At the weekly meetings of Plunket's Improve for Change group in Wainuiomata – which Awa leads – dads are working on themselves in order to strengthen relationships with tamariki and whanau.
About five years ago, Awa says he made the decision that he wanted to wake up happier and more positive.
The first step was to work on himself from the inside, he says.
"I found out that there were tools I'd never had in my kete and started to implement those in family life."
Around that time, his wife saw a job ad for a Plunket Parenting Facilitator at Rimutaka Prison.
