Growing Collective Wellbeing in Whanganui: A Community-Led Response to Toxic Stress (2025)
Across Aotearoa, many tamariki and rangatahi are growing up under the heavy weight of toxic stress. Unlike everyday pressures that help us adapt and grow, toxic stress stems from persistent adversity - poverty, unemployment, neglect, addiction - and without stable, supportive relationships, it can disrupt brain development, weaken physical health, and echo across generations.
Research from Harvard University shows that these experiences trigger a toxic stress response that can alter brain architecture and chemistry, affecting learning, behaviour, and health across the lifespan. But there is hope: even removing a single stressor can significantly improve a person’s ability to cope, strengthening executive function and overall wellbeing.
The Healthy Families WRR Growing Collective Wellbeing (GCW) Project in Whanganui is a community-led response to this challenge. As part of this challenge, Healthy Families WRR has been facilitating a Toxic Stress Workshop Series which feature Alex Woodley and Nadine Metzger from Point. These workshops highlight that even when whānau are overwhelmed, removing just one stressor can make a profound difference. Guided by international and New Zealand-based research and informed by whānau voices, GCW focuses on reducing toxic stress and building systems of support that are culturally safe, joined-up, and easy to access. The initiative brings together schools, health providers, iwi, hapū, community leaders, and whānau to find practical ways to ease the load and create environments where tamariki can thrive.
Evaluation in Progress
Alongside the workshop series, Point are supporting this kaupapa through a light-touch, culturally grounded evaluation of lifting toxic stress prototypes which includes:
Fortnightly hui with prototype leads
Interviews with whānau and stakeholders
Development of initiative profiles capturing early learnings
A final wānanga to gather collective insights and outcomes
The evaluation explores how communities are shaping solutions, what’s shifting across systems, and what’s needed to grow or sustain these initiatives. It also asks how government and funders can better respond to toxic stress and support community-led design.