19 May 2010

Hello Community Economic Development supporter,

It is now three months since the successful Community Economic Development (CED) Conference that was held in Waitakere - and the ripples are still flowing out into our communities around the country.

Opotiki District Council has been named a finalist in the 2010 IPANZ Gen-i Public Sector Excellence Awards.

Heard on Radio NZ Sunday Morning (Sunday 2 May), Chris Laidlaw and Jeremy Rose talked about about Britain's greenest town and Wellington's (NZ) newest community gardening project, the Owhiro Bay Community Garden. 

The first gathering convened by the recently formed Auckland Community Development Alliance, on 28 April, was a huge success in numbers alone.  A "diverse and positive crowd" of over 140 people attended.  Those present offered strong support for ACDA's establishment, with many organisations wanting to take an active role in helping strengthen regional community voice around the Region...

Read the full article and download information

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.

14 April 2010 saw 50 people from across the Bay of Plenty gather at Te Ao Marama, Ohinemutu Village, in Rotorua. Inspiring Communities, along with BayTrust and Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust had co-convened the day which included presentations, small group discussions, and time for networking. Participants came from communities across the Bay of Plenty and included people working with Iwi, hapu and whanau, community organisations and networks, local and central government, research and business.

Read the full story and download the Inspiring Communities presentation

Our thanks to Di Jennings of Community Waitakere for this article.

At the Community Economic Development Conference held in February in Waitakere City, UK presenter Annemarie Naylor regaled delegates with inspiring stories involving the asset transfer of facilities from councils to communities.

We have highlighted the work of Porirua's Village Planning Programme in 2009 newsletters. Once was to congratulate them on winning the Supreme Award at the 2009 New Zealand Post Group - Local Government Excellence Awards.

In March 2010 those involved with the programme were invited to Auckland to share their experience with North Shore, Waitakere and Manukau councils and communities. Sharing and learning are at the heart of Inspiring Communities so we were keen to find out some of the key issues that were talked about.