Kia Kai-Kōrero Tātou: Kia Ora Ake – Asian peer led, clinically informed, culturally integrated approach

Kia Ora Ake, a service of Asian Family Services, began as an aspirational peer-led model designed to address the unique challenges faced by 1.5 and second-generation Asian young people navigating identity, culture, belonging and mental-health stigma. It has since grown into a pioneering child and youth primary mental-health service in Counties Manukau—one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most ethnically diverse and socio-economically challenged regions. Peer-led, clinically informed and indigenously grounded, Kia Ora Ake embeds tikanga Māori while centring Asian lived experience.