Lieutenant Colonel Ian Hudson of the Salvation Army discusses the organisation's eight-year partnership with the Notorious chapter of the Mongrel Mob on drug addiction and rehabilitation, responding to recent political controversy over government funding for gang-linked initiatives led by figures such as Harry Tam. He explains the programme began after gang members, tired of losing people to methamphetamine addiction and wanting better futures for their children, approached the Salvation Army for support delivered alongside them rather than imposed on them.

Hudson argues the results speak for themselves: a Ministry of Health-funded review found reduced drug use, lower crime and violence, and fewer children removed from gang families. He pushes back on the "funding criminals" critique by distinguishing gang leadership from community members genuinely working for change, and advocates that government should keep backing such grassroots, faith-aligned efforts (([www.salvationarmy.org.nz](https://www.salvationarmy.org.nz))) because, in his view, offering "life" and grace succeeds where negativity and exclusion have failed.

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