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Community Waitakere’s Project Twin Streams Henderson Creek is pleased to announce the official opening of the ‘Our Place Project’ on Tuesday, 8 November, 5 pm, Falls Park Rotunda, Henderson. The Hon. Dr. Nick Smith, Environment Minister will be in attendance. Our Place is an exciting youth stream restoration project with a distinctly West Auckland flavour. The project is delivered in partnership with the Ministy for the Environment and aims to provide new opportunities and perspectives for high needs youth.

Project Twin Streams Henderson Creek has secured two years funding from the Ministry for the Environment’s Community Environment Fund. This backing is recognition of the expertise the Community Waitakere team has developed in restoration planting, environmental education and the local community links forged delivering Project Twin Streams in the Henderson Creek catchment.

“We’ve been working with young people to restore local sections of Henderson Creek for some time now using a creative approach targeted at the needs of our diverse community” says Sara Lovitz, Community Engagement Coordinator, Henderson Creek. “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to build on the existing ties we have with Child Youth and Family (Waitakere) and ZEAL West Auckland on the Our Place Project,” she says.

Participants take part in practical on site sessions ranging from eco-sourcing native seeds, raising seedlings and exploring the methodologies behind restoration planting schemes, such as the work undertaken on Project Twin Streams. Laura Armstrong, Community Education Coordinator believes the opportunity to connect high needs and offending youth with the environment can have long-term spins offs for those individuals involved.

“The project gives them an opporutunity to practise co-operation, collaboration and responsibility to achieve environmental results. Young people are the greatest influencers of their peers and are our future decision makers so their direct involvement will have longer and wider reaching benefits. This project is about creating opportunities for young people to engage with their whakapapa and in turn, put manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga into action,” she says. Initial evaluations suggest that the project is resonating well with those youth involved.

“We’re very keen to harness the skills of these young people as they have a lot to offer the project and the wider community,” says Sara. As well as the physical planting work, participants have contributed to a new resource the team is developing that will step through the history of Henderson Creek, te ao maori, issues surrounding water quality and management and stream restoration. “The audience remains top-of-mind in everything we deliver on the project so the youth orientated look of these new resources reflects this and the creative skills of some of the young people we’re working with,” she says.

This collaborative approach is also reflected in the project’s delivery, a partnership model that draws on the strength of a number of organisations. While in its infancy, the Project Twin Streams Henderson Creek team is already looking to the future.

“We’ve established a steering group with guidance and involvement from Te Kawerau a Maki kaumatua Eru Thompson, Auckland Council, Child Youth and Family Services, ZEAL West Auckland, Te Korowai mentoring programme and local youth. We are also working to strengthen relationships with other community groups, businesses, iwi, as well as education and training institutions that will support the project and the young people that are involved now and into the future,” says Pat Watson, Chief Executive, Community Waitakere Charitable Trust.

Call to action: Everybody has access to support for growing their own food and creating a healthier lifestyle
Convening agency: Community Waitakere, EcoMatters Trust

In order to support resilient neighbourhoods that have strong identities that reflect the community that live there and to address poverty, environmental degradation, isolation and community resilience there is a need to:
• Identify and nurture new community leaders
• Understand community profiles and how to engage agencies, programmes and activities through a simple vehicle
• Add sustainability thinking to activities and programmes
• Engage with hard to reach groups
• Nurture community development and place based initiatives
• Create genuine community partnerships

For more details, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Background
In July 2010 at the Wellbeing Collaboration Summit there was a strong call for action to address the possibility of “every community having a strong, thriving and sustainable local economy”. Following on from this the Collaboration Steering Group gave its mandate for the development of a Strong Local Economy Call to Action.

In order to progress a multi-agency collaborative approach we would like to invite you to bring your expertise, knowledge and commitment to a conversation about how we build strong local economies in Waitakere.

From initial discussions, the following working groups have been developed:

1. Vocational Programmes
This working group would focus on developing vocational programmes to meet the needs of potential employers at Westgate as well as pulling together packages of support/incentives for potential employers

2.  Employability Programmes
This working group would focus on developing employability programmes that focused on pre vocational training, “soft skill” development and work readiness that assist in developing/improving residents ability to sustain employment eg
• Packages of support that develop/enhance self esteem, confidence, motivation and team work as well as complementary services eg careers guidance, financial literacy/budgeting, adult numeracy and literacy (basic skills), counselling, mentoring etc (this is not intended to be an exhaustive list)
• Work readiness e.g. CV, application forms, interview techniques

3. Community Hubs as “employment gateways”
This working group would explore how existing community hubs/organisations could develop as community employment gateways focussing on:
• Connecting/brokering residents to wider community/social/economic networks – linking residents to training and employment opportunities and to local organisations and businesses.
• Providing a matching service between the local community and local employers whereby employers will access services of the ‘employment gateways’ as well as using more conventional recruitment methods/agencies.
• Exploring community links/networks with local employers and business associations in order to provide a ‘better’ match between local vacancies and local people.

4. Building the capacity of local organisations and existing community/social Enterprises
This working group would explore how community organisations and community/social enterprises can become more sustainable, deliver more local services and potentially provide ‘supported employment pathways’ focussing on;
• Mapping case studies of Social Enterprises
• Mapping support for building capacity
• Building on the local authority working group that came out of the latest CED conference which highlighted the need for a regional stocktake of social enterprises including identifying capacity building opportunities
• Exploring potential in communities to develop their own social enterprises to meet  local need
• Exploring the opportunities for community/social enterprises to operate as ‘intermediate labour markets’ and offer supported employment pathways for local residents.

Please contact us if you are interested in finding out more about this Call to Action.

This information has been provided by WAVES

RE: Proposed New Operating Model for District Courts in Auckland and the impending Family Court Review

The Government has signalled that it intends to review the structure and purpose of the Family Court in two documents, which can be found at the following links:

1. Discussion document on the Proposed New Operating Model for District Courts in Auckland: http://www.justice.govt.nz/publications/global-publications/a/auckland-district-courts-proposals/auckland-district-courts-proposals-discussion-document-proposed-new-operating-model-for-district-courts-in-auckland
2. Cabinet agreement to instigate a review of the Family Court:
http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/justice-system-improvements/family-court-review

Of immediate concern is the proposal for a New Operating Model for District Courts; for which submissions close on the 20th of May.  However, we are also writing to tell you about the planned review of the Family Court, which will be the subject of submissions later this year.  We believe these two processes are linked and will reduce the community’s ability to access Family Court services in the future.  We fear these initiatives signal the beginning of a long term loss of the good relationships between the Family Court and our community for which Waitakere has been renowned. 

The authors of the Discussion Document on the Proposed New Operating Model argue that the ‘current model made sense in an era of low to moderate volumes of business, small to medium sized courts, and material geographical distances between each courthouse.  However these conditions no longer hold and … will not provide a sustainable way of addressing Auckland’s future needs’ (p. 9).  For Waitakere and North Shore, we understand that this means centralising court staff, their management, and storage of files to Auckland District Court and expanding the use of communication technologies to reduce the need for counter services locally.  Whilst the authors state that filing facilities, registrars, and current day to day hearings will continue to be located at Waitakere and North Shore, we are concerned that this may not remain the case indefinitely.  (Note that the proposals also affect the South Auckland courts.)

The authors of the Discussion Document are clear that the purpose of this proposal is to introduce fiscal savings by reducing duplication of staff and management across the three District Courts and avoiding the need to expand local court sites and staffing.  They frame these savings in terms of the Government’s mantra of reducing ‘backroom’ operations and improving the delivery of ‘frontline’ services, which interpretation we believe is both too narrow and somewhat disingenuous.  It does not necessarily follow that reductions in costs to the State represent a reduction in the costs to the tax-payer.  It is clear that this proposed model transfers some of the costs of providing Family Court services from the State to court staff, the legal profession and support agencies, and court users in the form of increased transport costs, travelling time, and time waiting for files to be transported between courts.  When viewed in conjunction with the recent review of the legal aid system this proposal means that the public will end up paying more to access the Family Court’s services.  The proposal’s authors’ claim that court users will benefit from these changes through the reduction of waiting times, but they have not provided any evidence to support this assertion.  Nor do they appear to have considered that the core goal of the courts is good outcomes in terms of justice for all who need their services, not cheaper outcomes for the State and faster outcomes for those prospective court users for whom changes are not an impediment to accessing the service. 

We are very concerned about the lack of transparency associated with the release of this proposed new model, which has appeared unannounced on the Ministry’s website.  Equally concerning is the lack of community consultation and the short timeframe for submissions.  Over the past two weeks WAVES Trust, Community Waitakere, Waitakere Community Law Centre, Western Refuge, WATCS, and Man Alive have been in dialogue with local Family Court lawyers over rumours about these changes, which have now been confirmed with the release of the proposal on 3 May.  

We can all make a submission on the proposal to Government.  The submission process is described on page 2 of the Discussion Document, just follow the link at the top of this letter. 

Several community meetings have been held to discuss concerns about these proposals, following which WAVES, Community Waitakere, and the Waitakere Community Law Service presented a submission on behalf of those at the public meeting to the Ministry, and met with Ministry staff to speak about the submission on 15 June.  The submission is here for your information. 

We had a feedback meeting with the Ministry in late July 2011 - here are the notes from that meeting.

Several news articles that have been released on the matter:

• Lawyers concerned at family court’s future
• Concerns growing over the future of Waitakere family court
• Family court fight

The Family Court Review paper will be released in September - http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/justice-system-improvements/family-court-review
The deadline for submissions is February.

Auckland's first Draft Local Board Plans are now available, and can be viewed here.

Your local board plan sets out the aspirations and priorities for your community for the next three years and beyond, and provides your local board with a framework to undertake activities on your behalf.

Local board plans are important planning documents. They inform and influence the development of the Auckland Council's Long Term Plan (2012 to 2022).

Make sure you have your say - you have an opportunity to influence what is in the local board plan by making a submission - the deadline for this is 8th August 2011.

The Waitakere Community Chief Executives Round Table provides a mechanism for leaders from community groups in Waitakere to network at a leadership level.  The purpose of this group is to discuss issues and challenges and from that identify trends and collective projects.  This groups is also proving to be useful vehicle for community connecting with Local Boards and Local Boards connecting with community. 

Existing members of the CE Round Table are:
• Community Waitakere
• Sport Waitakere
• The Walsh Trust
• HealthWest
• Youth Horizons
• Man Alive
• Unitec
• Lifewise
• Ecomatters
• VisionWest
• CEAC
• Waitakere Community Law
• MPHS
• Barnardos
• WEA

New CE’s are welcome.  Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information

Community Waitakere have made the following submisions:

Community Waitakere was a key partner in hosting the Community Economic Development (CED) conference that was held in Waitakere in February 2010. The conference was an outstanding success, with over 300 delegates and 50 presenters from UK to Canada to Australia to Aotearoa making presentations about social enterprise, social finance, developing community assets and how profits can be utilised for community benefit .

Community Waitakere is taking the first step of an exciting new journey and starting to explore developing a Sustainable Community and Economic Development Incubator as:

Waitakere Community Resource Centre provides friendly event & meeting space in central Henderson.  We offer an affordable range of pricing options and a wide range of standard and value-added services.  Click here for details on rates and to make an online booking.  We also provide affordable office rental for not-for-prfit organisations - see details below.