Been feeling tired and weary this month. I tell you, expanding a social programme is hard work at times. One of our coordinaotors has been away on leave all this month and being a small organisation if one person is away the rest of us take on the load of their work. I have been experimenting with local advertising for mentors, changing the pitch of our ads, adding a lot more “story” , including a picture of our coordinators and added what turned out to be a siginificant line to our ad copy “You don’t have to be a saint either – just stable and safe, with a good heart”. In talking to men in the community I had picked up a sense of “I’m not good enough, smart enough, saintly enough.. for this” After changing the ads we got a marked increase in response rate. I also tried a few front page banner in local suburban papers, getting a reponse 10 more than usual.
The outcome is our incoming list of Big Buddies is 10 times larger than normal. All good stuff but it is straining our resources to cope processing these new men. Another factor I am noticing as we expand, as our public profile increases is the extra social work we are often called into. Its an ongoing discipline in any non profit social service to have strong boundaries around what we do and what we don’t. This may seem easy enough but what do you do when you get a boy who is HIV positive (from his drug addicted mother) doesn’t know this and yet obviously needs a good male role model in his life. Not a simple case and it will take a fair amount of social work to support the boy to understand his condition then look for a mentor who is willing to take this on. Another example was the 2 men who phoned in response to our adverts, they are going through difficult family courts battles to gain access to their children, lost in bitter custody wars they were basically begging us not to mentor their boys for fear of losing them. It was easy to assure these men our policy is not to replace fathers and to explain the length we go through to determine what happened to a boys father. All part of a normal day at Big Buddy.
October has been just as busy, if not busier, as we’re in the process of getting ourselves accredited as a CYFS provider and this takes someone with a PhD or diploma I think – definitely not me anyway. We’ve hired someone who used to be a CYFS manager and now does accreditations for other local tertiary providers so hopefully he knows all the loop holes and stuff.
Raphael Hilbron and a team from Vodafone completed a mountain bike race in Taupo where they were sponsored for each lap they rode on the circuit in 12 hours. They donated the proceeds to the Youth Quest Trust and the Vodafone NZ Foundation matched their donation. It was a great effort by a great company and we managed to get $4,000 which was amazing – thanks so much you guys.
We are nearing the end of our second programme and all is well. Our tough boy has now been out of trouble for 5 weeks which is amazing and the police down here are gob smacked (and so am I!). I remember one of the WINZ people saying if you can change that boy you can change anyone and funding will come. I’m looking forward to making him put his money where his mouth is.
Wow! Love Your Body Day on October 17th was a fantastic success. We had a great day down at Aotea Square in Auckland, with plenty of people coming along to find out about EDEN, to discuss body satisfaction and to contribute to our ‘Real Beauty’ mural. To see more pictures from the day (special thanks to James Little) and to view our video go to www.eden.org.nz next week when these will be loaded up. EDEN now has two fabulous murals (2 x 5 metres) that we would love to display somewhere in the community so everyone can share in what are wonderful, alternative and health-promoting body positive messages. Let us know if you have any ideas for what we could do to show these off! If you haven’t purchased your Love Your Body Day tshirt then it’s not too late. The tees will continue to be available year round and we are hoping to refresh the range with another special design to be included for Christmas this year. The tees make great gifts so support EDEN’s work with eating difficulties ($5 goes towards EDEN’s work) by purchasing one for the special women in your life.
Although LYBD took up most of my working month in October, I did manage to get some other EDEN work done as well. With Deb (EDEN’s youth worker) we started planning the delivery of BodyReal training workshops to teachers, counsellors and community workers who are involved in educating youth. The workshops will provide trainers with the skills to deliver an engaging and informative workshop to young people on issues of body image, critical media literacy, and self esteem. If you or somebody you know might be interested in promoting body satisfaction with young people, then get in touch with EDEN to find out more about the workshops being offered in November/December.
Support and information for carers of people with eating issues has been a neglected area in NZ. EDEN was pleased to discover that the Eating Disorder Association – a group of parents affected by a child’s eating disorder – is establishing itself in Auckland to provide information. It is always great to see community-owned support initiatives for eating difficulties getting off the ground and I enjoyed meeting with EDA in October and hearing about their plans and thinking about how EDA and EDEN might work together. Alongside this, EDEN is starting a monthly support group for parents and carers to meet others in similar situations, share their experiences, and reduce isolation.
At the end of October I attended a stimulating conference run by the College of Nurses Aotearoa called Obesity: A Critical Debate. This meeting included vital discussion about the way that current research and ‘healthy weight’ orthodoxies are being deployed in what are actually not very health promoting ways. It was fantastic to hear international and national speakers debating the merits of what seems to be an almost global obsession with fat and to consider the negative consequences of this trend and how we might work in more health promoting ways on this issue.
Bye for now!
One of my major focuses in October was on the changes required to the Every Child Counts website. I met with the web designer in Auckland to discuss the look and functionality requirements for the site.
While in Auckland I also met with other people who are interested in what the government is doing to support families. Building networks and understanding what other organisations’ concerns are is a necessary part of my work.
In preparation for 2008, we have started talking to economists about what it costs the nation if we leave children on the margins of society; in poverty, abused, neglected, and not thriving. During October, we worked on the development of a terms of reference for this work.
17 October was International Anti-Poverty Day and I prepared a media statement for Every Child Counts to comment on the levels of child poverty in New Zealand. This resulted in a radio interview in which I discussed the impact of poverty on children and what needs to be done to reduce child poverty.
Political parties have started developing their policies for 2008 and in October I drafted comprehensive feedback on the draft policies of one of the political parties.
I also drafted a submission on the Family Court Matters Bill, advocating for children’s needs to be central to the considerations of whether proceedings should be public. We also called for children to be enabled to participate in decisions about their care following a family break-up.
In October I participated in meetings with the Families Commission to contribute to the development of the programme for their conference in late 2008.
I was also preparing for my attendance at the Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect on the Gold Coast in Australia, in November. I was preparing to co-present a workshop on the role of Non-governmental Organisations in the campaign to repeal New Zealand’s corporal punishment laws (Section 59 of the Crimes Act).
This month has been busy with preparation for our end of year shows and workshops and we’ve had a very busy schedule with rehearsals and workshops in the weekends.
Our Desire2Dream Showcase is coming up in a week and the junior, varsity and adult teams who are part of our 10 week programme (which builds dance ability as well character) are all looking sharp with choreographers contributing to the routines. We have some of the top NZ crews performing, with some of them placing at the world champs this year. This event is to acknowledge the teams that have accomplished a lot in hip hop dance throughout the year and it will be an amazing performance.
The studio classes are about to finish up for the year. We’ve had a lot of new students through and have built a new structure which we will be expanding towards West and North Auckland in years to come. It will be exciting to see what happens next year. Our after school programmes with youth at-risk in the area have been really challenging. We have had a huge commitment from some loyal kids that have been consistent throughout the year and have progressed into our dance studio, which is a great success. They are enjoying themselves and it’s a great way to release them from other issues they are facing.
Some of the dance companies I have visited and taught at have had a lot of positive feedback. These networks from all around the North Island want me to provide input into their programmes so they can duplicate what we do in South Auckland. This is what the bigger picture is all about -creating more opportunities for our youth, occupying them before they get into trouble and building their character.
Finally, we had a special guest called Swoop, a dance choreographer from the USA, visit us. He has featured in many films including Stomp the Yard, You Got Served and Saved the Last Dance, and was one of MC Hammers back-up dancers in the 1980s and 1990s. We were extremely lucky to have him in our studio and the kids loved it. Our aim is to bring more choreographers of his calibre into our area to inspire youth and encourage them to get out there and do something they are passionate about.
