Placing communities at the forefront of change

October 2010

From Philanthropy New Zealand News Spring 2010: Download the article

Community-led development continues to grow across Aotearoa/New Zealand. It has many faces: it may be iwi creating  economic development and jobs in Opotiki; it may be neighbours being better connected in Taita; or the community coming  together to solve the disease of debt in Porirua. It has huge potential to transform communities, street by street.

Mary-Jane Rivers, from Inspiring Communities, says some of these  things would not have been heard of three years ago. “What has changed is there is an intentional focus on communities  of ‘place’: streets, neighbourhoods and local communities, rather than  issues. It means rather than being clients or recipients of services,  local residents are authors of their own and their community’s  development.”

Inspiring Communities was established in 2008 to learn about  how community-led development (CLD) could work in New Zealand  and to foster that approach. The Tindall Foundation has been a primary  supporter, with several funders now involved.

“An important priority for us is learning how tangible and lasting  change happens. We are learning together through a small number of  initiatives. It is clear that essential ingredients include:

• having an explicit intention and vision

• being adaptable in ‘the doing’

• many sectors working together – business, community groups,  residents, iwi, government, and local councils – to create  opportunities

• time and perseverance

“Already we are noticing tangible changes. Waitara’s shared vision,  and combined action, has seen crime reduced. Opotiki’s vision and  ‘reaching out’ means their aquaculture development is now supported  by the Bay of Plenty region and through partnering with China.”

The time to bring people together was right, says Mary-Jane, and  things moved faster than anticipated: “We quickly found there was  already nationwide interest and in the last 12 months regional and  national interest in CLD has grown exponentially.”

Auckland is proof of this. The Auckland Community-Led  Development Network (ACLDN), established in March 2009, now has  500 people involved. Inspiring Communities’ Megan Courtney, based  in Auckland, says the response has been hugely positive.

“The reality was that many Auckland communities were working  in isolation and missing out on the opportunity to leverage off each  other. Now, people from a range of local and central government,  locality projects, community organisations, individuals, iwi  organisations, business, funders, and researchers can come together to talk, share and learn.”

While Megan helped convene the ACLDN she is quick to note that  it is co-hosted by a range of other partners – “the Network belongs to  the communities and groups; we are just one part of it”.

Southland, Taranaki, the Bay of Plenty, Northland, Nelson, and  Otago also are interested and active.

“We know that people all around New Zealand are  exchanging tips and examples of community building – ‘borrowing  and trying out’”, says Mary-Jane.

Some Philanthropy New Zealand members also recognise  the value of working with communities. In the CLD approach,  funders are seen as integral. Rather than merely being providers  of money, they can be potential partners, advisors, information  providers and connecters.

One such example is the Todd Foundation which supports  Wesley Porirua’s Good Cents project (see Philanthropy in Action Executive Director Kate Frykberg: “Our role as funder is as  much about listening and learning as it is about giving away money.

The Good Cents team lives and works in Porirua; they ’do with’  rather than ’do to’. They are also up-front about what is working and  what isn’t, and there is a mutual trust between us.”

John Prendergast, Community Trust of Southland: “Funders and  fund seekers often seem to end up playing ’Battleships’ – the fund  seeker lobs a grant application in and hopes it hits the target for the  funder. CLD for me is about funder and fund seeker putting down their  battleship screens and actually engaging and getting to know the people  in a community of place: their local issues and opportunities. And then  working together for the benefit of that community of place – setting  the targets together.”

A number of agencies are involved in CLD and fostering resilient  communities. Examples include: Transition Towns (at last count  more than 50 NZ towns are involved); the emerging NZ Community  Economic Development Network; and the Community Currencies  network, which includes Time Banking.

A definition of Community-Led Development (CLD)

• CLD is about place – local communities.

• CLD is about people from all sectors (residents, business, funders, iwi, local government, central government, schools, etc) working together within local communities to release local resources, energy and ideas to create opportunities, solve problems and achieve local visions.

• CLD is a strengths-based planning and development approach. It involves looking at whole systems as opposed to individual issues. It is also about a way of thinking, organising and capacity building to enable locally-led action and leadership of change. It is not a service delivery model, project or programme (although a CLD approach may connect with many activities and providers operating within communities).

• CLD includes economic, cultural, social and environmental issues, with the driver being local vision and priorities.

Great Start in Taita exemplifies the power of an agency working  “with” communities rather than “for” (or doing “to”) them. Barnardos  began there by asking what the community wanted, before planning  which services to offer. After knocking on 1200 doors, they found no  new services or programmes were wanted – the community actually  wanted help to be better connected.

It’s this community-driven intent, rather than specific inputs  or outputs, says Mary-Jane, that makes Great Start different – and  successful. “At its simplest, Barnardos provides practical support:  a venue, some operational funds and an experienced community  development manager. What is less ‘countable’ but more powerful,  is that they are helping the community see its own vision, drive its  own development. It’s fostering activities that the community does  collectively, such as the community garden, parenting courses and a  project with Hutt City Council on a new park.”

Through working to connect the local schools and pre-schools  together, Great Start ended up partnering with the Ministry of Social  Development as an Early Years Hub. “So there is a service function, but  they’ve left room for more to evolve – with the community leading.”

The Department of Internal Affairs Community Development

Scheme is another example. It has been running for several years. It funds a project worker for three years to help communities set a local vision, create and document a work plan, and facilitate getting an activity underway. In Waitara, the Scheme funds Project Worker Melissa Willis. She has been working with Waitara people for just over a year, with an initial focus on building relationships: bringing businesses, schools, Police and families to the table to work together on a plan.

Businesses, from lenders to supermarkets, are also picking up the interest in local communities. Mary-Jane says Inspiring Communities’ favourite example is this year’s KiwiBank New Zealander of the Year Awards, which for the first time included the Mitre 10 Community of the Year category. “We were so pleased to see this focus emerging, and delighted that Nelson’s Victory Village won. They are a brilliant example of a community being the author of its own destiny.”

Top tips for Funders

• Be open to funding ‘organic’ models, emerging collaboration and dialogue within communities.

• Promote and encourage collaboration between funders– think bigger than individual projects or organisations.

• Walk alongside communities; help them to frame and work through complex issues.

• Be prepared to fund organisations who maybe ‘fund holding’ on behalf of collaborative projects within place-based communities.

• Share information, ideas, and work together with communities on evaluation, learning and capacity-

building.

• Encourage and be part of robust discussion about effective community-led development.

Building on their recent success Victory Village will host next year’s inaugural national community-led development forum – a collaboration between the Village, The Families Commission and Inspiring Communities.

Another major event on the calendar for next year is New Zealand’s first national Neighbours Day celebration. LIFEWISE, the Methodist Mission, and Inspiring Communities are partnering to develop a national campaign for March 26 and 27, 2011. The aim is to create a weekend for all New Zealanders to focus on getting to know their neighbours.

John McCarthy, General Manager of LIFEWISE, says strong neighbourhoods – not more social workers – are the antidote to emerging social issues: “We seem to have more and more social workers visiting communities. How many social workers will it take till all our problems are solved? I think the sustainable solution lies in neighbourhoods.”

“We’re convinced that strong relationships at a street level is the DNA that forms resilient communities”, says Mary-Jane.

In 2008, the Waitara community profile did not make great reading. The deprivation index was 10, it had decile one or two schools and cyclic unemployment (3 generations). On top of that, several local factories had closed down and there were two major crimes in the last 10 years, which had left negative impressions on the community.

Change was needed, and so the Waitara Community Development Project was born. Following a series of community meetings a steering committee was formed, comprised of members who lived in the community, and Project Coordinator Melissa Willis was contracted. (Her salary is funded for three years by the Department of Internal Affairs’ Community Development Scheme.) Melissa sees Waitara not just for its challenges, which are real, but for its significant assets: the most important being its people and the way in which they have responded to an opportunity to work together to change Waitara’s future.

“Waitara has a beautiful environment and a wonderful microclimate. It is unique, as it is the only town on the Waitara River. “The time has come to build on Waitara’s assets and bring our community together – Maori and Pakeha, rich and poor, whoever they are – for the greater good. That is how we will achieve change and address problems and issues – by starting with our assets in mind, and not buying into the negative stereotypes.”

Melissa says the key is linking with the ‘right’ people to allow things to flow and let them take on life of their own. “This is our first year of operation so we are still in the consultation stage. Our current focus is building evidence to develop and implement the project. An integral part of this is engaging youth, which is challenging because the ‘help’ offered in the past. But it is achievable.”

Measurable change has already been seen in Waitara, with a 24% drop in crime over the last 12 months, says Melissa. “This was the greatest reduction in our district - add this to the 12% drop of the previous year and the last 2 years’ crime reduction figure is really impressive!! So we feel very proud.”

DIA Community Development Advisor Billy Tipene, who monitors the contract on behalf of DIA, says like anything the solution comes from within. “People have tried in the past to put solutions into places, based on outside knowledge, but what is happening here is the community is coming together to find the solutions that will work for them.”

With Melissa’s support the community has developed four main goals for the project: improving community connectivity; identifying and promoting community values; ensuring the community is well placed to work together in the future; and working towards less crime and well supported youth.

A recently formed Waitara Business and Promotions Association has commissioned an economic development strategy to grow Waitara. The results will be aligned with the community development project. Melissa is also keen to use what she is learning from Inspiring Communities, particularly around grassroots connections and feedback. Simple street barbeques, an idea borrowed from the Auckland suburb of Massey (another Inspiring Communities core learning cluster initiative), have been powerful events in creating common ground to connect Waitara people. Another initiative Melissa hopes to have up and running in the next 12 months is a street by street asset mapping project, similar to Taita’s.

Moving beyond cycles of debt

Porirua continues to have families in unsustainable debt, sometimes through two and three generations, despite strong economic growth in recent decades. It was this fact that prompted Wesley Community Action (WCA) to create Good Cents – always with the intention of seeding a community-led initiative. Makerita Makepulu, Wesley Porirua Team Leader: “Good Cents has never been about WCA. The focus is on a community-led initiative for change that can achieve something bigger than WCA or any one organisation.”

The first step was gathering a group of brave mothers to talk about their families’ situations, hoping to discover some keys to initiate change. This grew into the Good Cents course.

“We were amazed at the way the course enabled people to take control of their situations with a relatively low level of “help” beyond the creation of the space to do this work. We simply provided them some tools and resources, both social (such as the skills to have new conversations with lenders, and family) and financial,” says Makerita.

About a year into a two year funding agreement with the Todd Foundation, Good Cents broadened their approach based on what they’d learnt. They decided to call together a cross-section of the Porirua community to discuss the cycle of debt, and were surprised by the readiness of people to come together.

Around 50 people from all sectors (business, lenders, church ministers, Council, budget course graduates, etc) participated in last April’s workshop: “Moving beyond cycles of debt”. The focus was to first explore a vision for a Porirua without unsustainable debt, and then what the community could do to move towards this in reality.

After a day of robust discussion, five streams of work were identified and volunteers stepped forward to commit themselves to these initiatives, both in personal and professional capacities.

The group has met twice since the forum and is developing a number of ideas including: a follow up workshop bringing finance companies into the conversation; developing education programmes in schools and with others, such as budgeting service Agape; a project to share the stories of those overcoming debt; and many ongoing conversations with key community members and leaders.

“Families trapped in cycles of debt is a centuries old problem with complex, multi-faceted causes. Obvious answers like budget advice are an important part of the solution, but are often not enough by themselves. We need to address causes as well as symptoms, and this probably requires a holistic, multi-faceted approach. From a funder’s viewpoint, the difficulty is that on paper it can all look a bit airy-fairy. So I think it is very helpful to get a feel for what is really happening on the ground.”

Iwi-led economic revitalisation with a social driver

For decades, Opotiki has featured as one of New Zealand’s most deprived populations. Local iwi Te Whakatohea are determined to turn this around. Their efforts have been strongly supported by the local community and District Council. They all envisage a prosperous future for their community – the place and the people – based upon the traditional relationship with the sea and the land. For nearly a decade there has been concerted work to create the potential for sustainable economic and social development centred on aquaculture.

Inspiring Communities’ Rotorua-based Barbara MacLennan works closely with Opotiki people who are leading this development. She reflects on the significant benefits gained when all sectors of a community – local residents, iwi, Council, business people, community organisations, interested funders, government agencies – work together to identify their common wish to build a strong and prosperous community, get behind a common plan, and draw others in to support them.

“When we became involved a couple of years ago, local leaders said they were feeling pretty low. Efforts to gain consents for the Marine Farm had been arduous and their efforts to gain wider interest and support, particularly in Wellington, were constantly knocked back. They felt as if they were being sent in circles. It was a tough time. We turned to one of Inspiring Communities ‘critical friends’ – an experienced economist – who met local leaders in Opotiki.”

This was a turning point. Seen through an economist’s eyes, the Marine Farm that Opotiki was working towards was potentially significant – for Opotiki but also for the region and nation over time.

A Bay of Plenty delegation visited China this year to further trade opportunities and formal investment agreements are imminent. Each step moves Whakatohea and Opotiki closer to establishing a new industry and creating a range of new jobs.

Te Whakatohea is focused on overall wellbeing, this includes preparing for changes. A comprehensive kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) wellbeing survey of over 700 iwi members was undertaken recently, and will underpin strategic development.

BayTrust and the Council share an interest in Opotiki’s future and have developed a five-year agreement. “It is about having a long-term partner, to share issues and ideas, networks and ‘friends’ with, and to advocate for one another. Funding and investment are important but are not the primary focus of the relationship,” says Barbara.

“Inspiring Communities is learning about the practice of collaboration and what helps change from old habits of ‘win : lose’ ways of working and to creating new ’community funder’ relationships, rather than the traditional ‘funder : fundee’.”

When local young people painted the marine history of Opotiki in an enormous set of Murals at Opotiki Port, they envisaged a seafood company that they would own and manage in the future. The murals are on exhibition at Te Papa.

Terri Eggleton, Community Development Advisor BayTrust: “From our perspective, this is an opportunity to work alongside a community that has identified issues and shown the leadership needed to find solutions. BayTrust and the Council share a desire to see our communities become stronger, and believe this can be achieved through a community development approach to the way we operate.”

Reprinted from Philanthropy New Zealand News

Spring 2010. VOl 3 No 54. ISSN 1175•9151