Celebrating community engagement, excellence and energy in adult community learning

The Dynamnic Community Learning Awards recognise that learning can be with, for and by more than one person. Communities, Iwi, clubs and groups can be the medium for learning as well as benefiting from learning.  This is one of the most exciting and distinctive features of Adult and Community Education.

The Awards recognise excellence, connection, and ‘giving things a go’ – the excitement that comes from ACE.  They recognise activities that achieve one or more of:

• creating a specific community learning benefit (i.e. for more than one learner)
• fostering community-based learning activities that lead to new group development or transfer benefits to existing organisations
• drawing on and 'growing' community, culturally-based knowledge
• helping: 
  • to promote active citizenship
  • to strengthen the whanau/family
  • to strengthen the neighbourhood or community
• springing from partnerships 
• between ACE providers and community organisations.

2011 Awards

Innermost Gardens Inc. (Newtown & Mt Victoria, Wellington)

Our vision statement is ‘Growing Community through hands in the Soil’. We have a core group of 10 people who meet monthly to do the planning and administrative side of the gardens and then we have an outreach group of many who come to our different gardening workshops and events.
‘Some great friendships develop here’ is one of our catch phrases and it’s true. ‘Learning from each other, working together’ has been a byline.
We discovered that there were areas we didn’t know about so we began running workshops to educate ourselves and our community on these topics.  Our gardening days are open to the whole community and we get a range of different people with varying gardening skills, including many people with few or no skills.  If someone who comes along knows about a given task they will often be asked to show a few people how to do it. Then a whole group becomes involved.
We are noticing that as we continue to be around doing what we do, more and more people hear about our gardens and come along. As a group we think that it is really important that edible gardening is accessible to people. Newtown Primary school  and Clyde Quay School have beds in the gardens.

Wellington Sexual Abuse Network (Wellington)

The Wellington Sexual Abuse Network (WSAN) is a collaboration of sexual abuse survivor agencies and an offender agency in the Wellington region Wellington Rape Crisis, Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP Foundation and WellStop.  It was founded on a joint commitment of prevention of sexual violence using a community development perspective.  Programmes include:
• Our flagship “Sex & Ethics” programme, run with young people
•  “It’s Our Business” workshops, which provide information to bar staff
•  “Clinical Workshop” for clinical therapists based on “Sex & Ethics”
•  “Ethical Bystander” training, which teaches groups with an on-the-street presence to disrupt precursor situations for unwanted sexual contact
• “Train the Trainer” education will train others to deliver to the “Sex & Ethics” framework young people around the country
•  “School Balls” package is aimed to reduce sexual violence in party and school ball environments.

Highly Commended

Manurewa Parenting Hub (Auckland)

The Manurewa Parenting Hub began in 2008 providing sessions for parents to learn more to help their children with reading and maths. The morning programmes run in four schools and employ local parents who have been a critical part of its development
Return to the Workforce is a joint venture project between the schools, WINZ and the Hub. Parents, including DHB beneficiaries, have gained skills and current work experience, children have seen their parents go out to work, increased family income.
Since opening in 2008, hundreds of parents have attended sessions at Manurewa schools and helped influence the skills that are covered.  The Hub supports parents as leaders by encouraging strong links with schools, positive parenting, promoting healthy lifestyles and building community capacity. Depending on parent feedback and requests, the Hub runs courses (budgeting, parenting, careers, fitness, CPR, craft, fire safety, fathering, sewing, baking, numeracy and literacy etc), and receives funding from MSD. Buzz Time is a weekly preschool time led by the Hub team.
“Many people had talents that lay dormant because they lacked confidence. It’s really exciting now to see these talents released.“ The group comprises a mix of ethnicities.
A group of parents have started a netball team for year three and four girls from across the community in the Saturday morning netball. “I’m proud how proactive we have become.” commented Linda Biggs, a key initiator of the Hub.
Manurewa Community Hub is supported by the Ministry of Social Development’s Family and Community Services

Upper Hutt City Library (Upper Hutt)

The mission statement of the Upper Hutt City Library is: “A community centre for living, learning and leisure”. We ensure that we maintain a wide range of material for the benefit of the entire community, especially to those groups with the greatest need and the least ability to independently access the library. Barriers to physically accessing the library services are addressed.
Programmes include:  Local history, Tea & Tales mainly for our retired population to chat about what they have been reading and Crafternoon to share knitting projects at the library.  Children participate in Sunday Family Storytime.  Friday Fables is for adults with intellectual disabilities and the Multicultural Morning Tea is for new migrants and refugees.  Our Happy Homes - Happy Pockets focuses on environmentally friendly homes.
“While our library provides much the same services and programmes as other libraries, our special quality is our devotion to our whole community regardless of their circumstances.“

Families in Cultural Transition (FiCT) programme (Wellington)

‘Families In Cultural Transition’ (FiCT) is a community based programme delivered in partnership by the Wellington Refugees as Survivors Trust and Refugee Services Aotearoa NZ. It involves 10 interactive sessions presented in the language of refugee families, and is delivered using interactive adult learning styles of delivery. Facilitator training builds capacity within their community that is empowering and fosters independence and self reliance. This will have flow on effects for other community activities. It also strengthens partnerships with other organisations in their local communities. In each module there are activities that involve reference to and information sharing about local services (e.g. CAB). In addition the two organisations partnering this programme - Refugee Services Aotearoa and Refugees as Survivors – are strengthened.

October 2011

As community economic development gains momentum to localise business opportunities and employment, the role of social entrepreneurs as innovative leaders, creative opportunists and people with ethics and community accountability is being highlighted.   Social entrepreneurs are change makers – seeking to change patterns to improve social issues in a sustainable and just way.

Are you a social entrepreneur?  

If you put social good before personal interest, can see a social issue, feel compelled to change it and apply business thinking in a community setting, then the answer is probably yes.

The New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship held its first open Changemakers Masterclass in September this year - a collaboration between the New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship and the ReGeneration Trust.  Social entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, USA and many parts of NZ met for five days of social entrepreneur “playtime”.

Linda Shaw, General Manager of Gecko NZ Trust which offers services that blend community engagement and ecological restoration said “Being with peers who understand the challenges of social entrepreneurship and being mentored and educated by leading NZ social entrepreneurs was an outstanding experience.  Seeing what others are doing in their communities is so inspiring.  It’s the grassroots local responses that make a difference and the ability to share ideas, no matter how crazy they seem, means development of real solutions for social change.”

Projects presented and discussed at the Masterclass included youth, Chinese immigrants, people returning to the workforce, environment, energy, law, education, credit unions, rural community development, Maori and Pacific Island initiatives.

Gecko started in 1995 and has a mission to facilitate people being involved in building ecological health through regeneration of nature so that people’s health and wellbeing also thrive.  Its projects include neighbourhoods working together on community led goals, increasing skills and knowledge in community leadership, biodiversity and how nature works and providing team building for organisations through community weeding and planting of local spaces.

The NZ Social Entrepreneur Fellowship is publishing chapters of a book written by Vivian Hutchinson.  

“If you get a chance to attend a NZSEF Masterclass in the near future even though you may not recognise that you are a social entrepreneur now, if any of the projects in “How Communities Heal” resonate, then take the opportunity to meet with others who are compelled to find ways to solve social issues and support their communities, just like you” Linda Shaw said.

NZ Social Entrepreneur Fellowship website is www.nzsef.org.nz 
 
The Mentors and Guest Speakers at this Masterclass (see below) are profiled along with the other members of the New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship in the How Communities Heal project. Go to http://www.nzsef.org.nz/howcommunitiesheal for stories of social entrepreneur projects that strengthen communities, build resilience and foster community leadership.

Ngahau and Debbie Davis - Mentors
Community and economic development workers in the Northland rural township of Moerewa. They are the main drivers behind the He Iwi Kotahi Tatou Trust and have initiated many projects which have become a role models in the regeneration of small communities.  These projects have included setting up social services for families, running training and mentoring programmes for young people, establishing a variety of community-owned enterprises, and reviving the main street of Moerewa and its public spaces.

Robin Allison – Mentor
Founder and project co-ordinator of Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood, the innovative community-based housing development of 32 homes and common facilities in Ranui, Waitakere City. With a background in architecture and commitment to inclusive community structures and processes, Robin guided the development and construction of Earthsong, now a living demonstration of social and environmental sustainability based on the principles of cohousing, permaculture and
eco-architecture. She is now exploring social enterprise as a key to community economic sustainability and neighbourhood regeneration.

Vivian Hutchinson - Mentor
Community activist who has been one of the pioneers in community-based action for jobs in New Zealand, especially
in establishing programmes for the support of unemployed people, and skills for community economic development.
Co-founder of The Jobs Research Trust, the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs, and The Jobs Letter, the New Zealand Social
Entrepreneur Fellowship, Taranaki Changemakers, and Community Taranaki. He is also the author of “How Communities Heal” — stories of social innovation and social change featuring the work of New Zealand social entrepreneurs.

Gael Surgenor - Guest Speaker
Gael Surgenor is recognised as a leading social entrepreneur in the Ministry of Social Development. She has led significant attitude and behaviour change campaigns on parenting and on family violence, and pioneered innovative strategies for combining social marketing with a community development approach to social change.

Brian Donnelly - Guest Speaker
Executive Director of the New Zealand Housing Foundation, which catalyses housing projects for low income people, and
assists community groups to become housing providers. The Foundation has also created an innovative home equity
programme which enables low income families to begin on a path to home ownership.

Viv Maidaborn - Guest Speaker
Has led in a variety of management roles in the community and public sectors, including being general manager for Disability
Support and Community Health Services at Waitemata Health, chief executive officer for Relationship Services (NZ’s largest counselling agency), and chief executive of CCS Disability Action (NZ’s leading community development and disability support organisation). More recently, Maidaborn and Disability Action have established an innovative social enterprise, Lifetime Design Ltd, which is working to change the design of New Zealand homes so that they can work well for people of every age, stage and ability.

John Stansfield - Guest Speaker
One of New Zealand’s leading practicing academics in the field of community organisation management, and co-founder of the Graduate Diploma in Not-For-Profit Management at Auckland Unitec. John has been CEO of the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand, and founding director of Clean Stream Waiheke Ltd and the Waste Resources Trust. He is currently working with Oxfam on issues of Food security.

Billy Matheson - Facilitator
Co-convener (with Lani Evans) of the ReGeneration project, Billy’s background is in design and tertiary education. He has been creating innovative learning environments for the last five years and has published several articles on change and
innovation, narrative approaches to education, creative processes and learning communities.

Also on the programme but unable to attend were:

Malcolm Cameron - Mentor
Founder of the Malcam Charitable Trust, a major provider of Youth Development and Transitional Support Programmes in the Otago Region. A passionate advocate for giving young people as many chances as necessary until they connect with their dreams. Founder of 4Trades, which has become a national role model in providing multi-employer apprenticeship opportunities. Serial social entrepreneur who has launched or supported the establishment of many community organisations in Otago including the Youth Service Corps, Conservation Corps, Logan Park Services Academy, Choice, The Princes Trust, 4 Hire, SuperGrans ... and many more are on the way.

Lani Evans - Facilitator
Co-convener of ReGeneration, an intergenerational network of young changemakers from throughout New Zealand. Lani’s background is in film, animation and communication. She is involved in a number of great organisations including
Kia Tutahi, the Generosity Hub, the Port Chalmers patch, RAVE, and the Vodafone World of Difference whānau.

Thanks to Gecko NZ Trust for kindly supplying this article.

“This is going to be a journey of long reaching proportions” said organiser and long distance cyclist Max Levi Frieder before setting off on 24 June 2011 to cycle the North Island.  Max was on a mission to help ten communities create murals on canvas as a gift to their communities, working with Childrens Art Foundation Art Houses.

Opotiki’s Shona Hammond-Boyes honoured for celebrating children

A visit to Washington DC has seen the realisation of a long held dream, for an Opotiki woman.

Shona Hammond-Boyes has recently returned from the US capital, having received a President's Volunteer Services Award. It recognises her many years of support for the World Festival of Children.

Ms Hammond-Boyes says it's wonderful to see her vision become a reality.   She says when she was in America on a study scholarship in 1963, she stood and looked down the mall, and dreamed it would be filled with happy, dancing, singing children.

She laughs it's taken 47 years, so it's been a long time, but now she's sure the World Children's Festival will go on from strength to strength.