Jess Mallalieu never underestimates the profound effect that her mahi has on communities. As Manager Client Service Delivery at Ministry of Social Development’s Taihape Service Centre, Jess and her team help those most in need find a job and access health, housing and basic financial support.
What does service to the community mean to you?
Being of service to the community where my whānau live and where I grew up means everything to me. It’s a privilege to be in a role where I can make a positive and significant impact to whānau in Taihape, Ohakune and Marton. I find partnering with our extraordinary local organisations to help those most in need incredibly humbling and fulfilling. Our people and communities access us at their most vulnerable times and sharing their journeys is an honour.
How does your work make a difference?
Helping our people to get jobs or access health, housing and basic financial support is life changing mahi, for the people we serve and also for their whānau and extended whānau. I never underestimate the profound effect our services and mahi have on our communities. When we serve our communities with dignity, kindness, respect, and mana we build our people up. We help people to know they are worthy and can achieve great things. We have so many opportunities to walk alongside whānau to support them to a brighter future.
What achievements are you most proud of?
I have been so lucky to be part of some phenomenal mahi and achievements here, but my greatest achievements are leaving people in our communities and within our Ministry better than I found them. There are no individual successes, only successes we achieve as a collective.
Always stay humble, always stay gracious, always stay passionate and always stay authentically you.
What’s your favourite part of the job?
I’ve had the pleasure and honour of meeting the most remarkable people in the Ministry and within our communities. It’s the people and their untapped potential that makes this mahi so addictive, energising and rewarding.
What are 3 words you would use to describe your work?
Humbling, gratifying, momentous.
What advice would you give to someone starting their career in the Public Service?
Always stay humble, always stay gracious, always stay passionate and always stay authentically you. Our public service mahi is vast, far reaching and incredibly worthy. A smile or a kind word is powerful and can change someone’s complete trajectory.
“Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart, one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them” – Marvin J. Ashton.
