Sarena McNaught

Sarena McNaught – Family social worker – Christchurch

What does your job involve?
My job’s to provide home-based child and family education. I go to the homes of children and their parents and help to create a positive learning environment implementing the Positive Parenting Programme. I do an assessment with the families to identify their strengths and issues within the household. I then help the families to set goals and achieve these through the programme, the aim is to build stronger relationships in the home, and reduce misbehaviour.

How long have you been working at Barnardos?
I’ve been here for two and a half years as a social worker, and child and family educator. After the earthquake, I helped get the Journey of Hope programme up and running. This is a programme we provide for school children one to two times a week which identifies and helps children with their coping strategies after a traumatic situation such as the earthquake. We are hoping to extend this programme and role it out continuously as it has been tremendously successful here in Christchurch and is relevant for many other children dealing with traumatic or stressful situations.

How and why did you end up working for Barnardos?
I did a degree in social work and my second placement for this was at Barnardos. I’d always wanted to work with children and families and I knew Barnardos did a lot of positive work for communities throughout New Zealand, so I was very lucky to stay on.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
The hardest aspect would be when there are multi-faceted issues within a family or household. It can then sometimes be difficult to focus on positive parenting when there are larger overshadowing issues such as addiction and mental health to contend with. This often means that the children get second priority and so my job can become challenging.

What is it about Barnardos that you like?
I like the family focus that Barnardos promotes and that children do come first. On a personal level, during the earthquake, Barnardos were hugely supportive for my own family and for others. I like their values of integrity, success, respect for others and passion. We bring enthusiasm into the homes of many, and like to model those values with the families we work alongside. I’m excited about Barnardos passion for professional development and finding a leader among everyone.

What is the best part about your job?
In family homes, I enjoy working alongside families to achieve positive change for the issues that are present. I’m excited when I can help families reconnect relationships and help repair the challenges that have been in those relationships. It’s an extremely rewarding job and it’s about making a difference.

What do you hope to achieve at Barnardos in the future?
I wish to achieve further development on the home-based child and family programme, implementing a component exclusively focused on attachment and relationships. I’d like to see the Journey of Hope programme rolled out to the whole of New Zealand, so other children can gain life skills that are transferable when it comes to any stressors. I hope to also maintain the quality and consistency of the home-based programme throughout Barnardos, and one day become a leader in the home-based field.