half way

half-way

Well, the coolest thing that happened this month was getting an invitation from Vodafone to attend the Robin Hood Social Heroes Awards in Auckland.  This was a fabulous event where the very generous corporate organisations that support NGO’s have some recognition.  Vodafone won a Robin Hood Social Heroes award for its partnership with SAFE.  Thanks Vodafone you totally deserve it for the difference you make for young people.   And yes that is Jonh Key in the photo! 

Other highlights this month have included meeting with 99. – A cutting edge advertising company in Auckland who are giving me a hand with creating a logo for the programme.  This is so exciting because it means that I can begin planning delivering the information about the Sapphire Programme into the community. 

I also been liaising with practitioners about providing some training around the work I’ve been doing as a way to support them as they continue to develop services across New Zealand. 

So i guess im at the half way mark, and I think things are going as per planned!!

Right now I am sitting in the office surrounded by slices of trees – lots and lots of paper.  Some with shiny laminate, others are type writer written and others have been hand crafted with a pen, are a tan brown colour and have coffee splotches on them.  Yep, I’m wading through the 40year history of OPC’s environmental education resources.

It’s quite a process, much like going through an old photo album.  You might think your going to have a look at that particular photo but its way too fascinating to ignore all the pictures along the way.  It’s full of recyclables and compostables, with plenty of nutrients for the future toolkit and programs.  Once I get through it!

The previous month has involved a few new things:  I have a new manager, Belinda Manning.  She is an awesome lady with great ideas and is really supportive. We have been doing a lot work around planning and integrating this work into the changing landscape that is OPC.  I have also run several more staff trainings with really positive outcomes and loads of learning, produced a Nature Awareness starter kit and pocket kit for instructors based on the staff training days, and am working on getting schools onboard to trial programs (at the same time as writing them).  I am also looking for advice around incorporating Maori values and awareness, as well as developing some surveys and measuring tools that don’t compromise the nature of nature connection.  All very much a work in progress of course.

Slowing down alongside lake Rotopounamu during staff training

Rainier days at Rotopounamu – treasures still abound!

The other awesome news is that OPC Great Barrier has been awarded a Vodafone Make a World of Difference Ripple grant!  The role is to develop educational resources around sustainable living for programs at our marine centre, and we’re very much looking forward to meeting the mysterious soul who gets the position.  Check out http://foundation.vodafone.co.nz/lendyourself for more details.  So, lucky for me I got to go out to the marine centre and talk with the crew out there to define what role would make the most difference.  Hopefully I will be heading back out there later in the year to support and collaborate.  It’s a really amazing centre in an incredible environment.  Ooodles of potential!

Coastlines of Aotea (Great Barrier Island), near our OPC marine centre

The most amazing, most beautiful tree I have ever seen.  You are looking at one Pohutakawa tree, one bay over from OPC base.

Anyway, that’s me for this round. Until next time, journey well people of the world!

Stephanie

Definite Change

definite-change

Louis called it – halftime! Looking back through the many folders of photos, it’s hard to believe we’ve come this far in just 6 months. It feels like a good time to check in on why we’re here, and where we’re going, dont you think?

Climate

I’ve kept the science to a minimum in my blog posts, as many know what the challenges are and just want to get on doing. I believe that headlines from the past six months warrant some attention however, and i’ll mention them in brief here.

Since I began my World of Difference year, a considerable number of extreme weather events have unfolded concurrently around the world:

  • Floods have battered the US states of New England, Nashville, Arkansas and Oklahoma, China experienced it’s worst in decades, and a historic deluge in Pakistan upended the lives of over 20 million people.
  • The Northern Hemisphere’s summer heat waves have baked the eastern United States, parts of Africa and eastern Asia, and above all Russia, which lost millions of acres of wheat and thousands of lives in a heat wave and wildfire frenzy worse than any other in the historical record.
  • A 200 sq. km chunk of the Petermann Glacier carved off Greenland – the largest piece of ice to separate from the glacier in the past 50 years of observations and data.

Climate extremes have always existed, but all the events cited above compare with, or exceed in intensity, duration or geographical extent, the previous largest historical events known. Seemingly disconnected, these far-flung disasters are reviving the question of whether climate change is causing more weather extremes. The collective answer of the scientific community can be boiled down to a single word: probably.

Finally, a staggering new study from Canadian researchers has shown that warmer seawater has reduced phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, by 40% since 1950.

Considering the lag in the climate system, we are left with a sobering thought to chew on. These events have, almost certainly, been caused by the greenhouse gases emitted by our forbearers during the industrial revolution, meaning the emissions we have produced over the last 50-or-so years are yet to be counted. Cuss.

Energy

Quick recap. We need energy to do work. Work is economic activity, and it requires the growing extraction/use of resources, so requires growing amounts of energy. Read: oil.

Crude oil supplies have failed to top their 2005 extraction rates – 5 years on. Pretty compelling. “All Liquids’ (oil, biofuels, coal-to-oil, shale etc) has bounced along, and combined, just pipped the 2005 crude figure, for a blip in 2008. Never again. So we do less work from here on, and less and less, year on year. Time to get to (man-powered) work!

Action

During this halftime reflection I can say that I feel very privileged to be supported to work towards solutions in this area! To be surrounded by people that are putting their heart and soul into regenerating our communities and making them resilient to these changes, is excitingly epic!

I’m really stoked with where we’re at, too. Our idea of physically supporting youth to develop future-relevant skills is working well, and importantly – we’re having tons of fun whilst doing it. 22 Youth are such an inspiring group, and I can only imagine what powerful ideas they’ll bring to life over the next  6 months!

In early August I spent a weekend “shipwrecked” out on Quarantine Island with 30 wicked secondary students and friends. Another Enviroschools initiative, we explored the major systems which allowed us to be there – water, energy, food, shelter and people – and workshopped ways of making these systems more resilient. We finished up by helping each school plan a similarly themed regenerative in-school project for Term 3!

Checking in with 22 Youth, a Permaculture Design Workshop yesterday left them buzzing with excitement about the creative canvas that is The Secret Garden project. They aim to establish an edible/useful ecology that can be a model of a sustainable urban food system. The hunt is now on to locate a diversity of southerly-suited vegetables, fruit bushes, trees, herbs, and companion plants to make The Secret Garden the edible paradise we imagine it can be!

Plans for 2011 are gaining momentum and will be shared soon enough! Next month being Spring, food is on the table – that much is certain :)

August Update – Halftime

august-update-halftime

Sheeesh. What a busy month for us at Te Wai Pounamu (TWP) – many many workshops and talks with young people, dozens of meetings with prospective funders and partners and heaps of admin to keep TWP rocking and rolling– and plenty more of all of that to come.

Most weeks I have been on a circuit between Dunedin, Christchurch and the West Coast with the TWP crew in each place … and had a visit to Auckland too. I’ve got to catch up with many old and new faces and seen so much of our beautiful country. What an exciting month!

HUB174 Project (Dunedin)

In Dunedin over the last month we have been working hard to get the building up and running. Celia has been continuing her stellar work as current project manager! Go Celia! We had some couches donated the other day, we’ve got a library set up, we have heaps of office furniture laid out in the different rooms, the Malcam Trust (who is our building partner) has been awesome and its great to have Vodafone working on a super quick and reliable broadband for tenants to zoom around and do their work on the internet. Our first tenants are keen to move in next week and word seems to be spreading around the Dunedin community about HUB174. Another high point has been a visit from Murray Sheard who is driving a similar project in Auckland.

- 2 major priorities, 2 major events, 2 mammoth months!

2 major priorities – get the space ready and tell more people about it and 2 major events at HUB174 for this project to lock in your diary over the next 2 months. – 28 August workshop to assemble core team of volunteers to drive it forward. 1st October – Friday night space-warming party to open the building!

Various Youth Leadership Workshops

In Dunedin (at HUB174), Celia convened a one-off film screening of “10 Tactics” – a film about turning information into action. Celia also made the best hot chocolate and homemade cookies in the world! 20 young people showed up and we had a discussion afterwards about the film and how it relates to the projects attendees are involved with.

In Christchurch, Indigo convened the last of a series of daylong workshops called Vote Local in the historic Council Chambers on the banks of the Avon River. It was about motivating young people from Christchurch to be involved more in local body politics, timely for this years October elections. 12 people showed up to hear awesome speakers including local MP Brendon Burns, Christchurch City Councillor Yani Yohanson and Lani Evans from Kia Tutahi.

A Day at the Beach West Coast Project

Zane has been keeping up his amazing work on the West Coast. As part of Stage 2 of the project (Stage 1 being the 2009 festival) we had full school assembly talks secondary schools from the West Coast and two area schools. We talked two things – first, promoting the West Coast Film challenge for young people encouraging as many entries to be placed before the 24 August closing day. Second, booking in schools for when we would like to come back to the school as part of the West Coast Roadshow (September 6-17).

We’ve been working pretty hard on planning the A Day at the Beach GRAND Celebration. Friday 3rd September Hokitika. Roll out a bit of West Coast red carpet for the long awaited international premiere of the short-film about last years hugely successful volunteer-powered festival. We’re in the final stages of production with Splashroom Media, and its looking great! There will be a road closure for the annual whitebait relay, a political discussion with 3 MP’s, drinks and nibbles  – and all this happening in one evening and probably all for FREE!  Its going to be massive!

Love your Coast – BIG new national collaboration!

We’re proud to announce a new partnership with Sustainable Coastlines on an exciting new collaboration. In a nut shell, its a series of large-scale coastal clean-ups in December later on this year, based on the success of the A Day at the Beach recipe we’ve developed and the catalogue of coastal clean ups Sustainable Coastlines have convened in the North Island.

It’s a bit of a yarn on how it all came about and we are really excited to have teamed up! What Sam Judd (Sustainable Coastlines co-founder) and I have done over the past month is simply hit the road together. Convened 5 community workshops – Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, West Coast and Dunedin (total attendees 80) and whilst we were in Christchurch presented the concept to 40 secondary school leaders from over 10 schools. We’ve had dozens of meetings with prospective partners and last week we were even on the 95B FM drive show with Mikey Havoc. We’ve had some awesome days on the road, sparking off all the different people and groups we’ve met and getting more and more excited about the prospect of December.

We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response in every place, dozens of volunteers have begun to assemble across each place and we working on partnerships with national and local organizations, for example the Department of Conservation. We’ve got a big 16 weeks ahead!

What’s lined up for the next month is the big celebration and film premiere on the 3rd of September, followed by the roadshow on the West Coast. In Dunedin we have a strong focus on HUB 174. Love your Coast planning is split across Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and the West Coast which has 2 major priorities – funding secured for Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin and filling the dozens of volunteer positions available.

SYHPANZ and yMedia part 2

syhpanz-and-ymedia-part-2

I think I blogged without the videos.

here goes……………………….
Force12: The
Brief

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5XOTU0KaO4

Force12: Our
Proposals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OcGo0oEDaU

Force12: Team
Progress

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U__c4K9tGM

Force12:
Conclusion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgeu2-GhIbI

SYHPANZ and yMedia Challange

syhpanz-and-ymedia-challange

 

It has been a busy month, with the yMedia Challenge and the energetic and fabulous Force12 team (Chino, Jaymard, Nikki, Ysabel and  their mentor Courtney) as they ploughed through the brief to bring SYHPANZ into the 21st Century…

…and finished the challenge on Tuesday 10th August.  The eight weeks just flew by.

Here are the team hard at work - minus Jaymard, the whiz behind the camera (amongst many of his talents).

To follow the SYHPANZ and yMedia Challenge of the last eight weeks, have a look at the video diaries.

We have the big event on Thursday 19th when yMedia announce the winners.  But Force12 is a winning team to SYHPANZ whatever the outcome on Thursday. 

Look I even managed to get the videos on the blog.  That’s progress – all with the support of the Force12.

Building SYHPANZ into a sustainable organisation is an important goal this year.  So, whilst our membership is growing, we have to look at other options to sustain us for next year.  This has meant meeting potential funders.  It has been good to meet with  funders to make sure we fit with each other’s philosophies.  It has been a privelege to meet so many people with such passion and support for the NGO sector.

This month SYHPANZ facilitated two workshops for nurses working in New Zealand secondary schools, one in Palmerston North and the other in Christchurch.  50 nurses attended these workshops and the evalautions reinforced how valuable they were.  These workshops were supported by the Ministry of Health. 

SYHPANZ continues to  ensure that the youth health workforce has access to quality training and networking.  On Friday 30th July at the SYHPANZ and Adolescent Health Research Group (AHRG) Youth Health Forum over 60 health and allied professionals met to hear about how to support young people who are either parents or about to become parents.  The latest research findings from Youth 07 were presented and examples of good practice were presented.  To access the presentations go to www.youth2000.ac.nz

It has been great to work with VFNZ to develop a new and exciting opportunity for the Youth Health Sector and all will be announced at the next Youth Health Forum on Friday 27th August between 5-7pm at the School of Population Health, Tamaki Campus, The University of Auckland.  So, if you are in Auckland or close by, come along to network and  celebrate.  For more information contact me at syhpanz@gmail.com

NZAAHD and NYWN are on a journey to develop a new entity,  that will support the youth sector in the future.  I had the opportuntiy to participate and contribute to the Auckland consultation forum on Friday 23rd July on behalf of SYHPANZ and look forward to seeing the outcome of this when it is announced at the Involve Conference in November this year.

And finally, three of SYHPANZ’ Executive Commitee and I met with the Chair of Health Workforce New Zealand, Prof Des Gorman this month.  This meeting provided the forum to discuss the key issues and opportunities for the Youth Health Sector.  It was a signifcant and positive meeting for SYHPANZ. 

Amongst all the above activites SYHPANZ Executive Committee and its sub committees (workforce and conference) have continued to meet and connect to keep important ongoing work up to date.

So, half way through and big thanks to VFNZ.  Without them I would not have been able to support the orgnaisation and achieve all that we have so far.

South East Stoke on the turnaround.

south-east-stoke-on-the-turnaround

The past month has been lots of work around the supporting a young man doing correspondence, And also with the max team coming to the end of their time, more time working with them has been a big priority.Looking for founding for next year to keep working here and getting around the families has been time consuming. I have been working with the youth leaders on their dreams when it comes to the work they do. We are all working on the  polices together for the groups they run. Shine TV will be coming to house 44 on the 24th August. we have had the Nelson mail come and do media things here and well continue to come every month to do stories on the house 44. Thank you to Vodafone for all your input, the house is getting good feedback on the things they are doing.

Far-well to the max team and all they have been doing. A grate team who will be missed a lot. You have made a big difference at House 44.

Nelson mail say,s Richmond’s Gordon Tamihana was given a year to make a difference.
Six months on he feels he is well on his way, helping staff and volunteers at House 44 – Mr Tamihana came free with a $30,000 grant, his one-year pay cheque and the subsidy both paid for by Vodafone New Zealand Foundation’s World of Difference programme.
Mr Tamihana was one of seven people throughout the country to win the award, which gives recipients a 12-month salary to work for a youth-related charity.
He started at House 44 in February and said he had been amazed by the work the community house in southeast Stoke does.
The Nelson mail put a 2nd article in the paper: Proud of our street; Karaka street in stoke has been called many things in its time, but the efforts at one house in the street have made the residents proud to call it home. Charles Anderson reports.

Nearly half way..

nearly-half-way

This has been such a great month. You know people often ask me ‘how it’s going’ and a usual response from me is….. ‘I’m having the time of my life. Every day I get to go to work and do a job I feel really passionate about.’
Over the last month I’ve been spending a lot of my time focusing on connecting back in with the staff at SAFE. I organized to run a two hour professional development session with them, so they could hear a little more about the day to day aspects of my project. I spent a portion of the session looking at the international research I have collected. I think this gives a good starting point to understand the types of girls we will be meeting with.
This time together also gave the staff some time to reflect on, and think about the differences between girls and boys, adult women and girls, and between girls generally. These are quite important considerations when an existing treatment service which provides services to men and boys starts to shift its focus to females.
It was also a useful exercise just to get everyone laughing about some of the things that have been influencing adolescent girls in New Zealand over the last 12 months – such as ‘Lady Gaga’, ‘Justin Bieber’ and ‘New Moon’.
I’ve also met with the adolescent and adult team leaders to begin discussions on how the service will roll out over the next 12 months and what type of changes we may need to make, and then how we might implement these. This is ongoing and I look forward to our next discussions.


I’m still looking at our branding, and have some time scheduled to continue discussions about this. It’s so cool to be able to have access to people who have so much experience out marketing and advertising.
My literature review is due this Friday – it will be so great to have my draft completed. This was such a beneficial thing to do as a way of bringing up to speed with how international practitioners are viewing the work with girls. The first draft of our new data collection form for youth is coming along well. I used a lot of information from the literature review to inform this.
Looking forward I need to start thinking about the whole staff training day in November which will have just before we launch the programme.

World of Difference Ripple Programme

The Ripple programme is a 3 month capacity building paid placement at one of the Vodafone Foundation’s youth charity partners. With 25 positions available, we match each job role to suit your personality and skill set. So are you a HAND, HEART or MIND person?

Hand hand title

A HAND person enjoys fixing, crafting and building. Whether it’s baking a cake, building a tool shed or choreographing a dance routine, you love to create something new.

View the charity roles that best suit HAND people

Heart heart title

A HEART person sees goodness where others struggle to find it. Young or old, from all walks of life; you believe that everyone should be appreciated.

View the charity roles that best suit HEART people

Head mind title

A MIND person seeks out challenges and revels in problem solving. You believe in study as well as practice and acquire knowledge from everything around you.

View the charity roles that best suit MIND people

The Ripple programme gives you the opportunity to share your strengths with young Kiwis across New Zealand. To find out if you’re a HAND, HEART or MIND person, take the Lend Yourself quiz or click here to apply.  Applications close 3 September 2010, 5pm.

Start The Quiz

World of Difference  Programme

If you want to give more of yourself, then the World of Difference programme is for you. This is a 12 month capacity building job placement at your chosen charity with a paid salary from The Vodafone Foundation. We need 6 passionate candidates who wish to pursue an amazing life experience whilst helping to improve the lives of young Kiwis.   Applications close 3 September 2010, 5pm.

Apply for World of Difference

View Ripple terms and conditions

View World Of Difference terms and conditions

Start Where You Are

start-where-you-are

One could browse these blog entries and see seven different people working on seven very separate projects. Learning that we cannot separate one aspect of life from another, however, allows us to see anew the connected story of World of Difference 2010.

Catching up with the others through their words confirms we are working collectively. Te Rawhitiroa on Te Aho Tu Roa, connecting youth with water. Gordon and House 44, rekindling communities through growing fresh food. Stephanie and the OPC, bringing a full awareness to young minds. Sooo much awesomeness!

22 Youth is cranking! Our skill sets are growing, our networks are strengthening, and our projects are flourishing.  Bike maintenance and bread making proved popular throughout the holidays, as the crew had a break from school and assignments were few. Each with busy schedules through the term, it was great to reconnect and refocus.

The links between climate change, energy use, economic security and food keep getting clearer. A recent Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report concluded that agriculture is the “largest threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function of any single human activity.” Case in point; when we change the way we grow our food, we change our food, we change society, and we change ourselves.

Farmers Market Kai! Flickr: NatalieMaynor

Armed with this strong realism, we decided to venture north to Kakanui for a full day workshop with the Dirt Doctor, Jim O’Gorman. Jim is a leader in everything soil, and thus he brought us all up to speed with the state of our damaged agricultural soils, and how we can begin bio-remediation. The methods he taught used local resources coupled with microorganism technology, and a sense of urgency in his voice made the day a very special experience. What’s more, the proceeds from the workshop go to his One Organic Village Trust , through which Jim disseminates his knowledge to less fortunate nations. What a champ!

Rebecca watering the compost!

Rabia weed chipping for mulch. "My grandma would be proud!"

Homemade pizza!

Cooked in a homemade pizza oven!

A new project Sustainable Dunedin City is working on is the Big Green Challenge! We believe in a positive, secure and sustainable future for Dunedin City, so we’re launching this public competition! Offering prizes of money, time and expertise, we pledge to help and support organisations, businesses, schools or groups get community resilience projects off the ground! Working with 350.org and the local community paper The Star, we’re pretty excited to help people get active on climate change, so watch check out the website and spread the word!

The Big Green Challenge

The launch of World of Difference 2011 in just under a week has reminded me that I’m almost half way through my year. Whoa, fast! Conversations have begun about what next year will look like, for SDC and myself. Vaughan Matthews from Vodafone is visiting in August to help us develop a 5-year strategic vision and business plan for the organisation, which we’re really looking forward to! In the youth space, a taste of my ideas is sowed graphically, below.

What could it be?!

Start where you are, is my only clue :)