Mauri Tu, Mauri Ora: A Process Evaluation

Rates of violent reoffending amongst young offenders has been a cause of concern for those involved in the youth justice (YJ) system in New Zealand (NZ), and across the world. Although, the rates of youth offending in NZ appear to be declining, there is a trend of increasing violent youth offending (Ministry of Justice; MOJ, 2010, 2012). Therefore, the search for effective and generalisable treatment programmes for violent young offenders has been a focus for those involved in juvenile offending research (Caldwell & Van Rybroek, 2013). The Mauri Tu Mauri Ora programme (MTMO; Kilgour & Borg, 2016), was developed in 2014 to provide an “intensive rehabilitation option for youth between 16 and 20 years of age who are deemed to be at a high risk of re-offending” (p. 27). However, since its implementation, there has been no systematic evaluation of its effectiveness. This process evaluation investigated how the MTMO programme was operating so its strengths and areas of improvement could be better understood. This was achieved by detailing the characteristics of the programme; the extent to which it met the needs of key stakeholders; evaluating the specific components of the programme; the working relationship between staff; how well the programme was delivered; and identifying possible areas of improvement. The perspectives of participants resulting in 28 subthemes associated with: initial engagement and assessment; treatment delivery and engagement; the transition phase; unit environment; and staff services. Along with a discussion, these findings identify areas the MTMO programme can build on its strengths and areas it can make improvements