In this Newsletter you’ll find…

Inspiring Communities and Core Learning Cluster News: Great Start's Project Sunshine and UN Youth; Mark Cabaj's reflections on CLD in Aotearoa; Opotiki locals honoured in the US and at home (featuring Service Medals and a special new mural).

Community-Led and Community Driven: NZ Mural Bike Tour creates art and community pride around North Island; Community Economic Development update.

Learning Links: The Singer not the Song, a paper from Proteus Initiative; Placemaking and City Repair in Portland (USA) and more.

News You Can Use: Web based generosity project; A step by step guide to creating a social enterprise.

Events: Growing resilience forum with Heart Politics; Partnering for Results workshops with Thought Partners.

Editorial

Kia ora tatou

Inspiring Communities’ strategic focus is to growing the recognition, understanding and practice of CLD, and to notice the difference it makes in Aotearoa New Zealand.

A June highlight for Inspiring Communities was hosting Tamarack’s Mark Cabaj. This is the third time we have invited Mark out. We organised both open workshops and tailored sessions where he covered up to the date Canadian learning and experience, from working with communities around complex issues, particularly poverty reduction. The presentations and notes from the workshops and other resources are available on our website.

Mark was a great contributor to our national Learning Forum with our eight Core Learning Cluster communities. Hosted by the community of Waitara in Taranaki with support from TSB Trust,this was an educational time of updating each other on outcomes and learning from community-led journeys, and focusing in on goals and intent for the coming year.

At the end of his ten day tour Mark had some insights for us and encouraging feedback about his perspective of the CLD movement in Aotearoa (see below).

Further positive international feedback was received when IC Trust Board member Mary-Jane Rivers presented at the International Association Community Development conference in Portugal earlier this month. More on this in our August newsletter.

We are noticing some great stories about youthful leadership in local communities. We have been reflecting on why and how that emerges, and the potential it creates when young people feel welcomed, supported AND responsible to take leadership in the places where they live.  For example:

As part of Rotorua's Leadership Week celebrations, the Hannahs' Bay Community Restoration Trust encouraged local schools to support students to envision and work on environmental projects in their neighbourhoods. The displays they created of their work (see photos on Hannah’s Bay Community Restoration Trust’s Facebook page) show some of the many ways young people are leading change in their own local communities – caring for the environments where they live and learn.

Great Start’s Project Sunshine (see below) is another great example of children’s role in community building.

This week members of the Development Team are at Victory Village Forum (27 – 29th), which is fully subscribed. Co-organisers Families Commission, Victory Village and Inspiring Communities are all excited to see so much interest in this forum on family centred, community led development. Its a great opportunity to visit a community that has achieved so much by working together. This video about the Victory story is a great watch: Working Together - The Victory Primary School Story. We look forward to sharing highlights from Victory Village Forum next month.

As for Inspiring Communities team news, the recruitment process for our new National Manager continues.  We look forward to announcing and welcoming a new person into the Team and Movement in the near future.

Meanwhile, we hope you are warm and persisting through a chilly winter, and through whatever challenges and complexity the journey of community-led development presents to you this month.

Hei kona mai

Leigh Strange and Barbara MacLennan on behalf of the Inspiring Communities Development Team

Inspiring Communities Core Learning Cluster NEWS

Great Start Taita’s Project Sunshine teaches children around NZ about seeds, bees and cross-pollinating communities

“Project Sunshine” is an initiative of Great Start Taita’s Children’s Gardening Club. On 2 July, a special event was held as a national launch for the project. Taita children hosted a delegation from the UN Youth Model UN Conference, at Great Start House in Taita of course, and together they learned a lot about the importance of bees and what they can do to protect bee populations, and how they can use sunflowers to help not only bees but also their community.

All the children worked together to make up 'Project Sunshine Packs' including second generation seeds harvested from the Great Start Children’s Club’s own sunflowers. They also planted natives at the local park to support local bee foraging.

A local bee keeper talked about the importance of bees and even brought along a hive to show them, and they learned about seed harvesting from a supplier of heritage seeds (which produce plants with fertile seeds for replanting, unlike many modern commercial hybrids which are sterile).

The UN Youth participation in the launch was an outreach programme, as part of the 2011 NZ Model UN conference, designed to promote the delegates as global citizens, and allow students to give back to the community and become involved to begin making changes. The delegates each took home a Project Sunshine Pack to start planting and connecting with other children in their own communities.

To read more see the full story on our website.

See also Project Sunshine Aotearoa Facebook page.

Third visit from Tamarack's Mark Cabaj highlights growing interest in CLD

While Mark Cabaj was here in June, following the series of workshops and our Learning Forum, we were also able to glean Mark’s valuable external perspective on Aotearoa New Zealand’s community-led development movement. Some of his observations were:

• The growing confidence and certainty within the CLD movement in NZ that was not present three years ago, a sense “everywhere” that this is the right direction to be taking.
• Being part of the learning forum with the IC Core Learning Cluster (CLC) was a highlight. He appreciated the approach of being on-location with a CLC community and the approach of both drawing out its local strengths and aiming to leave something positive behind. Mark recognised this as an innovative and positive approach.
• He noticed a lot of diversity among those involved in or learning about CLD in NZ (a mix of central policy makers and grass roots practitioners) - in contrast to Canada’s Vibrant Communities establishment (where the focus was on CEO decision makers).

We discussed the the similarities and differences between the approaches needed for Canada and New Zealand, and Mark noted that even with Vibrant Communities Canada's clearly defined issue (poverty reduction) and great partners around a table, community-led approaches can be as complex as the issues facing communities.  "It will always take time to form a shared direction and move forward at each phase, so the journey looks more like an upward spiral than a straight line." 

Opotiki's youth honour local police with newest mural, and Shona Hammond-Bouyes' decades of work for children recognised

• Opotiki is becoming known for its amazing murals created by local young people, and now has one more - hanging in the Police Station.

During the NZ Mural Bike Tour (June - August 2011, more on that below), artist Max Frieder created murals with Childrens Art House Foundations around the North Island, including in Opotiki where the young people chose to honour their local police youth officer.

Click to see the photo and story from the Opotiki News.

Shona Hammond-Boyes honoured for celebrating children

Its fitting that around the same time, Shona Hammond-Boyes, the woman who has driven the Opotiki Youth Murals Project, was in the US capital receiving a President's Volunteer Services Award for her international work. 

The medal recognises her many years of support for the World Festival of Children.  The local paper pictures Shona with her medals – click to see this story from the Opotiki News and photo of Shona with her medals.

COMMUNITY LED & COMMUNITY DRIVEN

The NZ Mural Bike Tour

“This is going to be a journey of long reaching proportions” said Mural Bike Tour organiser and long distance cyclist Max Levi Frieder before setting off on 24 June to cycle the North Island leaving a trail of locally created art behind him. His mission, to help ten communities create murals on canvas as a gift to their communities, working with Childrens Art Foundation Art Houses.

The intent of this project is to bring children together to create a series of collaborative murals that span all the Art Houses of New Zealand.  Max says it’s great for communities to see things that have been created by their own students.  The Tour has seen murals installed in various places including a community art gallery, a library, a school, and (as seen above) in Opotiki, the police station!

At the time of writing the tour has been to Pukekohe , Huapai, Te Puru , Whakatane, Opotiki, Paeroa, with Thames, Te Awamutu, Otorohanga, and Foxton also on the itinerary.  

Read more on our website

And see Max’s blog for photos of the stunning murals created: http://www.maxlevifrieder.com

Community Economic Development Update

The CED Networks July Bulletin from Di Jennings is online and gives a good overview of the CED movement in Aotearoa and some fresh reflections from the UK.

Di worked for three years in the social enterprise sector in Scotland before coming back to New Zealand and commencing work with the CED Trust to share what she had learned.

Di notes that New Zealanders are tending to  see social lending as the main investment vehicle for social enterprise. Whilst social lending is an important part of the investment mix needed to grow social enterprises, she says the main investment gap currently is for an earlier phase of  research and development.

"That is  from culture change to enterprise idea identification -  through to developing feasibilities and a Business Plan," says Di.

"The social lending is a relevant tool once the Business Plan is developed and viability is well demonstrated. At that stage taking on dept is an option, but not before."

Reflecting on NZ’s CED journey to date, Di points out there is definite progress. The first conference in 2010 was very much an introduction to the concepts and language of CED, while the 2011 conference had a stronger practitioner focus and increasing focus on social investment.

As with all emerging movements, ongoing support for the CED NZ Trust is going to be critical to see CED continue to grow in Aotearoa to where it can make a solid contribution to our communities. With good overseas mentors to draw from, local CED networks beginning to emerge in our regions and some good strong Maori input helping to shape the kaupapa for New Zealand, Di says there is a strong foundation to build on.

Read Di’s update for details of her thoughts on the way forward.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

Web based generosity project – Helena Francis

In conjunction with Philanthropy New Zealand, Helena Francis of the Wayne Francis Charitable Trust is seeking stories from all over New Zealand that highlight and demonstrate the extraordinary good will and kindness shown to and within our community during and since our series of earthquakes.
 
The purpose is to collate the stories and photographs on a website with the view to appreciate the collective response to Cantabrians in their time of need and to record the creative and innovative ways people and groups have expressed their generosity, from random acts of kindness to information sharing, volunteerism and fundraising.
 
"While there will be room for some of the wonderful stories the media have covered since September last year this project is as much about representation of the 'unsung heroes'," says Helena.  “I believe it is important to our recovery that we try to balance our sense of loss and grief with the occasional celebration and reminder of all that is right and good”.

If you know of any person or group who has shown a spirit of generosity towards Cantabrians post earthquake, please email Helena Francis: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

A step-by-step guide on how to develop a social enterprise

Spotted in the Bank of I.D.E.A.S. newsletter… Social Traders recently released the Social Enterprise Builder resource as a step-by-step guide on how to develop a social enterprise. The Social Enterprise Builder provides a rigorous business planning process. This comprehensive guide is structured in seven stages. The first two stages share about social enterprise. The third stage is for those still looking for social enterprise ideas. The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh stages are for those that have an idea and want to develop it into a social enterprise. In each section, there are downloadable worksheets and templates.

The Builder is a free resource available to anyone wishing to use it. To discover more, visit the Social Traders website. 

LEARNING LINKS

Paper from the Proteus Initiative: The Singer not the Song

We all know that we need to show that what we are doing is worthwhile and effective and ‘on the right track’. Such a process ideally links intent to outcomes in succinct and measurable (and even objective) ways and highlights effective process too. It helps us to reflect on our actions, to plan what next as well as to communicate what and how we do what we do to all sorts of audiences. But often, it is not a simple thing to do. This paper from Allan Kaplan and Sue Davidoff discusses this conundrum, talking about impact monitoring and social change and some of the tensions between focusing on achievements over ‘emergence’.

Read more on our Learning Links page or simply download the paper.

Placemaking: Portland's City Repair

Portland’s City Repair organisation is almost entirely volunteer-run and has a wealth of information on transforming places through artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking projects. Their vision is to:

Inspire people to both understand themselves as part of a larger community and fulfill their own creative potential.

Activate people to be part of the communities around them, as well as part of the decision-making that shapes the future of their communities.

City Repair was formed in 1996 by citizen activists who wanted a more community-oriented and ecologically sustainable society. Born out of a successful grassroots neighbourhood initiative that converted a residential street intersection into a neighbourhood public square, City Repair began its work with the idea that localisation (of culture, of economy, of decision-making) is a necessary foundation of sustainability. By reclaiming urban spaces to create community-oriented places, City Repair projects plant the seeds for greater neighbourhood communication, empower communities and nurture local culture. Check out their placemaking resources at the City Repair website.

Bank of I.D.E.A.S

The latest Bank of I.D.E.A.S. newsletter is packed with links to useful tools, inspiring stories and food for thought. Read it online and you may want to subscribe!

EVENTS

Growing Resilience forum with Heart Politics (Wellington)

Growing Resilience - what does this mean for communities? For our most marginalized citizens? For you, as an active citizen in the world?   Hear insights from sociologist Tracey McIntosh, and Project Lyttleton community worker Margaret Jeffries.

When: 28 – 31 July
Where: Tapu te Ranga marae, Wellington
Details: http://www.heartpolitics.org.nz/

August & November Workshops: Partnering for Results (Wellington, Auckland)

Join Thought Partners for one of these! “An opportunity to build knowledge and skills for successful partnering across organisations and sectors. This workshop, and tailored mentoring session, will provide you with inspiration, knowledge and tools to ensure your partnerships achieve results and move beyond good intentions. You will learn from New Zealand and international good practice.”

This workshop and mentoring session is designed for those beginning, actively involved in, and those managing partnerships across public, private, community and philanthropic sectors. Come as a group of partners, or as an organisation planning your collaborations, and do real work together to accelerate your partnerships.

When & Where:
Wellington 3-4 August (plus mentoring opportunity following day)
Auckland 2 and 3 November (plus mentoring opportunity following day)
For costs and full details: Thought Partners website.

ABOUT INSPIRING COMMUNITIES

To find out more about Inspiring Communities, our approach to learning, our framework for Community-Led Development, and more, visit: www.inspiringcommunities.org.nz

For all our latest news you can go straight to our to Community News.

Inspiring Communities’ strategic focus is to growing the recognition, understanding and practice of CLD, and to notice the difference it makes in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Our work is funded primarily by The Tindall Foundation with support from The Todd Foundation, the J R McKenzie Trust, Community Trust of Southland, BayTrust, ASB Community Trust, Call Plus, Ideas Shop and others who generously contribute time, skills and resources. 

For more information This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .