Alastair – Family Harm Practitioner

Alastair has enjoyed a varied career with CRS since 2010. Coming on board as a Youth Development Community Worker in late 2009, Alastair was involved in organising camps for young refugee and migrant children, particularly young boys from the ages of 15-20. Groups of children would visit places including Hanmer Springs and Wainui, exploring areas of New Zealand that they had never seen before. As well as camps, Alastair had his own one-on-one case work, but his main role was organising group activities.

After the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, with funding coming to an end for the youth work, Alastair became a support worker in helping families who were affected by the earthquakes. What was supposed to be a temporary role became a six-year role for Alastair. In 2017 when the Kaikōura earthquake struck, Alastair left CRS to do similar work for the Hurunui Council.

The 2019 Mosque Attacks saw Alastair reaching out to CRS offering his assistance. He ended up returning to the organisation and was heavily involved in assisting families who had suffered during the traumatic events of the attacks. After a year of work, Alastair became involved with the Integrated Safety Response (ISR), working with perpetrators of domestic violence.

Highlights for Alastair include his involvement in the youth work, particularly in the changes that he could see being made in young children’s lives.

“The highlight really is just the people you meet, they’re just pretty extraordinary people who’ve been through these crazy things. Seeing the way they’ve come out of it and the way they’ve adapted and their resilience.”

Alastair says that CRS has been a huge support to him in his own personal life, with the organisation being a great employer. He says the organisation is flexible in allowing him to put his family first when necessary. He says CRS has a “family comes first attitude” and a “willingness to let you carry on working but in a way that you can do what you need to for your family.”