At Blueprint for Learning, we are on a mission to ensure New Zealanders all have mental health and addiction literacy skills. What does that mean? We want all New Zealanders to have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to have real conversations about mental health and addiction to support people in their workplaces and communities.
In Aotearoa, many people lack understanding and knowledge about mental health and addiction challenges, what they are, what causes these challenges, and how people can recover. There is still a lot of stigma surrounding people experiencing mental health and addiction challenges. Our workshops aim to fill this gap.
What makes our mental health and addiction workshops unique?
Bringing together lived and clinical experience
Our unique co-facilitation model brings together two facilitators. One brings their own life experience of mental health and/or addiction challenges and recovery, and the other is a registered mental health or addiction professional.
Their combined expertise and experience mean each workshop is based on an in-depth, holistic understanding of mental health and addiction challenges experienced by people in communities and workplaces. Participants get the benefit of clinical experience and hearing real-life stories of the facilitator’s experience of mental health or addiction challenges.
Workshop content that’s locally created
Our workshops are all developed in Aotearoa for New Zealanders. We develop our workshops in-house, with local experts, including our own facilitators. You’ll hear stories and research from Aotearoa and encounter scenarios that could be from your community. This ensures the workshops are relatable and relevant to people in our communities and workplaces.
Like our workshop participants, our facilitators reflect our communities across Aotearoa, bringing diverse life experiences, cultures, and skills to their role.
Use of Te Whare Tapa Whā
All of our workshops use the Māori health model, Te Whare Tapa Whā. Developed by Sir Mason Durie in 1984, Te Whare Tapa Whā looks at health and wellbeing as the four walls of a wharenui/meeting house. This means we take an in-depth, holistic approach to understanding mental health, addiction, and wellbeing.
Available around Aotearoa
We run interactive workshops all across Aotearoa New Zealand, online and in person.
Our in-person workshops are delivered right across the motu, from Cape Reinga to Bluff. If you would like a workshop, we are willing to travel. In-person workshops offer a fantastic learning opportunity with the benefit of in-person connection. Our funded community workshops also include lunch.
Online workshops are delivered via Zoom over several sessions. Online workshops can offer greater flexibility and choice to people, allowing them to attend a workshop. For people who live rurally or can’t spare the time for a full-day workshop, online workshops are an excellent option. We’ve done the research too, and they are just as effective as in-person workshops, although you don’t get lunch!
Creating safe spaces for honest conversations
It can be tough discussing mental health, addiction, and wellbeing whether with new faces or familiar colleagues. Our workshops are safe places created with manaakitanga to enable open and honest conversations in a supportive learning space. Our skilled and experienced facilitators empower people to learn from what they, and others, wish to share.
Equity and belonging are part of who we are
Equity and belonging are part of the Blueprint DNA and fundamental to what we do. This is reflected in our workshop content and delivery, the recruitment of our facilitators, and the culture of our organisation.
Blueprint is guided by our Kanorau Charter (shared with Te Pou), with diversity and inclusion as core principles of how we work. The charter draws on the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Human Rights Act, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Under our Kanorau Charter, we are committed to reflecting Aotearoa’s diversity to ensure people can be who they are without fear of prejudice.
In 2021, we achieved Rainbow Tick accreditation. We were thrilled to take home a New Zealand Rainbow Excellence Award in 2022 for the Rainbow Tick Non-Commercial Sector Award, as well as being a finalist for the Supreme Award.
Photo: Kelly Atherton, Eboni Siueva, Angela Gruar, and Sarah Fitzpatrick with Blueprint for Learning’s Rainbow Excellence Awards.
Part of the Wise Group
Blueprint NZ Ltd, trading as Blueprint for Learning, is part of the Wise Group, a whānau of charitable organisations providing services and resources, driving research, and championing new thinking.
Blueprint for Learning is a registered company with charitable status. We started in 1999 providing adult education to Pathways employees delivering community mental health services. Our focus is now on improving the mental health and addiction literacy of all New Zealanders. We are one of New Zealand’s largest training providers in mental health and addiction, dedicated to both workforce development and community training.
Since 2017, we have shared a chief executive and board of directors with Te Pou, a not-for-profit, national workforce development centre working across the mental health, addiction, and disability sectors.
Strategic goals
As an organisation, Blueprint for Learning is committed to achieving three strategic goals.
- Equipping people to support the wellbeing of themselves and others.
- Providing a safe and supportive learning environment for some challenging topics.
- An ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, as seen in our Kanorau Charter.
We are NZQA registered
We have a Category 1 External Evaluation and Review (EER) rating in education achievement and self-assessment issued by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).
MH101® and Addiction 101 are NZQA-approved programmes. Our other workshops are of the same educational style and quality but have not been quality-assured by NZQA.
