2016 snapshot

We’ve produced an illustrated reflection of 2016. Small and beautifully packaged it focuses on just six highlights from what has been an action packed year. Enjoy! 
Read our 2016 Snapshot

November 2016 Newsletter – Being Prepared

It’s been a busy few months. Planning is now well underway for Activate – a study tour and ideas exchange opportunity, lots of innovative action! We’ve been on the road around the West Coast working with Communities Leading Change and Jim Diers has been back spreading his wisdom.
We’re collecting all manner of CLD case studies from across the country and we’ve been celebrating success with Mangakino, as they opened their new heritage trail.

Read all about these and more in our November Newsletter.

August 2016 Newsletter – Starting Local

We’ve had a spruce-up!  We hope this makes it easier for you to navigate all the wonderful stories and information we have on offer.
This month we’re celebrating the energy created from the hugely successful Start Local. Seminar we co-hosted with Local Government NZ and IGPS In late June. Hot off the press is the Start Local Seminar Report capturing the very best of the day.  David has a blog inspired by the day, and there’s stories from local leaders sharing their communities’ experiences working with central and local government.

There’s also reports, video and info from other projects we’ve been involved in.  An opportunity to do an introductory course on CLD in Auckland and we look forward to welcoming Jim Diers in September.

Read our August Newsletter 

Child Rich Communities

The overarching goal of the Child Rich Communities project is to grow a movement of people who think and work in community-led ways to improve child, family and whānau well-being.

Read more in the About section below.

What’s happening in 2018?

Recent webinars

Want to hear more about how people around the country are mobilising their community to improve child well-being?

Watch our Child Rich Communities webinar series! Through three webinars we explored key practice principles that mobilise the community and improve child and family well-being.

The webinars combined theory and experience, with community-based practitioners from diverse communities across Aotearoa sharing their experience. There was also space for questions and discussion on what’s making a difference for children and families.

David Hanna from Inspiring Communities facilitated each webinar and presented on the Child Rich Communities framework. Each webinar explored in more detail a couple of the principles that make up the Child Rich Communities approach (see the principles in full below). At the end of the webinar series, all the principles were covered. Click on the links below to watch each webinar on our YouTube channel.

Connect and Empower! The first webinar explored the principles of engagement, empowerment and connection. Julia Milne (Common Unity) and Steve McLuckie (Shore to Thrive) presented. Watch it here.

The big picture. The second webinar explored the principles of thinking and working holistically and being responsive. Ginny Larsen (Mairehau Neighbourhood Trust) and Jane Denley and Adam Rivett (Waimate Parenting Hub) presented. Watch it here.

It’s all about relationships. The third webinar explored the principles of being relationship focused and the importance of collaboration. Lisa McKenzie (Hokonui Highway Project) and Erena Mikaere Most (Ruapehu Whānau Transformation Plan) presented. Watch it here.

Communities of Practice

The Communities of Practice aim to support those already working in community-led ways. Through peer learning, in groups of 6 – 8 people, we aim to strengthen everyone’s confidence, skills, knowledge and build ongoing local support networks. Currently, we have three communities of practice operating: one in Wellington, one in Christchurch and two online. If you’d like to know more, contact us.

Workshops

These workshops explored what a Child Rich Community (CRC) is, what the CRC practice principles are all about and how local people and organisations can work together to support the development of CRC thinking and practice locally.

To enquire about future workshops, please contact us.

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About Child Rich Communities

The Child Rich Communities project is about growing a movement of people who think and work in community-led ways to improve child, family and whānau well-being.

It’s well known that here in Aotearoa there are big issues when it comes to the wellbeing of our children. We think one part of the jigsaw is changing not just policies, but how we approach issues. It seems clear that the way we’re addressing issues isn’t always working: many of the big issues have been with us for a while, through successive governments, different policies and multiple reforms. So where do we go?

Well, as the quote goes, you can’t do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. So how about we focus on doing things differently?

Rather than top-down approaches, we believe big change comes from supporting communities to lead. This means supporting communities to decide what solutions will work best for them, sharing power, decision-making and resources to enable locally-led responses and action. This is what Child Rich Communities are all about.

There is no single model or definition for what a Child Rich Community is. Rather it’s a way of working that is driven by a set of principles that enable people in local places to make positive changes for themselves, their children, their family and the wider community.

A movement takes people, so this is where you come in! We’re currently focused on raising the profile of Child Rich Communities and supporting and connecting like-minded people, organisations and initiatives across Aotearoa so that we can all learn from each other.

Learn more by reading the Child Rich Communities Principles. You can download them too.

Click to read The Child Rich Communities Principles.

Interested in taking part? Get in touch!

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Watch some of the Bright Spot communities

Check out locals leading change in their communities. Hear their stories and share their insights into the rewards and challenges of using community-led approaches to support children and families.

About community led development

Meet the Bright Spots

South Alive Story

Randwick Park Story

You an also check out our Bright Spots webinar from 2017. In this webinar, we examined three lessons that emerged from the Bright Spots report. Lizzie McMillan from Wesley Action Waitangirua and Jenny Jurgens from Whanganui Central Baptist Kindergarten provided great case studies to demonstrate these learnings in practice.

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Here’s some more information on the background of the project, how we went about it and where we are at now.

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In the past few years, there has been increasing concern about child poverty in New Zealand. The agencies behind this project noticed that the responses to struggling children tend to fit within two strands of work – lobbying and advocacy and targeted intervention by Government, NGOs and the private sector.

Both of these strands of work are important.

However, there is another strand of work that is not always so visible, but is equally important – there are many people working in community-led ways throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. And this work is improving the lives of children and their families.

The aim of this project is to connect and learn from these ‘Bright Spots’ and build support for the role of community led development in child wellbeing.

In early 2015 the organisations – Inspiring Communities, Plunket,  UNICEF and Every Child Counts – came together to begin a project to explore local community initiatives that are making a positive difference to children and families.

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[accordion-item title=”First step: The report – Child Rich Communities”]
To kick-start this project, a report was commissioned to explore Bright Spots across Aotearoa New Zealand. A total of 21 initiatives ranging in size and scale, age, geography and entity type were engaged to learn more about their success factors. Stakeholders from philanthropic and government sectors were also interviewed.

Child Rich Communities full report

CRC report summary

CRC Briefing for Government Stakeholders

Case Studies

Tiakina o Tatou Tamariki

Raurimu Avenue Primary School

Te Aroha Noa Community Services

Whanganui Central Baptist Kindergarten and Learning Centres

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Following the release of the report, the project team asked Bright Spots if there was interest in continuing to grow the project. The response was positive, so a hui was organised in November 2016 for the Bright Spots to get together. The aim was to continue learning from one and another and to discuss where to from here for the Child Rich Communities project.

The hui was a fantastic day of story telling, learning and connecting. At the end of the day a set of actions were agreed to guide the next steps. There was a clear desire to grow community-led ways of working through:

• More funding for community-led development groups and initiatives
• Participatory democracy in local communities
• Community mentors to help with child rich communities methods/practice
• Supporting parents and families, e.g. support to enable parents to be home with their children longer

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[accordion-item title=”Where we’re at now: Growing Child Rich Communities”]

We have gratefully received funding from S.K.I.P to resource some of the actions from the hui. The funding enables us to hold three new webinars, three regional training workshops and set up four new regional ‘communities of practice’ aimed at peer-led support for those active in the community-led development/child well-being space.

While this new funding is specific to these activities, we’re keen to continue work on the wider aim of the project to raise awareness, deepen understanding and promote the role of community-led development in child and family well-being.

A movement takes people, so this is where you come in! We’re currently focused on raising the profile of Child Rich Communities and supporting and connecting like minded people, organisations and initiatives across Aotearoa so that we can all learn from each other. If this sounds like something you’re doing or interested in, get in touch!

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Does this sound like something you’re interested in? Get in touch and join us. Or if all of this sounds like what you’re currently doing in your community, we’d love to tell your story. Drop us a line!

Contact – Lisa Woods, lisa.woods@inspiringcommunities.org.nz, 021 1228 273.

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June Newsletter – Momentum

Because community-led development is about changing whole systems the work is long term.
Just like nature, expect constant change and be prepared to pro-actively adapt. As the Inspiring stories in this newsletter illustrate there is no right place to start. Begin from where you, your organisation or community is and weave CLD principles and practice into everything that happens.

Barbara MacLennan has been thinking about momentum – her blog has some salient commentary particularly about the role of leadership in CLD initiatives that endure.

Read our June Newsletter here

February Newsletter – Building Connections

Community-led development is all about relationships so building connections is the theme of our first newsletter for 2016. We’re also introducing a new feature: a blog called I’ve Been thinking….. Our team will take turns to share their experience. As promised there is a report on our November Network survey, we highlight some other initiatives we have been involved in and as always we share some inspiring stories from communities across the country – this time Newtown, Caversham and Papakura’s AwhiWorld, where technology is helping to connect people.
Read our February Newsletter 

October Newsletter – Leadership

Effective leadership is pivotal to successful community-led development (CLD) and in our experience it often pops up in the most unlikely places.
In this issue we go deeper into  the kinds of leadership that matter, with articles by our valued colleague Margy Jean Malcolm who has studied leadership extensively, we showcase a great new initiative in Christchurch – Leadership in Communities, and we share practical examples of local people leading in Marfell and Kaiwaka, there’s also a report on our first, very successful Boost Camp.

Read our October Newsletter

Auckland Newsletter – October 2015

The people who have written articles in this newsletter are all doers, that is true, and they know that whatever they do, it will be more successful on so many levels if they organise it with others and if they pass on their organising and other skills to others too.
As it turns out gardening is a very popular way to build community and fashion local solutions. The articles in this newsletter offer a taste of what is going in Panmure, Northcote and Point Chevalier in conjunction with Housing New Zealand Corporation, schools, early childhood centres, a library, local landscaping and gardening organisations, the North Shore Men’s Shed, Auckland Council, a bowling club, a Transition Town Group, a church and many many locals!

Read their stories and find out what’s happening around Auckland.

Inspiring Communities Newsletter June 2015

The Power of the Small Kia ora! Think Big – now there is term that conjures up a myriad of contrasts from the Muldoon era to Sex and the City. In amongst those contrasts community-led development lies, thinking big more often than not is seeded in something small that starts to create change. Locally- led change is not a journey of giant leaps and quick fixes, it is a process of small steps and intentional actions made by many, that cumulatively make a real difference and create big transformational change. In this issue Inspiring Communities focuses on the Power of the Small. In a showcase of stories that observe and celebrate communities taking small steps towards big change, we highlight the value of contribution – no matter the size – it matters. We feature two kinds of villages – one in the Waikato, the other is the sort you retire to; two kinds of giving – one time, the other money; and we share how you can get help to organise a good ol’ fashioned Treasure Hunt. The Inspiring Communities team is looking forward to seeing you all at the Our Place Conference . The momentum is certainly building, take the opportunity to read about the speakers and make sure you register to ensure you are at the forefront of building inclusive, accessible communities in New Zealand. We welcome our new Communications Leader Rachel Roberts to the Inspiring Communities Team. Rachel brings a wealth of experience having been a journalist for a number of years before working with not for profit organisations to further their communications goals. She is most interested in providing communication leadership that illustrates, supports and builds on the growing value of community-ed development.  Check out Rachel’s profile on our website.  And thanks Peter for all your support and hard work running our communications – it has been much appreciated !  Have you joined the 700 others who are now connected to our CLD Learning links new each week on Inspiring Communities facebook? Barbara, David, Denise, Megan and Rachel from the Inspiring Communities Team Inspiring Giving One Percent Collective is lucky enough to be surrounded by hundreds of people who really do care about the world. The Collective is made up of almost 200 supporters who donate 1% of their income to support NZ based charities, enabling these charities to focus more time on impact and innovation and less time on fundraising.In the two and a half years the Collective has been around,they’ve raised over $125,000 in total for their six partner charities and have had fun while doing it. Supporting those with Good Ideas Mt Roskill resident Darryl Reid approached Roskill Together with an idea in late 2014 … and asked for some help.  He’d noticed an unused hall within the retirement complex where he lived, Roskill Together found a way to lend Darryl and the residents a hand to revitalise the hall.Over the last six months, local residents have been working hard to convert the hall into a fun fuelled hub of activity for the 100+ local residents living in the Housing NZ village complex.  There’s now weekly activities from chair aerobics, hand massage, line dancing, board games, though to bowls and bingo. Small Things – Big Impacts  Jill Lawry is a member of the Hutt South Timebank. She’s also a tetraplegic. This is a story of how the small things that a local network provides, make a major contribution to her life. It’s also the story of how she in turn, contributes ‘small things’ which add up to the building of community. Small Village, Big Vision Te Kowhai is a small village north west of Hamilton. There’s a green grocer, a dairy and a take-away which is only open three nights a week for two hours. But behind this seemingly small façade is a big history, a strong community heart and a quiet determination to make Te Kowhai an even better place.A small group of locals meet monthly to progress key local projects, all managed voluntarily, and funded by donations and various public and private grants. They’ve made some huge improvements to the area over recent years. Our Amazing Place – A Community Treasure Hunt at your Place? Our Amazing Place Community Treasure Hunts involve local residents of all ages following a trail through their community. They stop at a number of stations where a fun challenge, activity or task is completed and traded for a stamp for their ‘passport’. It’s all about having fun, connecting with others and discovering local treasure – special people, landscapes, resources, projects, facilities, groups, and services.   Mon 29 June – Weds 1 July 2015 @ Te Papa Tongarewa 55 Cable Street, Wellington  Register Now! Our Place is a jointly hosted by Inclusive NZ, Inspiring Communities and Be.Institute.  It will explore what can happen when we step outside of our ‘sectors’ and think about building accessible, inclusive communities together. It’s an opportunity for all community organisations, government agencies, the business sector and community members to explore: What it takes to work together successfully to create communities where everyone is welcome and able to realise their potential How we connect with and learn from each other How we can influence change What leadership in an accessible and inclusive NZ looks like How our experiences of inclusion affect our identity Here’s a taste of the calibre of speakers: Paul Dalziel Professor of Economics at Lincoln University. His book, Well-being Economics outlines a way of measuring economic growth that focuses on how well it enables New Zealanders to lead the kinds of lives they have reason to value, rather than measuring economic growth for its own sake. Issues such as unemployment and poverty can therefore be addressed directly. Samira Yussuf was born in Mogadishu and spent her early years in refugee camps in Kenya before coming to New Zealand at nine years old. Now married with a daughter, Samira has made a home here, she will share her insights. Tien Ung is one of the Our Place facilitators. She has vast experience in working with resilient people in marginalised communities and will be a huge asset to the Conference. Tien addresses among other things immigrant and refugee mental health and child and family trauma. We are also pleased to also welcome Deputy Prime Minister, Rt Hon Bill English, the Minister for Disability Issues, Hon Nicky Wagner, and the Minister of the Community and Voluntary Sector, Hon Jo Goodhew, who will all be speaking at Our Place. More details on these and the other speakers can be found at www.ourplace2015.com Everyone has a part to play in ensuring New Zealand is an inclusive and accessible society where we all reach our full potential. The time to step up and collaborate to make this happen has come. Our Place will create ripples across the sectors – bringing together speakers with the expertise and the evidence to kick-start a cohesive plan that will enable everyone in New Zealand to fully contribute to society. Be part of creating change, this is where it will start. Register here now! Training Opportunities Practicing Differently (August 2015)  Alan Kaplan and Sue Davidoff from the Proteus Institute  are returning to Aotearoa in mid August and offering a range of workshop opportunities focused on facilitating conversations and enabling activism and change.   For more information see here Multisector Collaboration Training (October 2015) – Inspiring Communities and Thought Partners are pleased to bring internationally accredited Partnership Brokers training to New Zealand.  The inaugural four day intensive programme will provide those working in partnerships with in-depth tools, techniques and strategies on how to partner effectively.  For programme information see here or contact Trish Hall from Thought Partners –  Trish@thoughtpartners.co.nz

About Inspiring Communities The work of Inspiring Communities is currently being supported by The Todd Foundation, Tindall Foundation,  Lotteries, ASBCT, Bay Trust, Rotorua Energy Trust, Call Plus, Ideas Shop, Wesley Community Action and many other generous people and organisations who contribute time, skills, meeting spaces and resources to help us grow the recognition, understanding and practice of community-led development in Aotearoa, NZ. To find out more about Inspiring Communities, our approach to learning, our framework for Community-Led Development, and more, visit: www.inspiringcommunities.org.nz Our mailing address is: https://inspiringcommunities.org.nz/newsletter-signup/ or exchange@inspiringcommunities.org.nz unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences  Share Tweet Forward

Auckland Inspiring Community News – May 2015

This month we feature stories on people who have stepped up and put themselves out there for the things they believe in.
They do what needs to be done in the company of others ensuring it is more likely to succeed – and it adds to the enjoyment. Read what they say about upcycling tyres to make seats in a Sandringham Reserve, reducing rubbish in Glen Innes and persuading all of Auckland to be plastic bag free.

View the newsletter online