2007 started in late Jan for me and we are already headlong into the first phase of expanding Big Buddy across NZ, starting with Wellington. After a lot of planning work we are currently recruiting for a coordinator in Wellington. I have also been planning a trip to the UK to meet up with similar mentoring organisations over. I’m keen to learn from their experience in taking a programme that works in one city then replicating it nationally.
Lots of people say to me, “it’s fraught with danger etc, fair enough but I want to know how do we expand our service well without getting speed wobbles. In the UK I have also been asked to present a workshop to their main national mentoring conference in Manchester on May 3. Big Buddy has become very good at recruiting and screening male mentors, something they struggle with over their, so I’m happy to give them a few tips on recruiting men.
As Big Buddy expands I need to be careful not to take my eye of the well established work we are doing in Auckland. Our two Auckland coordinators will be crucial in this; I’m introducing you to them in this month’s diary because you will hear their names again in later months. While I am spearheading our expansion I could not do it with my good mates Steve and Stephen, we work collegially in many areas and they help keep me focused on detail and process. I can have a tendency to wave my arms around in grand gestures, be a little bit too ambitious, so it’s a great synergy. Had an interesting meeting with Opposition Leader John Keys. He was meeting a few leading edge social organisations to help him develop social policy and he asked to meet with us. I told him I’d never voted national but that didn’t faze him and to be honest I liked him, he was a very good listener, asked lots of intelligent questions and seemed very authentic. He lost his father at a young age so I guess our work was close to his heart. We had some very interesting conversations on how govt and business could partner together to help fund social work organisation like ours. As we expand out service it will become more and more important to develop a useful relationship with govt but as I said to Mr Keys we are holding out a begging bowl , I’m interested in a serious two way relationship that works for everyone and I think business has a part to play. I had my Vodafone World of Difference award all wall, he made the connection. Will be interesting to see what develops.
Well the year is off to a blistering start mainly concentrating on getting the remaining funding required to start Youth Quest. Seem to spend most of my and Tanya’s time in meetings with prospective funders outside of Vodafone. We look to start our first course at the beginning of April and have now got my two mentors on board working hard attending courses and gathering information from local entities. I handed my Police uniform in last week which really was quite surreal but atleast I know I am following my passion. Have formed a intergrated agreement with WINZ, Police, Ministry of Social Development, Kapiti Coast District Council Mininstry of Internal Affairs and Te Puni Kokiri to hopefully make the programme financially sustainable fingers crossed. A little draining this whole thing but it has to be done. Never realised how much paper work there is in applying for funding, and of course every funder wants something different. Obviously no photos at present will probably have some by the next due time.
Originally the first course was meant to start in February but we didn’t have any funding and we still had a lot of different funders to meet who weren’t available towards the end of last year.
Well that’s all from us here at Youth Quest for the first update.
The year at EDEN kicked off with a busy January and an even busier February. I’m still pinching myself about having been awarded a World of Difference year – the relief about not having to fundraise to cover my salary in 2007 is enormous. The first couple of months of 2007 have involved a lot of meetings, networking and administration to lay the groundwork and gather information to make sure EDEN is well placed to extend its school programme, develop the counselling service and design and initiate its funding strategy. Perhaps most excitingly during this period, I have been involved in recruiting and interviewing for EDEN’s new youth worker.
I am thrilled to report that EDEN has employed Deb Levy for this role. This is a key appointment for the agency as Deb is responsible for delivering EDEN’s health promotion programme “Bodyimage Wellbeing In School Education”. I have been helping with bringing Deb into the agency and with supporting her training. Having Deb on board has meant that I have been able to concentrate on advertising the programme to Auckland schools and on fielding enquiries and negotiating relationships with new schools. EDEN is already working with three new schools in 2007 and this number looks set to grow as word spreads about our innovative intervention designed to promote body satisfaction and prevent disordered eating.
It has been great this month to get together with other eating issues service providers and very timely given that the Ministry of Health is currently considering the provision and funding of services in this sector across the country. I met with the managers of two of the three specialist clinical services in New Zealand – the Auckland Eating Disorder Service and the Central Region Eating Disorder Service (based in Wellington). Meeting with Auckland EDS has been especially useful in terms of discussing how we might refer between EDS and EDEN, which clients are most suited to which services, and how EDS might further support EDEN’s work via ongoing consultation.
Developing a fundraising strategy to take EDEN into the future is a key aim for me for 2007 and has started well. I have had a meeting with a professional fundraising consultant to talk through the different options available to EDEN for ongoing fundraising. The agency is considering these various options and will decide next month which to go ahead with. Additionally, I have also been busy researching which funding bodies and trusts would be suitable for EDEN to apply to this year and have been committing these deadlines and our accountability deadlines (to existing funders), to the calendar. Alongside this sort of planning I have also been working alongside EDEN’s support worker, Bron Deed, on EDEN’s strategic plan for the next two years. It’s been great to commit all of our projects to the plan and to imagine where the agency will be in two years time.
Other tasks this month include restocking EDEN’s library with the latest titles on disordered eating, body satisfaction and intuitive eating, participating in media interviews, developing content for EDEN’s February newsletter and working with 5 counselling clients.
My World of Difference year began with a hiss and roar!
There wasn’t much time to sit around thinking about what I would be doing for the year because Every Child Counts was committed to organising a Celebration of Children at Parliament on 1 March. Linked into Children’s Day, with the theme of “giving time” the celebration will focus on the positive but with some very real messages about the need for MPs to give children time and factor their needs into policy processes.
I was busy from day one, making arrangements for an event that would enchant, excite and entertain children while also allowing us to highlight the need for politicians to put children at the centre.
As part of the overall management of the event, one of my key tasks has been securing the involvement of partners such as the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, the Families Commission, The Body Shop, and a host of others. I have also been working with a team of willing staff and volunteers to ensure every logistical issue is covered off.
At this point in time all of the planning and preparations are going well and the event looks set to be a great day. Let’s hope the sun is shining!
I have also been working on some wider issues for Every Child Counts. This work has involved drafting a communications plan, preparing fundraising applications, developing a fundraising case document, updating text for a new brochure, writing media statements, and developing material for political and public education campaigns about the place of children in Aotearoa NZ.
I know that this year is going to be a busy and productive one … but when working on issues as important and as urgent as children’s well-being it never seems like we’re doing quite enough. So, I know there will be plenty to keep me motivated and excited as the year goes on … and our Celebration of Children on 1 March is a great way to start.
My start of the New Year with the Vodafone NZ Foundation has been pretty full on with exciting changes within the given trust I am working for.
Preparation work
This month we had heavy spring cleaning to do inside and out which created more space for the various projects within the trust (Crosspower Ministries Trust). I had the fun job of sweeping and weeding, to get facility up to scratch. Inside however, we shifted the main Crosspower offices to a new facility which made room for my new office. Hehe, a lot more room than what I’m use to. I’m over the moon. Thanks to Vodafone I purchased a new Video Camera. Yeah yeah hehe, to take footage of Dziah’s progress, events, and programmes. I’m having a lot of fun getting use to the new camera. Filing all my old resources and dance database, pretty much all the resources accumulated over the years, was just as “fun”.
Planning and Networking
Planning for the year ahead has been a challenging and exciting season! I have begun designing, with my humble team, our development, mentoring and leadership programmes. We aim to have all these programmes established in the next 2 terms. We already have 20 students in our (currently running) dance development programme and are still designing and preparing for our mentoring and leadership programmes. I have also begun networking with various charitable, community, and corporate organizations who want to partner with us for our events (Desire to Dream Programme/Showcase) and programmes we will deliver. I am now apart of the newly established Hiphop Dance Committee SDNZ (Street Dance New Zealand) who will run the NZ Hiphop Championships. Here I have the opportunity to be apart of a new era for NZ in the dance arena.
Dziah Dance Studio
With all the strategic work we still had to complete our new dance studio which had to be opened at the beginning of Feb. We were flat out in preparation, sanding and preparing for the paint job. We organised artists who were friends of ours to do the artwork which they did an amazing job to create a visual excitement to the studio atmosphere. We had our Dziah Studio Grand Opening Feb 10th holding free workshops to promote our new space and the top tutors we provide. Pictures of our studio will show how much space we now have to cater for large number of dancers unlike our previous only catering for 20 dancers per class. We can now fit between 60-100 a class! 250-300 came to participate throughout the whole day!
Our main objective in the next month is to bring more youth into our studio after school as we have not only public classes but after school jams, very youth friendly. Our aim to build relationships with the youth coincides with Crosspower’s motto, “Breaking down walls and Building Bridges.” Yeah, I think I have plenty of more work to do for the next 6months!
Catch you up on the next update!
