October 2009

The Roskill South Oasis Early Years Services HUB has as its vision "Healthy Lives and Transformed Communities." They have kindly sent us this article outlining the great community strengthening work the Hub is doing.

"The centrality and availability of our premises in the heart of Roskill South enables our community to have easy access to a ‘one-stop-shop service provision'. Although our focus is primarily on families with children 0-6 years it does not stop there; we are naturally conscious of the needs of the wider family and community as well.

When we first started our HUB June last year, we gave our community the opportunity to write out ‘a wish list of the things that they wanted to see happen in our area'. Since then new initiatives have sprung up. A mum's coffee group has embraced an active music and movement programme to enhance their children's development. The Craft and Sewing class is drawing out the artistic abilities of many, while DIY & First Aid classes are bringing educational empowerment for others, not to mention the Homework club for children which has become another big bonus.

Regular Health, Educational & Social Services are freely available also, these include: B4 School Checks, Plunket & Public Health Well Child Checks, Antenatal classes, Lactation sessions, Budgeting services, Learner Licence classes, Housing New Zealand appointments, J.P. and Advocacy Services along with the hosting of the Three Kings Roskill Network that pools together a large segment of the Communities Service Providers enabling them to connect more within our community. Next term we will be adding Parenting seminars, Safety workshops, and other educational workshops. During the Sept /Oct school holidays we have a 2 week holiday programme for children in the area.

"People in your Neighbourhood Roskill Community Day" drew on 270 volunteers who serviced a fun day and concert in a local park for over 2000 participants. The whole community got involved; kindergartens, schools, youth groups, businesses, community groups, voluntary groups, ethnically diverse groups, young and old alike. This is only the beginning and we are really excited about what Roskill South will do next!"