Tash Punter

Home-based Family Support Team Leader | Dunedin

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How long have you been with Anglican Family Care and what’s your background in?

I’ve been with Anglican Family Care since 2007: first as a Home-based Family Support social worker and then in my current role as Team Leader. I have also practiced social work in the disability sector.

What inspired you to pursue a career in social work/family care?

I knew that I wanted to do something that felt worthwhile. I’ve needed support at various times in my life, and valued the difference this has made, so when my partner suggested I would make a decent social worker I looked into it. Once I had had children myself and really realized just how big a job parenting is, and how easy it is to feel out of your depth, I realized that this was the area of social work that I wanted to be involved in. Conveniently, a friend of mine was working here when a job came up and nudged me (repeatedly) to apply!

What do you find most rewarding about your work?

When I was working directly with parents/caregivers, it was when I started to see parents delight in their children when this wasn’t there much before: telling me about when they had fun with their child, or when they were proud of them and just glowing. This sounds like a little thing, but it can be a sign that things are changing in a positive way for parent/s and child – there is hope that things can be different. It makes me a bit teary even now, when my team talk about seeing it in the families they work with.

What do you get up to outside of work? What hobbies or activities do you enjoy doing?

Hanging out with my kids (now young adults) and my partner and friends. Op-shopping missions (and K-mart missions to Inver-Vegas). Bingeing Netflix or reading crappy novels (none of that serious stuff for me). Listening to music, trying (and failing) to keep up with what my kids listen to. Playing with our small-dog-who-thinks-he’s big-dog, Alfredo – apparently the only grandchild I will get…

Wende dein gesicht immer der sonne zu, dann fallen die schatten hinter dich.” Translated means: Always turn your face to the sun, so that the shadows fall behind you

This is an African proverb but was given to me on a card by my German teacher at high school (Frau Wai), hence it is in German. It means “Always turn your face to the sun, so that the shadows fall behind you”. I have the card framed in my hallway as the message, and the caring lady who gave it to me, knew that I needed to hear that message at the time. Look ahead, look for the good things, the positive things, and let the crap be in the past. It helps me to remember not to focus too much on what is going wrong or feels too hard or what has happened to me in the past, but to look to the possibilities of the future and hold hope.

Other Management Team Members

Jane Hutton

Practice Manager

Mike Williams

General Manager

Donna Davidson

Fundraising, Marketing & Communications Manager

Other Business Support Team Members

Stacey Hobbs

Reception | Administrator

John Gillanders

Business Systems Leader

Sarah Thornton

Fundraising, Marketing and Communications Administrator | Receptionist

Other Practice Team Members

Katherine Chamberlain

Team Leader | South Otago

Angela Kelly

Restorative Justice Co-ordinator

Ngarangi Matthews

Family Start Team Leader | Dunedin