"Taking down the fences between sectors has benefited all parties and increased the chance of sustainable results through community ownership and collaboration"
Philanthropy NZ 2009 conference participant
Learnings from Pacific Community Organisations and the Auckland District Health Board

The Ora’anga Kopapa Matutu provided some wonderful, and powerful, learnings from both the Pacific Community Organisations as well as the Auckland District Health Board.

Community ownership is crucial for success, as are strong relationships both within the community, and between the community and involved organisations.

Some initial observations are:

  • Community ownership is crucial from the beginning for the initiative to be effective, in order to:
    • Ensure the strong involvement of those most affected
    • Produce tangible results for the individuals, families, community and the health authorities
    • Provide health and fitness activities that are sustainable
  • It is essential to strengthen existing active local community connections, relationships, groups and organisations, to ensure local leadership and the involvement of the most relevant people
  • By actively and carefully listening to each other and agreeing common points for development, we can stop ‘talking past each other’ and build a base for a shared development that works with each other’s strengths
  • Adapting to the developments as they occur keeps the initiative relevant and flexible. It builds shared ownership, trust and results and provides a basis for further developments. It opens doors rather than putting up walls

Separate lessons included:

Pacific Community Organisations Group

Auckland District Health Board Group
  • Redefining themselves as active leaders on health issues contributed significantly to community ownership of the initiative
  • It was crucial for local Pacific organisations to count the strengths of their community instead of being defined from the outside by the deficits
  • Whole family involvement across the generations was essential and achieved
  • Informal leaders with high influence such as Mama Nicholls are vital
  • Tamaki Pacific peoples named the initiative. This ensured a name that was full of meaning, rather than staying with the ADHB programme name of Healthy Village Action Zones
  • The ADHB moved from thinking about ‘delivering a programme’ to a ‘deprived area’, to developing clarity about the core principles and then listening to the wisdom and expertise of the local community
  • The ADHB developed more of a partnership in action. This was graphically reflected in the equal numbers of community members and District Health Board staff being the ‘team’ to receive a national Healthy Innovation Award in 2008. All other possible award teams were from the government delivery organisation only.
  • The ADHB’s Pacific Advisory Committee has identified the lessons learned from the approach of this initiative. This in turn has contributed to the Board’s new neighbourhood-based focus as a key policy drive for primary and public health care