ph: (09)480-6530
9:00am - 2:30pm
Free Phone 0800 472 637
email: office@grg.org.nz

Trust Head Office:
PO Box 34-892
Birkenhead,
Auckland  0742 

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren ™ Charitable Trust 2005


Any information on this site may not necessarily represent the views of the GRG Trust Board

Do you have any concerns or complaints about the Trust, please contact the Trust Secretary:

PO Box 34-892
Birkenhead,
Auckland 0742 

Board of Trustees

The Board is comprised of 7 voluntary members (with new appointments under way) who receive no money for their services. They meet once a month to discuss the issues that surround this sector of society. The objective of the board is to bring about change, security, raise awareness, assistance for all Kin Carers be they grandparents, great grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, extended family/whanau or in some cases not related at all. Love is what makes a family it does not necessarily mean blood related. This often happens where the grandparent may have taken on a Foster child and now raises those grandchildren from this child. The role of kinship has many layers and indeed many complexities.

These people are selected through a process of appointment from the Trustee's. It is vital that we have representation of the many cultures and circumstances that have bought us to where we are today and indeed leading us into the future.

Here is a brief outline of our trustees:

Diane Vivian:
Diane Vivian is the founding member of grandparents Raising Grandchildren which she started in NZ in 1999. She found when been delivered 2 very traumatised grandchildren that there was no help available. So on a voluntary basis she founded the Organisation and is the National Convenor and Chairman of the Board.
She married in 1967 and along with her husband raised 3 children and they took on 2 foster children. Today she has 8 grandchildren.



Diane Vivian

Debbie Gillies:
Debbie and her husband were left to raise our grandson ten years ago. Some time later Debbie spied an article in the local paper about another family who was raising their grandchildren. And they had thought they were the only grandparents in Auckland raising their grandchild! They couldn't wait to go to the meeting which was organised after the huge response to the article.

That was the beginning of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, and in Debbie's words, "I am proud to say I am a Trustee to such a worthy organisation".

Debbie Gillies
Jill Worrall: MNZM
Jill Worrall is the mother of three sons and grandmother to six grandchildren. With her husband John, the family cared for several foster children over a period of twenty years. Jill was raised by extended family for the first half of her childhood. She has been a nurse, a social worker and a senior lecturer in social work at Massey University. She has had the privilege of writing the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Handbook and undertaking the GRG research on Grandparent and other kin caregivers.



Jill Worrall
Mere Tunks
Ethnicity: Maori/French/Irish/ Scots. A Kiwi! affiliated to Whakatohea and Te Whanay-a-Apanui. Formerly a Black and Nanna was Matuakore Delamere
Educated: Australia, England and New Zealand. M.Ed(Hons) H/Ec Cert. Dip Tchg. Dip.Ed Studies Dip.151.City and Guilds London.
Present Work: Director, Waipareira Trust Alternative Education Unit. Working with students predominantly, Maori and Pacific Island who are alienated and excluded from school. Associated with Justice, CYPFS, Strengthening Families Effective Practice, Secondary Schools and Community groups e.g. Truancy and Youth Aid
Current Associations: Member of UNITEC Council: Member of National Health Research Ethics Committee
UNITEC Runanga: Senior Management Waipareira
Family: Husband Chris Tunks. Married: 44 years. Children: Boy and three girls. Mokopuna: Seven.
Baby boy lived with her for 18months and another lives with her week about, aged 8 years old (girl).

Trevor Pugh
Trevor Pugh has been married to Gwen for 47 years. He has been on the Council for 9 years and also on the Licensing Trust for 9 years. Trevor is a certified Budget advisor and is the District representative for NZ Federation Family Budget Services. Has had many years experience in local Community as Chairperson and is Director of Educational Standards NZ Charter Health Practitioners.
Kate Bundle
Kate first became involved with Grandparents Raising Grandchildren in 2000 as a lawyer in private practice in West Auckland and has been a trustee since its establishment. As a specialist family lawyer she represented many grandparents in circumstances where the grandparents were required to assume the primary care-giving role for their grandchildren as a result of their parents drugs/alcohol abuse and domestic violence issues. This experience has given her an insight and understanding of the uniqueness of the plight of the grandparents embroiled in our family court system and the degree to which it is a growing problem that needs to be urgently addressed by our society and the Government.
Kate Bundle

Kate graduated from the University of Otago in 1989 with a degree in law and for nearly 9 years practised in civil, criminal and family law litigation. During the early 1990’s she worked for 2 ½ years in marketing, communications and risk management roles in the banking industry in London and from 2001-2007 she worked for LexisNexis NZ Ltd in the legal conference and professional development and training sector where she undertook programme development and latterly held an executive team management role. From 2004-2007 she was a contributing writer to the fortnightly NZ Lawyer magazine. Currently she is enjoying her role as fulltime mother to her two children and her work for the Trust; in particular the development of the Trust’s inaugural national conference to be held in October 2009.


Nicolette Bodewes
Nicolette Bodewes is married with two adult children. She comes from a Dutch family that immigrated to New Zealand in the early 1950�s and made West Auckland their home.

Nicolette has a BA majoring in Psychology and a Law degree with Honours from Auckland University. She was a �mature� student and specialises in the area of Family Law. Nicolette is an Associate with Schnauer and Co. She has extensive experience in all areas of family law, in particular resolving relationship property matters and parenting disputes. Nicolette has represented both grandparents and parents applying for Parenting Orders through the Family Court. This has provided her with an understanding of the issues facing grandparents caring for their grandchildren, both legally as well as emotionally and financially.

Nicolette is also secretary of the North Shore Zonta club.

 

Kirstin Morris

Kirstin Morris has 17 years of experience in working with children in a variety of different settings including respite care, foster care, full time daycare, kindergarten, family daycare, in home care etc. Kirstin has raised her son with the help of loving grandparents and realizes the importance of whanau. Kirstin is currently formalizing her experience by completely a degree in teaching.




Nicolette Bodewes

 

 

 Kirstin Morris

 
Life Members: Jill Neherny, Miriama Paraone-Davies, Samina Corbett

Auditors: Prince & Partners. Auckland
Secretariat: Rosemarie Dawson. Business Professional Services Ltd www.bpsl.co.nz Ph 09 419 0042