Dave Dawber

I am passionate about seeing families build safe, meaningful relationships and assisting individuals in creating a more fulfilled life. Building safe and secure relationships with clients allows them to explore their issues and choose a healthier life.

I started professional counselling in 2006

Worked mostly in the family violence field, with men, youth and parents. Looking for a different field of work.

Te Manawa Family Services Practice Manager` Nov 2016 – present

Te Manawa works to build safe families in our communities. My job involves working with staff to raise their skills and ensure they are getting the support they need to do their job. Typically, it involves significantly prioritising jobs and deciding what will be the most useful to the organisation.

It has been a varied role. I maintained the organisation through the transition period while one manager retired and the new manager took over. I am proud of the work we do and the impact on the families we work with.

I have been working part-time (30 hours a week) with both client contact and the managing role. In 2021, we updated our processes to include team leaders in running teams.

Responsibilities

• I coordinate the writing of reports to our trust board, attend some meetings to present these reports, answer any questions, and be involved in organisational direction. 
• Meet with staff for Job Reviews and Annual Reviews. These both involve challenging staff in their work, receiving feedback on practice issues, and implementing changes from an organisational level.
• I provide oversight to ensure all staff attend supervision, receive adequate training and provide professional and personal support as necessary.
• Ensure staff adhere to funders' requirements while achieving the maximum benefit for our clients.
• Ongoing updating and reviewing of programme content and delivery. 
• Projects are helpful for the proper functioning of the programmes and services.

My job was to create and build safe families in our communities. I worked with men both in groups and individually to live lives free from violence. I work with youth and their parents to stop the youth’s violence, improve their resilience, improve the parent's parenting skills and build their relationships.

Te Manawa has given me significant support in my development as a counsellor, with regular individual, group and cultural supervision, plus significant ongoing training in the work. My role includes:

Note: From June 2011 to January 2013, I chose to be my two children's stay-at-home dad. Then, I increased my hours until they were both at school full-time, rising from 16 to 30 plus hours a week.

Responsibilities

• Use a combination of counselling and facilitation skills to achieve positive change for clients.
• Facilitating programmes
• Coordinate programmes at different times.
• Adhering to the requirements of funders while achieving the maximum benefit for our clients 
• Evaluation of our programme, including starting up post-programme evaluations at various intensities. 
• Job reviews with the four counsellors, evaluating performance, reviewing progress and supporting staff development.

My role was to motivate and challenge adult learners to reflect on and set personal and career goals, coach and assess The Open Polytechnic Certificate of Vocational and Personal Development and assess the National Certificate of Employment skills. This programme was for adult learners, delivered in the student’s home and tailored to their individual needs, and I received monthly training in this role.

I have a Diploma of Counselling from Laidlaw, which was then the Bible College of New Zealand. I am a full member of NZAC.