New Zealand
Funding Recipients 2008
The April 2007 Small Grants Fund call for applications attracted some highly competitive applications from across New Zealand. Save the Children commends those organisations that took time to submit an application and congratulates the 12 successful projects.
The following organisations are receiving funding from Save the Children New Zealand's Small Grants Fund in 2008:
1. Children's Issues Centre, College of Education University Otago
2. IHC New Zealand Incorporated, Waikato
3. OSCAR Network in Christchurch Inc
4. Child Protection Studies (CPS), Hamilton
5. Porirua Activity Centre, Wellington
6. Peace Foundation, Wellington
7. YWCA of Aoteroa New Zealand, (National Office) Wellington
8. KaPai Kaiti Trust, Gisborne
9. St John of Waipuna Youth and Community Trust, Nelson
10. Help for Young People at Events and in their Gathering Spaces (HYPE-GS), Nelson
11. Coromandel Independent Living Trust (CILT), Coromandel
12. The New Hub, Nelson.
1. Children’s Issues Centre, College of Education University Otago
Funding: $2000.00 (+GST)
Project: National Seminar – Children, Parent Policy and the Law: Moving on from the Repeal of Section 59.
Website: http://www.otago.ac.nz/cic/
The Children’s Issues Centre (CIC) at the University of Otago will in hold the 11th Seminar on the well being and development of children on 25-26 July 2008. The two day national seminar will explore the repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961 and the impact and implications of this on children, their families and related organisations and industries.
The seminar is to be attended by key local and international persons involved in the repeal and other related professionals, including the police, health services and Child Youth and Family and is expected to draw 150 to 200 delegates. Keynote papers to be published in the October 2008 issue of Children’s Issues Journal will be presented by leading advocates for children’s rights; Beth Wood (nursing, social work child policy and child advocacy), Professor Anne Smith (Director: Children’s Issues Centre, Otago), Sue Bradford MP (Green Party MP introduced the repeal S59 bill in Parliament), Professor Joan Durrant (Clinical Child Psychologist, University of Manitoba, Canada), Dr. Cindy Kiro (New Zealand’s Commissioner for Children), Dr. Julie Lawrence (Research Fellow, Children’s Issues Centre, University of Otago).
Save the Children has been one of the major voices advocating for the repeal of Section 59 and the promotion of alternative non abusive disciplining of children and the establishment of mechanisms to support families to achieve this. Save the Children is therefore happy to collaborate with the University of Otago, the Ministry of Social Development, and the Families Commission in contributing towards the costs of the first national meeting since the law change to enable key stakeholders to review and raise further awareness on the benefits of non physical punishment of children and explore ways of supporting families. The seminar will provide an opportunity for discussion and further dissemination of the Save the Children publication, Unreasonable Force: New Zealand’s journey towards banning the physical punishment of children written by Beth Wood, Ian Hassall and George Hook with Robert Ludbrook, 2008.
2. IHC New Zealand Incorporated, Waikato
Funding: $9359.00 (+GST).
Project: “Our Stories” Waikato Educational Workshops project.
Website: http://www.ihc.org.nz/
IHC is New Zealand’s leading advocate and largest provider of community based services for people with an intellectual disability. The IHC is committed to the inclusion of all people with intellectual disabilities to achieve an ‘ordinary life’ in their local communities in all aspects of their lives.
The “Our Stories” began as a joint project between CCS Disability Action and the arts community with the aim of creating a new level of awareness about disability. The intention is to take the exhibition to audiences throughout New Zealand. The exhibition was piloted in Christchurch in 2007 and will be taken to 6 other centres before being launched in Hamilton. The project has grown from a photographic exhibition where people talk about living with a disability to a multimedia exhibition that includes a book, workshops, film festivals and education curriculum resources. “Our Stories” provides resources and the stage for the voices of people living with a disability to be heard. The resulting dialogue and understanding will create new relationships and opportunities for disabled people in the community. Educational workshops will be run for students, employers and community groups. With 20 workshops lead by a Learning Outside the Classroom teacher planned for year 5, 6 and intermediate school children in groups of 30, at least 600 students with their parents and teachers are expected to directly interact with the project. The intermediate school pupils will, in groups of 3, interview local people with disabilities and produce short films to tell their story. 60 local people living with disabilities will participate in the project. The students, teachers, families and employers will be able to gain an understanding about what life is like living with a disability. The information evenings are to assist with integration into the community and workforce.
Both the IHC and Save the Children believe that the project will impact positively on participants motivating them to challenge and change negative perceptions around disability, for a more inclusive society.
3. OSCAR Network in Christchurch Inc
Funding: $10,000.00 (+GST).
Project: Special Needs Children in the OSCAR sector.
Website: http://www.oscarnetwork.org.nz/
The Christchurch Out of School Care and Recreation (OSCAR) Network is a resource support, training and network agency for OSCAR programmes providing care and recreation programmes for primary school age children out of school hours. Each provider and programme is independent and managed by their own legal entity.
Save the Children funding will enable the OSCAR Network in Christchurch to conduct research identifying the special needs, medical conditions and disabilities of children aged 5-13 years who attend OSCAR services. The research will also survey providers on the enrolment process for children with special needs, assess to what extent policies are inclusive of these children. It is hoped that the project will result in improved and more inclusive services from OSCAR providers, better understanding of staff and relevant training to enable them to meet the special needs of children in their care. The findings will also provide the OSCAR Network with information that can be used to train OSCAR providers nationally. Save the Children and other interested organisations will also have access to material they can use to advocate for the rights of children with disabilities.
4. Child Protection Studies (CPS), Hamilton
Funding: $5,900.00 (+GST).
Project: CPS Tutor Training Conference – Preventing harm to children through education and awareness.
Website: http://www.cps.org.nz/
CPS is a national charitable trust dedicated to the protection of children and young people with a dream of making New Zealand the safest place in the world for children. CPS has been promoting child protection awareness and providing child protection education and advice since 1994.
CPS and Save the Children believe in early intervention to reduce harm to children and that it is imperative that the key people in children’s lives be empowered, skilled and prepared to act when necessary to keep children safe. The key people include amongst others, parents, families, professionals, teachers, social workers, sports and cultural club leaders, workers from NGOs or government departments – in deed anyone who has contact with children and their families.
Funding from the Small Grants Fund will enable 14 CPS tutors contracted from across New Zealand to converge for further training. The training conference will be an opportunity for professional staff development, networking and exchanging ideas with other tutors. The gathering of tutors in one place will enable CPS to reiterate key messages on child protection and ensure quality and standards in the delivery of services are maintained.
5. Porirua Activity Centre, Wellington
Funding: $ 1,670.00 (+GST).
Project: Interest based learning workshops.
Website: www.aoteacollege.school.nz
Aotea College administers the Porirua Activity Centre, which operates from rooms in Te Wananga o Aotearoa. The Porirua Activity Centre provides programmes to at risk youth that are experiencing challenges in the mainstream education system. PAC caters for students from year 8 (13 years) to year 11 (16 years) and provides places for a maximum of 20 students. Students take school subjects, often through the Correspondence School but they also spend time working on programmes to develop confidence, social skills and self esteem.
Aotea College acknowledges that “sometimes a regular school isn’t appropriate for students”. According to PAC the students usually have issues with truancy, anger and violence, drugs and alcohol, defiance and other behaviour that negatively impact on their learning. PAC experience with past students has shown that students respond positively to interest based learning and, with guidance, can positively channel their creative energies using The Next hip hop resource as a medium for learning and exploring their world in relation to others. Learning about the history of hip hop enabled students at PAC to appreciate the various elements of hip hop as a career option, the need to seek permission for artistic murals and the negativity associated with tagging. PAC reports that “we have already had a term of hip hop and through this whole time our students have not tagged anywhere”. Instead, students have been offered to DJ at local intermediates and have been asked to participate in graffiti murals with tutors in Wellington.
Save the Children believes that education is a right and that innovative and alternative teaching methods that reach out to children excluded from the formal school system must be explored in order to restore and/or build the self esteem of these children to enable them to see their value as active and responsible members of society. Save the Children funding will enable PAC to run an interest based learning programme using The Next as a tool for learning. Students will also interview and record each other talking, unpacking their stories before they came to PAC and what they have learned and achieved before they leave.
6. Peace Foundation, Wellington
Funding: $3,470.00 (+GST).
Project: Increasing cultural awareness.
The Peace Foundation is a not for profit organisation actively involved in creating a more peaceful society. The society promotes peaceful relationships among people of all ages and levels through education, research and action. Of special interest to the Peace Foundation is the development of programmes to address conflicts and violence amongst youth. One of the Peace Foundation’s most successful programmes is the Cool Schools Peer Mediation Programme that has been operating in New Zealand since 1991. The programme empowers people by teaching them skills and processes to resolve conflict peacefully. Individuals learn how to use conflict scenarios as an opportunity to build positive relationships with others. Non-violent, constructive, co-operative, win/win solutions to a problem are negotiated. When implemented as a whole school programme Cool Schools Peer Mediation has a positive impact not only on students, teachers and parents but also for the wider school community.
As New Zealand increasingly becomes multi cultural, the Peace Foundation would like to assess the Cool Schools secondary programme to ensure that it is reflective of the cultural diversity of our schools. The Peace Foundation quotes the Youth 2002 report saying “Asian students were significantly less likely than others to feel safe at school, and were the least likely to tell adults if they were bullied”. The intent of this project is to gather 20 mixed ethnicity students from schools in Porirua, Wellington and the Hutt to train and workshop using the Cool Schools programme methods to consider causes of conflict. The material gathered will be assessed and disseminated at a meeting of regional Cool Schools coordinators in Taupo in October 2008. The material will be incorporated into the Cool Schools programme and trialled around the country
Young people are consulted and help to inform and influence the content of Cool Schools Peer Mediation programme based on their experiences. Save the Children believes that the Cool Schools Peer Mediation programme will be strengthened by the children’s input and will be more relevant and responsive to their needs. The peer mediation programme is strongly aligned with the new curriculum, particularly the “Relating to Others” strand in the Health and Physical Education curriculum.
7. YWCA of Aoteroa New Zealand, (National Office) Wellington
Funding: $7,004.00 (+GST).
Project: Sisters resource rewrite.
The YWCA of Aotearoa New Zealand is part of a worldwide organisation that is committed to improving the lives of women, particularly young women. The YWCA leads advocacy work related to young women’s leadership, health and justice.
The aim of the Sisters project is to provide a resource that will assist young women to develop an awareness and understanding of their sexuality and sexual health and their rights around these issues and to encourage them to make informed choices regarding the same. The Sisters booklet was first developed by the YWCA in 1995 and reprinted in 2003. Due to increased requests for the resource the YWCA in consultation with young people have updated and addressed the information gaps.
Save the Children recognises the challenges facing children as they grow into young adults and believes that access to quality information will demystify sexual and reproductive health leading to improved well being and health of young people. Save the Children funding will go towards the design of the 36 page full colour booklet.
8. KaPai Kaiti Trust, Gisborne
Funding: $6,900.00 (+GST).
Project: Kaiti schools curriculum
The KaPai Kaiti is a residents association of volunteers established in 2000 and committed to making Kaiti an even better place to live through a wide range of community-led initiatives. Kaiti is a community of nearly 10,000 people with a deprivation rating of 10/10.
The local school Boards of Trustees has sought the support of KaPai Kaiti to consult with whanau and the wider community about aspirations for student achievement, future plans for tamariki and ideas on preferred curriculum content. This project is therefore interested in the perceived value amongst whanau and tamariki of a local curriculum based on the stories and environment of Kaiti and the Te Rohe o Te Tairawhiti. The project seeks to ensure that whanau and tamariki themselves are able to clearly and confidently articulate their goals and aspirations and work with schools to increase alignment between the teaching and learning programmes and the goals of the whanau and tamariki.
To test the process 2 schools are being initially targeted. These include approximately 300 children aged 5-12 years and their whanau taking more interest and responsibility for the content of their education and contributing to curriculum design. The findings will be communicated back to schools, tamariki and the community through meetings and reports. The KaPai Kaiti Trust will support the community in actions leading to the realisation of gaps identified by the research.
Education is a right and Save the Children is happy to support the KaPai Kaiti needs assessment survey because it promotes access to education through a curriculum that uses the language and cultures of the tupuna and is therefore familiar and relevant to students and the community.
9. St John of Waipuna Youth and Community Trust, Nelson
Funding: $4000.00 (+GST).
Project: Peer support for antenatal education for teen parents.
St John of Waipuna Youth Community Trust endeavours to develop and provide youth-friendly antenatal and postnatal education for teen parents in Christchurch, and recruit, train and supervise a team of young parents as peer mentors.
New Zealand is ranked as having one of the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the world. According to St John of Waipuna, pregnant teenagers do not seek early antenatal care for a variety of reasons and are very unlikely to participate in conventional antenatal or parenting education. Studies by the Auckland Women’s Centre (2005) and the Canterbury District Health Board (2007) further affirm the assertion that New Zealand young mothers are at risk because mainstream services do not recognise their vulnerabilities and in fact provide services particularly for older women. Literature shows that teenage antenatal and parenting education can prevent problems developing for the teenage mother and her baby’s health and reduce the risks associated with social and material behaviours including substance abuse and other addictive behaviours as well as increasing confidence in parenting their children.
The project will recruit 16 teen parents and train them to become peer mentors and provide 42 youth friendly antenatal education classes to teen Mums and teen Dads between July 2008 and June 2009. St John of Waipuna says that the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) funds mainstream antenatal education which currently fails to attract young people to its classes. The CDHB is paying for the antenatal educator for the programme. The support of Save the Children will enable St John of Waipuna to run a trial peer mentor programme whose results will be used to advocate for more support from the CDHB and inform future policy and practice around the development and delivery of services for teen parents and their babies.
10. Help for Young People at Events and in their Gathering Spaces (HYPE-GS). Nelson
Funding: $10,000.00 (+GST).
Project: Choices.
Established in 2007 HYPE-GS employs both young people and youth workers to work with young people at events and in their gathering spaces. The organisations primary focus is detached youth work aimed at reducing harm to young people through health promotion, informal education and youth friendly health and safety services. The organisation currently works at local events in the Nelson/Tasman area, e.g. rock quest, after ball parties and the masked parade and carnival. They also work in the streets during the evening between the hours of 10.00 pm-4.00 am and at the beach on summer weekends. HYPE-GS also advocates for young people around issues that affect them in the wider community and disseminates youth rights resources.
HYPE-GS would like to work with young people to help them develop safe partying skills. These workers regularly support young people that are dealing with negative consequences of partying such as extreme intoxication, no means of transport home and being a victim of street crime. HYPE-GS would like to use the stories to inspire other young people to make informed choices.
HYPE-GS has teamed up with Mess up the Mess theatre company to create “Choices” a peer led original production featuring the party stories of Nelson/Tasman young people to be toured within schools and other informal youth spaces in the area. The production will be followed by a post-show workshop to reinforce messages and enable young people to engage in active conversations of the issues and clarify and confusion. HYPE-GS will support the production with a range of information on all topics covered to enable young people to go away with resources to refer too and a list of local support agencies.
11. Coromandel Independent Living Trust (CILT), Coromandel
Funding: $7,350.00 (+GST).
Project: E tu rangatahi ma! Whaia te mauri ora!!
CILT supports initiatives that foster the empowerment and self determination of people, whanau and communities in the upper Coromandel region. The organisation manages delivery of the KiwiCan programme in the Coromandel Area School and Colville School and is striving to strengthen local capacity for delivery of ICT, work experience, training and mentorship opportunities including programmes like digital story telling, working with multi media, performing arts, computer recycling, self sustainability and the establishment of a learning centre.
E tu rangatahi ma! Whaia te mauri ora!! Stand up rangatahi, life is good, shape your future, strive for success and well being project is a partnership between CILT, the Kura, Marae, Te Roopu Tautoko and the Te Ahi Kaa Social Services to support and strengthen Harataunga, a specifically Maori community to create learning opportunities for their children. A needs assessment identified the fact many young people in the community identify with hip hop and want to learn more about it. This project therefore seeks to use the framework of The Next project to raise awareness of young people’s rights and responsibilities, provide role modelling and leadership and inculcate positive attitudes and choices.
According to CILT, “Maori tamariki/rangatahi from isolated communities often experience powerlessness, failure and unwarranted authority, this project is about nurturing and protecting their sense of personal control and autonomy.” The Save the Children grant will support the interest based learning workshops that the young people have requested as a way of acknowledging and strengthening children’s voices. CILT says, “If this project happens, some of the most marginalised tamariki/rangatahi in our region will know it was their idea, that the simple participation in a discussion process enabled their voice to be heard and they were able to shape events in not only their own lives but also the wider community.” The project will involve 20 participants, a core group of 8 ringawere and 10-20 observing whanau.
12. The New Hub, Nelson
Funding: $1,400.00 (+ GST).
Project: Anti racism video project, “Squish” – presentation at Involve ‘08 Conference.
The New Hub is the largest recreation centre in Nelson boasting 7 workshop spaces, a café, hall, skate ramp, gym and recording studio. The Hub is a key local provider for 11-18 year olds in Nelson and has established links with schools, the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) and other youth service providers.
In 2007 Save the Children provided a grant of $5,625.00 supported the Hub in the production of a youth lead video in which young people inspired by a racist attack on Korean young people in Nelson and the media’s presentation of the issue sought to share “their experiences of racism and of living in a multicultural city”. The result of many hours of personal growth, group bonding and experiential learning is a thought provoking 10 minute video entitled “Squish”.
Although the Small Grants Fund is generally one-off funding, Save the Children is happy to provide further funding to the Hub to enable the young people to participate, share their views and screen the video at the Involve ‘08 conference, a large event that brings together the largest gathering of youth workers and service providers, policy makers and young people in New Zealand every 2 years. The conference theme “Relate” focuses on quality relationships with young people and is a fantastic opportunity for the dissemination of the video “Squish” and platform for young people to engage in conversations that include diversity, respect and peaceful coexistence. Save the Children funding will cover travel costs to and from the Wellington conference. Participants will be accompanied by their project manager.