Source: Radio New Zealand
After serving time in prison, Dave Letele realised he’d had enough – and in 2007 started The Grace Foundation with his wife and late daughter. Supplied / Sky
A new documentary shines a light on the Grace Foundation’s bold rehab model for high-risk offenders and addicts, fuelled by the loss and lived experience of a former gang criminal
Dave Letele Snr doesn’t hide from his Mongrel Mob criminal past – he leans into it.
He tells The Detail that, while he grew up in a loving, close-knit, Christian Samoan family, he was always “just a naughty kid” and, by age 10, he was removed from his family and sent to a boys’ home.
By 13, he had left school. By 15, he had joined his local Mongrel Mob, becoming part of a new chapter in Mangere.
“I was a wayward kid, with no direction.”
That ultimately led him on a path of crime, which landed him in prison for armed robbery with a 10-year sentence.
“I felt at the time it was a harsh penalty… and I often think about that… but there were other things that I had done and got away.”
After his release in his 40s, Letele decided he’d had enough. He wanted more from life and for wife Tui and their three children, including Dave Jr, better known as ‘Brown Butterbean’.
Eventually, he found his new calling – faith.
“I came to the realisation, after being curious about Christianity, digging somewhat deeper and finding out that, no, Jesus Christ did not carry a belt,” Letele laughs.
“He’s a person who embraces and loves people, he’s passionate and kind, and he never forced himself on anybody. He didn’t do home invasions… he doesn’t climb through people’s windows.
“He knocks on the door of one’s heart.”
In 2007, Letele formed The Grace Foundation with his wife and late daughter Vicki, who made headlines in 2016, after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer while in prison for fraud and successfully fought to be released on compassionate grounds.
“When we started, we had absolutely no idea what we were doing – all we saw was a need.
“How do we fulfill that need, as best we can? We started with a shelter.”
Since then, he says, they have helped “thousands of people” with their model, which is built on a strict structure, cultural connection, and wraparound support for people on bail, on parole, serving home detention or leaving prison.
The doors also open to those battling addiction and to mums with children who need a safe home.
“It’s about breaking the cycle,” Letele tells The Detail. “Our approach is to be accepting, inclusive and non-judgmental.
“I always refer to our foundation as a doorway. It has no door, meaning we don’t have a criteria.
“I always say we fish with a net, not a fishing line. We don’t look at a fish, think ‘Undersized? – nah, he’s no good, throw it back’.
“We don’t pick and choose who comes to the foundation. We say, ‘Come on in, give it a go’.
“If it doesn’t work [the first time], it may work the second, third, fourth or fifth time.
“It’s taken years for them to get to that point; we can’t expect it to happen within months. That’s why we don’t have a timeframe in terms of how long their stay is.”
He says it’s not about giving criminals a second chance, it’s “actually about providing their first chance they never got”.
“Once people understand that, they will realise they had no choice. Not all choices are equal.
“From the womb, these guys had no chance. Can you imagine some of the backgrounds some of these guys came from?
“It started from the womb – the abuse mum might have been taking… or what mum might have been doing. It all happened there.
“The moment they were born, they virtually had no chance, no chance at all.”
He says residents often stay on to work at the foundation and, right now, they make up the top-tier leadership.
“It’s about lived experiences.”
In part, he says, that’s why they are now the country’s largest provider of rehabilitation and accommodation for people, although they don’t rely on government money to keep running. Instead, donations and private funding cover the operations and salaries.
To date, it’s not making the Leteles rich, he says.
“For the first 15 years I was in Grace, leading Grace, no wage, no wage at all. I lived in all the men’s homes throughout those years… and whatever they ate, I ate.
“It’s only maybe in the last three years that Grace has been in a position to give me something.”
A new documentary on Three is now lifting the lid on the foundation, following the Leteles and capturing the raw reality of their work – the daily routines, the hope, the relapses, the breakthroughs and the pressure that comes with trying to succeed where the system often struggles.
It’s called Home of Hope.
“My goal is to hopefully have gang members leave as better people and my hope then is that, if they leave better people, they may reconsider their position, where they are right now in their lives, where their families stand, and what’s best for them and their lives.
“If they go back better club members, all the better, but my hope is they can go that extra mile and reconsider the direction they have been living up until this point.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
