Walk with us Albany
A CLD Case Study by Jenny Lim, Sport Capability Project Manager at Harbour Sport
The situation
The 2013 census showed that around 25% of the Upper Harbour community identified as being Asian. This is a group that is often under-represented in sport and recreation participation, and has been a community of focus for the ActivAsian project.
What we have done
In May 2016, Harbour Sport’s ActivAsian team started a small weekly walking group to provide new migrants in Albany with the opportunity to explore different walks, reserves and parks in the community. This was led initially by Shoko – our Japanese intern who initiated the group, but more recently by Tingting, who started as a volunteer Chinese interpreter for the group, and is now spearheading the project. We were excited when the first session of Walk With Us Albany attracted a group of 20 new migrants of different ethnicities – Chinese, Korean, Iranian etc. Little did we know that the group would soon grow to an average of 40 participants each week, even attracting over 20 participants on rainy days.
Who’s been involved and how?
With the group being so large, Eva, John and Lucy who were participants of the walking group stepped up and volunteered to manage the group for us, working closely with Tingting to ensure the group is safe and looked after. We also have other local groups involved – Laure, the Albany Newcomers Network Coordinator has also been a great supporter and regular participant of the group, bringing along their members, and helping with group management.
Tingting, who herself is a new migrant from China, took the initiative to not only test out each walk before walking day, but also research the history of each walk. She conducts ‘Tingting’s English class’ weekly in our WeChat group to teach English words that walkers may see on signs throughout the walk, and at the same time educating them about the environmental and historical significance of each walk. She has also led walks to the Albany bus station (teaching our new migrants about the public transport system in Auckland), QBE Stadium tour, Massey University tour, and organised indoor activities for rainy days. Each week, Tingting and our volunteers will ask for feedback from the group, and together they will plan for the following week based on this.
The change we’ve noticed
We have noticed a great improvement in the fitness of our walkers, with walks being further each week, and now a second walking day being initiated for faster walkers. There has also been a greater sense of belonging amongst the group and a stronger connection with their new community. Many of them have expressed gratitude towards Shoko and Tingting for their warmth and personal interest in ensuring the group gets a lot out of each walk.
What we’ve learned
Our coordinators’ characters and their ability to build strong positive relationships have been integral in the success of this project, and the willingness of our volunteers to go above and beyond what is expected of them to assist them. The group has really bought into the project and has made it their own. As an organisation, we have learned that our role is not to dictate what is provided to the community, but rather to act as facilitators and enablers of community driven projects. Walk With Us has been a great learning opportunity and further demonstrates that a community project can take on a life of its own when it is driven by the community.
Next steps
We are now looking to deliver two Outdoor Bush Leadership Courses to our local residents who may be interested in leading their own walks or volunteering for us. This will equip them with the skills required to safely lead walks, whether it is within their own community groups or families.
Being in – and of – service vs providing services
Faith based organisations around the world are at the forefront of community-led development momentum, including here in Aotearoa. Community-led development resonates because it helps to expand established practices of ‘pastoral care’ to include a broader spectrum of tools that can naturally nurture the heart and soul of the community, writes IC’s Denise Bijoux.
Many such organisations and groups have, of course, worked with their communities towards better lives for many years but there is a conscious returning to ancient roots where being hands on champions of social justice and peace making is once again at the heart.
During his recent visit to New Zealand Jim Diers and I ran three workshops co-hosted with faith organisations. We shared and practiced key concepts and tools for community building and community action and together, we worked out some integral roles faith communities can take in growing local community beyond their church communities. It’s about being in and of service to those around us, much more than it is about providing services. This means working with the priorities and energies of our neighbours and local communities, and at their pace too.
Two of these workshops were in Auckland, and one in Dunedin. Here’s some insights from three Auckland participants.
The Courage workshop in Auckland was co-hosted by John MacDonald, Superintendent at Methodist Mission Northern, and a leader of Splice – a movement of people connecting in Auckland’s City Centre.
Splice happened when, in 2012, two inner city church communities decided to re-focus their mission in Auckland’s central business district. Acting together, the congregations of the Aotea Methodist Chapel and St James Presbyterian Church agreed to support a new role. Other partners also joined the evolving enterprise: the Auckland Methodist Synod, the Northern Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church, and Methodist Mission Northern, which also provides project oversight. Already that way things were being done was different.
John was hired as the chaplain at large and spent the first couple of months immersed in the city to get to know the people. By listening to and working with many people, Splice has evolved and works in ways that are well beyond traditional church practices of pastoral care. At times this challenges the “religious status quo” and demands closer relationships and better understandings among community builders of all kinds.
“Our message, and who we are, needs to be real, alive and effective. We need words and images that invite a range of people to engage in creating something new together. The presence of poets, storytellers, dramatists, artists, skilled professionals and other diverse participants will enable us to put words and images together in a way that encourages people to pause and consider what it means to be courageous, compassionate and community in downtown Auckland. The success of whatever ‘mission’ emerges will depend in part on our willingness to ‘do complexity’ rather than avoid it, and to engage our imaginations.”
John saw the Courage workshop as not only a way of bringing diverse people together (different faiths, business people, artists, activists, community development workers and more) – and therefore being a tool to grow interconnection beyond the host church and faith organisations in and of itself – but also as a way of sharing and acting together using tools new to many of the participants.
“Courage showed us that we are not as far apart as we might think we are. That with some courage, communication and innovative techniques, we can find many common goals across our very diverse neighbours here on Karangahape Road and by knowing this we can be a better neighbour ourselves; we can grow community in ways that work for us all who are here in this place right now. This will help sustain what is valued here and grow the things we want more of.
Courage showed us how to work with and build on what we already have. It helped us learn, develop and practice tools and techniques that promote divergent thinking and lead us into action. And this is what SPLICE seeks in order to activate determined and shared leadership that is committed to establishing innovative and sustainable initiatives. Going forward we need to ensure that developments do not rely on any individual’s leadership or presence, but rather encourage many people to work together and exercise various forms of leadership, sometimes at the same time. Being in service means not only valuing wider perspectives but joining with them and creating many different pathways and solutions together. Learning by doing.”
Aarif Rasheed is a NZ-born Fijian Muslim. He is a community lawyer, mediator and facilitator who set up JustCommunity. He attended the Courage workshop so he could “make more sense of how” his work creating meaningful connections and conversations between diverse faith communities could be enhanced in a way that allows people to self-advocate.
“Minority communities are often the most disillusioned with their leadership because of the frequency of leaders being compromised across the diversity of often conflicting interests”, he says, “This disconnection with leadership further reduces the already minimal engagement minority communities are able to have with the wider community. CLD allows us to give unheard people in the politics of diversity a real and empowered voice which requires a truly bottom up approach”.
For Aarif, the Courage workshop offered many different and practical ways of creating connections across and within groups. For example, he sees CLD as “connecting hearts and minds rather than structures and documents. It also helps remove the privilege that can exist within communities as a result of perceived legalities and bureaucratic know-how. This enables the richness of cultural and faith tradition to be included in community change and, say, the refugee grandmother to play a greater role than community organisations often allow.”
In this context, CLD is as much political as it is practical. Courage and new techniques are both required, and the impact of the workshop is already having a far reaching impact.
“My current work presently seeks to employ CLD methods to impart the richness of religious and cultural tradition and wisdom in the current disconnected individualist environment that has developed a phobia for tradition out of for example Islam’s identity crisis. In doing so I also connect leaders from more mature diverse communities like Sydney and South Africa.
CLD will allow me to take the accumulation of these connections and conversations back to local communities to decide their own needs, in accordance with their complex geo-political identities, to join who they want, how they want, and to what end. The opportunities are limitless! I look forward to introducing more people to not just the concept but the techniques of CLD, to make these words a reality in the coming 5-10 years”.
Also looking to make CLD a reality in both process and outcome is another Courage workshop participant, Reverend Peter Norman. He is Superintendent at the Northcote Takapuna Methodist Parish and also hosted a shorter workshop with Jim and I after the Courage event. Peter agrees that developing strong, resilient and active communities can come, in part, from a recognition that faith based groups can have key roles to play in community led development. Faith groups can have access to assets, talents and resources the wider community may not have and by activating these in ways that are in service to the visions of local people, faith groups can contribute to deeper community connections, cohesion and capital.
“The growing diversity and constantly changing demographic has highlighted the need to move away from insular thinking and break down the four walls. For Takapuna Methodist Church this has meant reassessing our raison d’etre. Out of this reassessment came a vision for Compassionate, Creative, Connected Communities and a desire to find meaning and purpose in working with and for others. However, in order to do this a deeper more meaningful engagement with the community was required. One of the things we have done to achieve this is form a partnership with Auckland North Community and Development and Lifewise. This ‘Shore to Thrive’ project has employed a Community Development Coordinator and has also spurred us to create ‘Community Matters’, a group to help us develop our community focus.
Peter is based at the Takapuna Methodist Church which has a long history in community development and was where Neighbours Day Aotearoa began. Just a few weeks after the workshops with us, they are incorporating new strategies in both their long and shorter term planning; Working with what they have already have and starting with a welcoming entranceway. What a great place to begin!
Jim Diers is back in Aotearoa in September 2016 and March 2017. Both tours are already filling quickly so please email Denise to find out more about working with Jim in your place, or to inquire about hosting a 2 day training workshop like ‘Courage’. More information on practice workshops with Jim and Denise in and with local communities will be available soon. denise.bijoux@inspiringcommunities.org.nz
Visit Just Community-NZ facebook page
Read more about the Northcote Takapuna Methodist Parish
Eden Terrace: A light touch – firm results
From the side-lines we watched a piece of unused council land in Central Auckland transform into a garden that would encourage pollinators like butterflies and bees. One woman with a small idea working alone – until the neighbours noticed and got involved
While tending the garden they began to talk about the wall and tunnel opposite which were tagged and a magnet for dubious activity.
A small group decided to organise a competition to put a mural up on the wall. A local artist was announced the winner. But then funding was required, and that was taking a while which is when Inspiring Communities became involved.
We helped strategise, we acted as social brokers, putting them in touch with the right people, giving them language and approaches to use. We helped them figure out how to plug into others in the community to ensure they were building on the existing strengths.
We provided a sounding board and ideas to help fundraise and get local businesses involved. We suggested they approach Council to contribute once local support and resourcing was secured and gave them advice about keeping local people engaged.
We then took a lead role in promoting progress on the painting and in organising a Neighbours Day celebration to thank neighbours.
This process and resulting mural have given the Eden Terrace community a sense of pride and security. It’s also led to re-vegetating the small reserve above the tunnel and there is talk of other events and enterprises to help pay for maintenance and upkeep of the mural, garden and reserve.
Neighbourhoods Leading change with street BBQ’s
A small local fund has helped enable barbeques in the streets of Massey for several years and they have been a great way to get to know the neighbours and they often lead to residents building local social capital in many other ways.
Read more; Massey neighbourhoods leading change with street BBQ’s
Building Neighbourhood Connections in Arch Hill
Arch Hill is a small central Auckland suburb sandwiched between Great North Road and the North Western Motorway. Perched on a hill, it is filled largely with early twenthieth century workers cottages and smaller bungalows. It is one of these that Victoria Dawson-Wheeler, husband Jesse and daughter Hazel bought late in 2011. A month or so after moving in, however, Victoria had not yet met one neighbour. Wanting Hazel to “grow up in a place where people are connected”, she and her family started knocking on doors to say “hi”.
Initial surprise softened quickly and doorstep conversation flowed. “That’s it!”, thought Victoria, “You have to open doors to build connections”. Very quickly, the idea for a local newsletter was born.
So Victoria drew up a flyer inviting people to sign up to receive Arch Hill News (AHN) electronically. Responses were initially very slow. Ten or so after the first week. Then suddenly 40. By the time Issue One of AHN was distributed in January 2012 the number of subscribers was pushing 100. Yay! Victoria celebrated at local café Kokako and which led to Issue Two including a subscriber only ‘free quinoa cookie with your coffee purchase’!
AHN is a free fortnightly e-newsletter that profiles local people and businesses, covering living, food and interesting things happening in the area. After initially being told that Arch Hill is too small to generate interesting stuff, the newsletter has so far included a wide range of articles and stories – from Banksy-like graffiti, to unknown/hidden local mountain bike trails, Laughter Yoga, a missing (and found) much loved cat and world champion boxer Torpedo Billy, who was born locally in James Street in 1862.
It’s accompanied by a Facebook page. And with Issue 7 just out, AHN email subscribers are now close to 400!
Victoria attributes its success so far to showcasing the positive, and always trying to give rather than ask for things from the community. Since Kokako came to the party with their cookie contribution, AHN has given away Whoopie cakes, coffees and plates of tapas; all as a way of celebrating the ingenuity and community mindedness of those supportive local businesses. Every partnership formed between AHN and a local business, adds to the credibility of the newsletter and, likewise raises the profile of the local business within the neighbourhood. The magic goes both ways!
Recently Victoria gathered six local businesses together to create a box of goodies, worth close to $1000 to give away in a prize draw for those who got involved in the ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ project Victoria initiated for Neighbours Day.
Love Thy Neighbour was a kind of Secret Santa for neighbours, except it didn’t have to be secret. Victoria invited residents to contact her if they wanted to be involved, then matched them with another household who had also signed up. People were invited to share a little bit about their household if they wanted to (a flat of three, a couple with four year old twins, someone with a dog named Dog). Each household was matched with another household, so the potential was to meet at least two households that live nearby and gift something nice to each other. “It’s the first step in getting to know someone without being intense and awkward,” says Victoria.
The idea attracted interest from local and national press as well as over 60 locals. During the week leading up to Neighbours day, Victoria hosted a neighbours breakfast at her home to launch Love Thy Neighbour. Tamati Coffey from TVNZ Breakfast broadcast live from 6.30-9am so it was an early start with all the camera crew arriving at 5am to set up! Great fun was had though, with 50-60 neighbours coming by over the course of the morning (the oldest Robert at 70, the youngest, Piata-Aria at just 6 weeks).
Luckily Victoria had asked Kokako to help out with catering and they pitched in with coffees and freshly baked blueberry muffins. The Grey Lynn Butcher chipped in too with a couple of kilos of bacon, Art of Produce brought around an enormous basket of fresh fruit, and neighbours brought with them still warm croissants, gingerbread, banana bread and scones. People were even spotted people exchanging recipes! It was a Monday morning feast! And lovely for everyone to meet each other ahead of the Love Thy Neighbour celebration.
So then, the weekend: for Love thy Neighbour locals made some huge efforts – lots of baking, treats for pets, plants, garden produce, chalk board graffiti, access to a Warriors season pass for a week and a cocktail lime tree were transported secretly and not-so-secretly around the narrow streets. So much thought went into the choices and presentation! There are now loads of happy pictures on the Facebook page and plenty of notes about how awesome those involved felt too. So awesome in fact that many gave not once but twice – back to the household that gifted them, as well as to their assigned one.
What happens next is up to individuals, Victoria says. Clearly plenty of neighbours are connecting by name and some already have plans to connect again while some prefer to remain anonymous, enjoying their random act of kindness.
AHN continues to grow – not just as a publication but also local business and community connections. Just recently AHN has linked people together to form a local dog walking group (facilitated by another local), while a mums and bubs group is in the pipeline and a campaign for an upgrade to the local playground is on its way. Not only that but all this great local info may well be on a website in the near future – watch this space.
Intent
Arch Hill News is about connecting local people by profiling people and businesses in the local area. Love Thy Neighbour was a focused effort at connecting by gifting something nice to someone who lives nearby
Learnings
Sometimes good things start slowly and then move at a pace. Victoria set herself a numbers goal – if less than 10 subscribed she would let the idea go. Nice try and all that.
Even very small areas have a lot to offer. A prediction that the news from Arch Hill would soon dry up because it is such a small relatively unknown area not been fulfilled, in fact if anything the opposite is true.
Giving is the key. Rather than asking for something, this newsletter is all about what it can give. That is what has attracted so many people in a short period of time. Conversely, of all the giveaways, very few are taken up. Locals like the idea that they could take up such offers if they chose to, and that local businesses are prepared to offer them in the first place. It’s a mutually satisfying thing!
Honesty goes a long way – ‘fessing up to nerves in the days before TVNZ came to Victoria’s house was a key factor in over 50 people coming out early on a very wet morning to support and promote Neighbours Day and Love Thy Neighbour.
Outcomes
The local economy is stronger because people know what is going on and are encouraged to step into spaces they might not know about. It’s a form of social economy too – after Love Thy Neighbour people know a little bit more about others and are willing to support each other more – like providing new mums and dads with evening meals, for example.
Catalysed by AHN as an example and noticing the willingness of others around them has encouraged other locals to not only put their ideas out there too but to make them happen.
Residents, business and Arch Hill lovers have an increased positive awareness of their local area. They also know other local people by name. The facelessness of the city is dissolving here – houses and businesses contain real people and these people say ‘hi’ to one another.
Getting to know one another also means not only do people feel safer and more secure but the community is safer and more secure – there are many eyes on the streets of Arch Hill now and locals can spot a stranger because they know who lives there. And who doesn’t.
The more we do locally the stronger and more resilient our communities are – economically, socially, culturally. This may have been expected but now it is being demonstrated.
Contact
Victoria Dawson-Wheeler
Story by Victoria Dawson-Wheeler and Denise Bijoux
April 2012