Recently we shared a link to Kay's Story in Wesley Community Action's (March) newsletter. This story of overcoming debt and finding confidence was a highlight from the work the Good Cents initiative has been doing in Porirua for three years, seeking to address the cycle of unsustainable debt for some families in the community.

On 27 April 2010, the forum Moving Beyond Cycles of Debt was another highlight, and more - a turning point for Porirua.

Initiated by Wesley Community Action and supported by Porirua City Council, the Todd Foundation and Inspiring Communities, this forum brought together a true cross section of the Porirua community: 45 diverse people - representatives from the banking industry, local families and local business owners joined Mayor Jenny Brash, church ministers, social workers, and others.

All openly listened, talked and connected, crossing traditional boundaries and perceptions to get to the heart of the big questions for Porirua:

What would it be like if there wasn't a high level of crippling debt in our community?

What is it that we could create together for our future that we can't create alone?

After plenty of discussion, some laughter and much brainstorming, five streams of work were identified that could take Porirua forward to be the 'community of the future' that had been collectively envisioned.

The ground-breaking day ended with many people making commitments to work together on the action plans generated.  So we will look forward to sharing updates on these in future!

Want to know more?

• Download the 'newsletter' report from the forum:   Beyond_Cycles_of_Debt-Newsletter-April2010 (800.99 kB)
• For more on Good Cents, see the Wesley Community Action website.