Whanaungatanga

Building and sustaining strong relationships is at the heart of all our mahi. By maintaining a social media presence and regularly making time to connect with locals and other stakeholders in person we are able to do the following:

Create or identify Collaboration opportunities, bring the right people together by Connecting them and play an Advocacy role at the table with central and local government or other service providers. Sometimes we lead or co-lead the delivery of an initiative, sometimes we actively support work led by others and other times we connect people together or share our knowledge and leave them to do their mahi.

Our philosophy within this strand of our work is best captured by the following whakatauki, which speaks to collaboration and a strengths-based approach: Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi / With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive.

Collaboration

Whether it’s our own initiatives like Kai Avondale or Eastdale Hub, or projects we co-lead or support, we take a collaborative approach. By using our collective strengths, projects don’t live or die by one person or group’s contribution, and more people have an opportunity to be involved in our community and connect with each other in the process.

A key collaborative project is Te Whau Hapori, a one-on-one mentoring programme delivered by Upside Youth Mentoring for students from a cluster of Avondale area schools: Avondale College, Avondale Intermediate, Avondale Primary School, Rosebank School and Glenavon School. Together with school representatives and Resource Teacher Learning & Behaviour staff we developed the proposal and secured Ministry of Education funding for it in 2020. We also sit on the steering group, brokered the partnership with Upside, helped find volunteer mentors and a paid Mentoring Coordinator, and endeavour to support the 25 students matched each year and their whānau in ways relevant to their individual needs and aspirations.

We also work with the board of Rosebank School to activate their Community Hub. This includes establishing the school’s Breakfast Club, bringing Belong Aotearoa’s Safari Multicultural Playgroups onboard to run three days a week and resourcing the space with help from the Kindness Collective. In 2021, we helped create a Community Hub Coordinator role paid for by the school to manage the Hub and act in a community development role. We also brokered financial support from the Whau Local Board towards the Coordinator’s operational expenses.

Other notable projects we’ve been involved with include:

Connecting

Over time, we have amassed a large network of contacts and gained lots of local knowledge and insights in the process. When people come to us with opportunities or seeking help, but we don’t have the relevant expertise or capacity ourselves, we try to connect them with people that do rather than reinvent the wheel.

Some of the notable connections we’ve made are putting The Creative Souls Project and Whau the People in touch with local schools and a kindergarten to deliver murals (2018-20); linking Crescendo Trust of Aotearoa with Eke Panuku Development Auckland to establish a music mentoring hub in Avondale (2020); and introducing the Kindness Collective to Avondale Intermediate to makeover their school gardens, and Rosebank and St Mary’s schools to establish the Kindness/Manaakitanga Cup (2021).

Advocacy

Because we connect with so many local people through our mahi, we try and advocate for their needs and aspirations when we’re at the table with central or local government, or other service providers.

Examples of our advocacy work include ongoing conversations with key stakeholders, attending various workshops and hui, and taking part in community consultations.