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.
Timing is everything – synchronicities in Mataura.
Back in 2007, community leaders of the Southland town of Mataura had received some concerning research about the health of the community and rallied the locals to come together to do something about it.
At about the same time, the Community Trust of Southland (CToS) Chief Executive, John Prendergast, had begun to champion ideas of community-led development following a study tour to Canada led by Mary-Jane Rivers, who later founded Inspiring Communities. With support from CToS, the Mataura Taskforce was born.
Read more; Timing is Everything – Synchronicities in Mataura
Catalysing Community Connections: How neighbours day brought locals to school and beyond.
As part of the celebration of Neighbours Day 2011 Mataura School’s senior class (Year 6) wrote an invitation to households neighbouring the school inviting them to celebrate Neighbours Day at a morning tea at the school.
The children hand delivered the invitations and prepared scones and other baking to host their neighbours in the community room at the school. Later, school Principal Susan Dennison said that she could not believe how many people turned up, ‘‘I was teaching so by the time I got there, honestly the room was full — absolutely chocker,’’
Read Catalysing community connections – how neighbours day brought locals to the school
The Mataura Youth Trust
“I want a place that children came come and be children.”
This was the dream of Garry Coates, spokesman for the Mataura Youth Trust, in 2011.
Read more; Mataura Youth Trust