Hawke’s Bay

Nicky Skerman, leader of the Eyebright Award winning Young Parents Team, highlights that New Zealand has the third highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the OECD. She took learnings from her thesis, and with funding from the Vodafone Foundation, gathered a small team of people together to run a pilot programme which has improved parenting and health outcomes significantly for teenage mothers in Hawke’s Bay.

The programme responds to the most resounding conclusion of Nicky Skerman’s research - that teenage mothers look for support from someone they know and trust. So Plunket’s pilot scheme sees relationships between teenage mothers and their Plunket Nurse forming early in Hawke’s Bay - before the baby is born.

The pilot is being formally evaluated by EIT and the results are due out in March 2012. Nicky Skerman says: “The results in our community speak volumes. My dream is to get this funded all over the country.”