational learning
- Skills Update delivery worked for many participants despite a COVID-19 driven shift to online delivery