Working with volunteers to strengthen communities – Jocelyn’s story.
Jocelyn is a volunteer researcher for Ka Mau Te Wero in Glen Innes, Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland) and this work has helped Jocelyn build new connections to her community, new friends at work and new confidence in herself at the same time as she has helped build new pathways between Ka Mau Te Wero and different sections of the community.
Read more; Working with volunteers – Jocelyn’s story
Local opportunities reveal leadership potential – Chris’s story.
Chris Makoare has lived for 30 years in Glen Innes. He’s been active in a parent and youth network and was trained as a community facilitator for the Tamaki Transformation Programme.
Chris takes part in Hunga Tiaki, a Maori leadership group, and was instrumental in forming Just 4 Dads, a men’s network group, and as a mentor for a young dad’s group.
However, Chris has not always been a local leader, and this is his story of change.
Read more; Chris story
Long term residents have insights to share – Tangi’s story
Tangi has observed changes over a forty year period in housing, health and unemployment.
Tangi Teura is originally from Rarotonga but he has lived in Glen Innes for over forty years. He purchased his rented house from NZ Housing Corporation in 1986 which he sold eleven years later as his wife had passed on and his children were ready to leave home. He used to work for Fisher and Paykel in Mount Wellington and is now aged 70 years and retired.
He is actively working in the Glen Innes community as a volunteer with charitable trust Ka Mau Te Wero.
Read more; Tamaki’s story
Anyone can make a difference – A Librarian’s story.
In Glen Innes the library is an important local facility for both adults and children alike. The way it is run, what it offers and who is there can support a growing sense of community caring, as illustrated when a librarian uses her own cash to feed hungry children on a Saturday.
Read Anyone can make a difference – a librarian’s story
A community coach inspires healthy lifestyles – Teremoana’s story.
Teremoana’s story shows how personal journeys are interwoven with those of the communities we contribute to.
Teremoana has always had an active lifestyle, playing netball and exercising and when she completed the local Green Prescription Programme, she was selected to become a community coach. The Green Prescription Team sponsored her and she trained with an organisation called Nitfit in 2011. She built on this with a four week training course on sports training for people from the Pacific Islands.
Read more; Teremoana’s story
“Snack and Yak” – The Stewart Island way of connecting
“The benefits of Snack and Yaks will continue to increase given that we all have a common goal of making the Island a great place to live, as local groups get to know more about what other groups are up to – their skills, challenges and goals – then connections and collaboration will naturally grow.”
Read more; Snack and Yak – The Stewart Island way of connecting
The Story of the Stewart Island Community Centre
Living on an Island of 400 people means finding yourself stepping into roles that you might not otherwise.To get things done, local residents have to step up and share in taking responsibility for helping make things happen – and they do.
Building Stewart Island’s community centre was no different. This story shares the dream and the journey to make it all happen.
Read more about the Stewart Island Community Centre story
Kahu makes 23
In 2009 there were only 13 children left at Halfmoon Bay Primary school, Stuart Island, which meant losing funding for the last remaining teacher and becoming a sole-charge school.
The community came together to work with the school to brainstorm how to both protect the school and enhance its future.
Community groups’ expo strengthens connections
In recent times, pressure on the Stuart Island volunteer base has also been affected by the growing importance of tourism within the local economy. With its summer season peaks, local tourism employment opportunities are very seasonal meaning a larger proportion of seasonal or temporary workers in our community.
Casual workers, usually younger people, are now becoming a larger and larger part of the island’s workforce – especially during warmer months, with ongoing implications for community structure and dynamics.
To date, our local community still hasn’t worked out how to truly incorporate these shorter term community members into the total fabric of Island life. Indeed, many long time Islanders feel that new temporary resident workers aren’t a real part of our community, not in the long-term anyway. A kind of ‘us and them’ mentality has unintentionally emerged.
Given that temporary staff will continue to be a significant group on the Island into the foreseeable future, the community started to get their heads around how this perceived challenge could be instead be viewed as an opportunity. Working from this new perspective, they began to see things differently.
Read more; Rakiura Community Expo
A Pool to be Proud Of….
Living on an island means local children spend a lot of time on wharves and in boats which in turn means that learning to swim is a priceless skill.
The Halfmoon Bay Community Pool was first developed in the early 1970s as a basic, concrete, cyclone-fenced, rain water filled pool funded by the Ministry of Education, however, the more the local community became involved, the better the pool became.