Community Building Blocks

Te Tupuraka: Understanding and responding to growth and change in our organisations and communities

Speakers: Irihapeti Pitama-Uta’i and Dr Eruera Tarena
Facilitator: Anna Parker

 Date: Tuesday 29 October, 2024
 Time: 9:30 am – 11:00 am NZST
💻 Venue: Online via Zoom
🎟️ Cost: FREE

Te Tupuraka: Understanding and responding to growth and change in our organisations and communities

Learning is our best strategy to navigate a world of constant uncertainty and change! The team at Tokona te Raki (Māori Futures) have developed an innovative model – Te Tupuraka – that helps them harness and integrate insights from their mahi and projects. In this interactive Community Building Block session you will learn from Irihapeti Pitama-Uta’i and Dr Eruera Tarena about how they use Te Tupuraka to make sense of and measure the growth of their projects and organisation. They will guide us in using the model to foster our curiosity, support us in adapting to change, and help us grow with creativity and confidence.

Your presenters:

Irihapeti Pitama-Uta’i – Tokona te Raki

Irihapeti descends from the island of Samoa as well as all four corners of the Ngāi Tahu takiwā and maintains a deep connection to both her pā, Ngāi Tūāhuriri and Te Rāpaki o Te Rakiwhakaputa.

Iri works at Tokona Te Raki, a iwi-based labs space where they use social innovation to achieve equity and a better future for Māori in Aotearoa. She is currently working on a range of kaupapa including organisational evaluation, rangatahi futures and Mō Ka Uri: Ngāi Tahu 2050, aimed at ensuring the prosperity of whānau, hapū, and iwi for generations to come. Her commitment is devoted to fostering equity and facilitating a more promising future for Māori and Pasifika in Aotearoa.

Dr Eruera Tarena Ngāi Tahu (Ngāi Tūāhuriri) – Tokona te Raki

Eruera is Kaihautū/Executive Director for Tokona te Raki: Māori Futures Makers an indigenous social innovation lab to achieve equity in education, employment, and income for all Māori in the Ngāi Tahu takiwā, and beyond. He is committed to indigenous approaches to innovation, system change and futures thinking which drive much of his current work running an indigenous social innovation enterprise. Outside of work, Eruera’s life is busy supporting his four children and trying to squeeze in as many waka paddles or SUP surfs as he can.

Anna Parker – Inspiring Communities
Supporting the growth of strong and resilient communities is at the heart of Anna’s mahi. Anna has diverse experience of grassroots community development – having worked on peace building efforts with indigenous women leaders in Bougainville (PNG) to activating the community-led vision for the Valley Project in North Dunedin. 

Harnessing the Power of Community Collaboration

Anna Parker and Megan Courtney

 Date: Wednesday 31st July, 2024
 Time: 9:30 am – 11:00 am NZST
💻 Venue: Online via Zoom
🎟️ Cost: FREE

Join Megan Courtney and Anna Parker from Inspiring Communities as they dive into the mindsets and skills needed for nurturing successful community collaborations. In this Community Building Block session, we will explore what is possible when we harness the power of collaboration and uncover key approaches for cultivating relationships in our unique community contexts.

Collaboration is essential for addressing complex issues and creating sustainable change. Reaching out and working with others leads to innovative solutions, and done well, it builds stronger relationships within our communities. In this session, we will uncover how we can create the conditions that foster this way of working and unlock the power of collaboration—particularly when our communities are stressed and resources are scarce.

Join us in a conversation aimed at building resilient, connected communities together!

Putting Unity back into CommUnity Events – Community Building Block

Anna Parker and Ole Maiava

Join Anna Parker (Inspiring Communities) and Ole Maiava (Eke Panuku Development Auckland) to learn how we might put community front and centre in organising community events. In this Community Building Block session, we will unlock community events as powerful and transformative tools for community-led development, and we will have fun along the way! Ole will share from his vast experience of community and event organising, and offer strategies and tools that support the growth and leadership of others and what elements make fantastic events happen. We will be putting the unity back into our events – and this CBB will particularly support those who have Neighbour’s Day on their radar.

Ole Maiava

Ole Maiava is currently a Senior Placemaker for Eke Panuku Development Auckland where he works mainly in South Auckland. He is passionate about working with youth and community development, especially those without a voice. He has developed, through experience at the ‘coalface’ and as a practicing multi-disciplinary artist, a set of skills that enable him to work closely with many different communities but concentrates a lot of his work on Pacific and Māori issues. Prior to his current role, he was Senior Outreach Programmer for Auckland War Memorial Museum 2012-2016. He was also the Pasifika Festival Director 2007-2012 with a brief stint of producing Community Fan Zones for Rugby World Cup 2011. Maiava also piloted the first Youth Transition Service for Porirua City Council after leaving Te Wananga o Aotearoa, an indigenous university, where he held various positions from HOD of Performing Arts at Porirua Campus to Pacific Liaison for the institution. Maiava is part of the (Un)Registered Savages of Aotearoa with Fijian artist Daren Kamali, both currently working on the Ulumate Project.

Anna Parker 
Supporting the growth of strong and resilient communities is at the heart of Anna’s mahi. Anna has diverse experience of grassroots community development – having worked on peace building efforts with indigenous women leaders in Bougainville (PNG) to activating the community-led vision for the Valley Project in North Dunedin. 

Placemaking as a tool for community-led development

Anna Parker and Denise Bijoux

Thursday 2nd November, 9:30 – 11 am

Join Anna Parker (Inspiring Communities) and Denise Bijoux (Catalyse) to find out more about what placemaking is and how it can be a useful tool for advancing Community Led initiatives.

You’ll see how locals have used placemaking approaches to improve their place and also how we have used placemaking in our community work. There will be an opportunity for questions and also discussion in breakout rooms. You’ll leave with a better understanding of placemaking and have some practical steps to apply placemaking approaches in your place and in your CLD mahi.

We’ll share two of the tools Catalyse uses regularly in our work – our Participation Continuum and our version of Divergence-Emergence-Convergence as well as a couple of placemaking and CLD stories.

Anna Parker 
Supporting the growth of strong and resilient communities is at the heart of Anna’s mahi. Anna has diverse experience of grassroots community development – having worked on peace building efforts with indigenous women leaders in Bougainville (PNG) to activating the community-led vision for the Valley Project in North Dunedin. 

Denise Bijoux 

Originally from Taranaki, Denise is a visionary community activator with extensive practical and strategic experience in locally-led change, community building, placemaking, research and evaluation. Denise runs Catalyse Network is a member of the Aotearoa regional team of Placemaking. Denise was a recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 2012 and travelled through the US and Canada exploring the influence of CLD approaches on wider systems change. 

Making Meetings Matter

Anna Parker and Cissy Rock

Thursday 3rd of August, 9:30 – 11 am

Another day, another meeting? In community-led development we often need to bring people together for kōrero, connection and to activate our mahi. Meetings can be purposeful and energising and we have all experienced the ones that can drag and feel like little has been achieved.

In this online skills session with Cissy Rock from Community Think we will take a dive into making our meetings really matter. Cissy will share her hottest tips and strategies for facilitating engaging and interactive meetings that bring out the most from the people in the room. Cissy and Anna are both vastly experienced community activators and facilitators and this CBB will give us some tools to transform and enliven our group experiences.

In this Community Building Block, Ricardo will share his experience of community activism and some of the tools communities can use in our work for change. Our community-led mahi often draws us to push and advocate for systemic change, and we will look at the practical things we can do to get community voices heard. 

Ricardo Menéndez March is a Mexican-born New Zealand community organiser and educator to end poverty. He has worked at the frontlines alongside people receiving a benefit and is now a member of parliament. His experience gives him valuable insights into how communities can access and make change through political systems while remaining grassroots.

Our CBB sessions are short online interactive workshops, where we meet and collaborate with others from around the motu and take away some new skills/tools to apply in our practice. Please come with the refreshments you need and your video on (sound off). Please encourage your workmates to register too, rather than sharing a computer/login for the session.

Honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in community

Gywn John and Anna Parker

Thursday 17th of November, 9:30 – 11 am.

This session is designed for Tangata Tiriti who are figuring out how to build treaty honouring processes and relationships into their community mahi. This session assumes that you already understand why we need to honour Te Tiriti in our work, and it explores the what and the how of this journey.
Join Gwyn John and Anna Parker for an interactive, workshop style online session. Gwyn and Anna each have 20+ years of experience navigating this space.

Co-Design with Community

Jade Tang-Taylor and Anna Parker

Thursday 1st of September, 9:30 – 11 am.

Are you and your community working for change? Does your mahi call for co-design? Do you want to untangle how co-design fits into your community-led practice?

In this Community Building Block, we have the opportunity to work with designer and social entrepreneur Jade Tang-Taylor from the Innovation Unit. Jade will help us dive into the models, mindsets and methods of co-design. We will look at innovative ways of working for change and explore what is possible when we centre community in our practice.