COSS NEWS
April / Paenga Whawha 2015
COSS News is published by The Council of Social Services in Christchurch with the generous support of
the Canterbury Community Trust, the Lottery Grants Board and the Christchurch City Council.
Welcome to the April / Paenga Whawha COSS newsletter. If you have an item that you would like to see in the April newsletter, please email it to . The deadline is Friday 24 April 2015.
COSS COMMENT
Things have been humming in the COSS office this month as we respond to requests for copies of our book Holding Hope Together, and get to grips with the draft Christchurch City Council Long Term Plan (LTP).
The LTP sets out the Council’s direction and budgets for the next ten years, and is reviewed and updated every three years. The challenges that it faces in this LTP are the subject of a lot of public discussion, as the Council wrestles with how to pay for the rebuild and meet its obligations under the cost-sharing agreement with government; while still delivering its services and building long-term resilience.
Much of this is discussed in the widely-circulated Consultation Document, where there are lots of things to get to grips with. However it’s the draft LTP itself that gives the finer detail of proposals in each area, and we took a look in there at the budget for the Strengthening Communities grant fund. The fund was massively cut by nearly 28% in 2014 (from $7.89m to $5.69m), so we’re very pleased to see a proposed increase back up to $7.2m for the coming year.
This fund is extremely important for the non-profit sector and we need its support as we continue to take a vital role in rebuilding communities and supporting residents. All the information about disaster recovery tells us that we will be dealing with the fallout for several years yet, and our sector will continue to deal with increased and more complex demand from vulnerable people and communities. That is why COSS is concerned to see the proposal to cut the fund by 2% per year for each of the next three years.
We do appreciate the near-impossible task that Council faces in trying to address competing demands and produce a balanced budget. The 2% cuts have been applied widely across all aspects of activity covered by the LTP. It’s important though that their decisions are fair. So we were taken aback to see in the very next section of the grants budget that Canterbury Development Corporation and Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism were not being asked to share the pain of the cuts and in fact were budgeted to receive consumer price index increases over the life of the LTP.
COSS attended Council’s Mayor in the Chair initiative to argue that this inequitable treatment sends a message that the sector is not valued and that the cuts should be withdrawn. This got some media coverage – you can see the Press story at http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/67556719/Tears-at-cut-in-non-profit-group-grants . We also raised concerns at the lack of information about when this year’s grant application process will open. As we told the Council, groups need to be able to plan if grant distribution is delayed.
We really appreciate the support we got in the form of messages and people coming along to the meeting at short notice. Thank you to everyone who responded, and to the others who took the opportunity to also speak at the meeting. Council undertook to get back to us soon with more information about the timeline for this year’s grants. Our warm thanks to the Councillors who heard us respectfully and responded to our concerns.
The next step is to make a formal submission to the LTP. We do hope that you will do one too. More information about how is in our “Have Your Say” section inside.
Have a great Easter everyone,
Sharon
Clare and her colleagues have gone to the back page this month,
as they take time out of the office to mark a special date.
Mayor congratulates COSS for “great book”
Speech of Mayor Lianne Dalziel at the launch of ‘Holding Hope Together’ on 20 February 2015.
Kia ora koutou katoa.
It is nice to be back at Christchurch Community House – I was here only two weeks ago to officially open this facility. In that ceremony I thanked all Community House members and volunteers for continuing their important work serving the community under the difficult conditions we have endured since the Canterbury earthquake sequence.
I’d like to repeat that sentiment again today, as we celebrate the launch of ‘Holding Hope Together’. I have enjoyed a sneak preview of the book and it’s great. The 13 stories are told in a personal and pragmatic style, and draw the reader in with their compelling content.
Having an official record of the extraordinary events our city’s not-for-profits endured after the quakes is invaluable, and I congratulate the book’s producers for their foresight. Holding Hope Together highlights both the wonderful things these community groups achieved post-quakes, and the contribution this sector makes to healthy, resilient communities.
As the Rev. Maurice Gray says in the book’s foreword, those working on the front line of our NGO sector deserve acknowledgement for their efforts. He said this:
“The interviewees for this book were leaders of their respective organisations. Leadership is a fundamental value that people look for in times of trauma and chaos. It was very evident that the leaders stood tall during these difficult times. They inspired others and led by example thereby ensuring their organisations were able to respond to those in need during their most critical and vulnerable times.”
No matter how much staff and volunteers were personally affected by the quakes, their call to service remained strong. Holding Hope Together recognises some of this tremendous work, and will be a great resource in the future, both for the sector and the wider public.
I want to make sure that it is part of the Christchurch contribution to the Sendai UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.
I want to acknowledge the large team of staff and volunteers that produced the book. The transcribers; the photographer; the producers and those responsible for layout and editing. I note that Sharon Torstonson says that the Council of Social Services managed to produce this book “in spite of not having a clue how to do it” – so a special congratulations to COSS for your achievement.
It is poignant the book is being launched just two days before the anniversary of the February 22 quake. Four years on, I believe our city has turned a corner in its recovery, but for many there is still a long way to go. These next two years are going to be particularly challenging for many, so if we maintain the unity and generosity that got us through those days - literally Holding Hope Together – then we will be assured of success.
Congratulations not just for the book, but for the spirit that inspired the stories it tells.
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa
Thank you everyone!
Our enormous thanks to everyone who helped make the launch such a success. We had the most delicious nibbles afterwards and we’d especially like to thank the businesses who donated a platter of food:
· Nibbly Bits, ph 021 480 569, www.nibblybits.co.nz
· Bunrunners Catering and Café, cnr Tuam St & Fitzgerald Ave, ph 374 2260; www.bunrunners.co.nz
· Mediterranean Food Company caffe and pizzeria, 322 Tuam St, ph 379 5122, www.mediterraneanfoods.co.nz
We’d also like to thank board member Helen Gatonyi, who organised the catering and contributed to it herself.
Copies of Holding Hope Together are available from the COSS office for a koha – preferably around $10 to cover production costs, but if you want to give more we won’t object! Order by emailing If you’d like a copy but cost is a barrier, please contact the office.
A Mountain All Can Climb
The Social Policy & Parliamentary Unit of the Salvation Army recently released A Mountain All Can Climb, its latest State of the Nation report.
The report aims to give a picture of how well we are addressing various social issues in New Zealand. It does this by examining and discussing a number of indicators under five broad topics: Our Children; Crime & Punishment; Work & Incomes; Social Hazards; and Housing. By following each indicator from year to year, each successive report builds on the previous ones to give a picture of whether progress is being made in each field.
Our Children: The Salvation Army reports the good news of teenage pregnancy rates dropping, the number of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect dropping, and a slight decline in the percentage of children living in benefit-dependent households. However the number of offences against children for violence, mistreatment or neglect has increased, as has infant mortality.
Crime & Punishment: All good news here, as the percentage of recorded crime, number of prisoners and rates of recidivism have all dropped.
Work & Incomes: Once again, things are looking positive. The number of jobs within the economy and the average wage have both increased, while unemployment has dropped, as has the number of food parcels distributed by the Salvation Army annually.
Social Hazards: Availability of alcohol, the number of drug-related offences, and the amount per capita spent on gambling have all dropped.
Housing: It was bad news in this field. As we are very aware in Christchurch, housing availability and housing affordability have both worsened.
However it’s important not to take the above results as the full story. The discussion in the report notes a number of ambiguities in how the data for the indicators is gathered, and confusion between different sets of data. The Salvation Army encourages us to look at how they’ve interpreted the information and carried out their analysis, and to engage in the debate.
The report can be downloaded at www.salvationarmy.org.nz/socialpolicy
Have you heard of Aphasia?
Imagine going to sleep tonight and waking up in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language. It’s hard to:
- Speak – ask for something in a shop, and ask for directions to get somewhere
- Understand what is being spoken to you
- Understand what you are reading on street signs
- Write – fill out forms, or write a note to someone
- Use numbers – work out how much money you need to buy something, and use the ATM
This is what it is like to have aphasia.
Aphasia – pronounced ‘aye – faze – yuh’ affects a person’s ability to communicate. Aphasia affects speaking, reading, writing, understanding conversation, and using numbers. The most common cause of aphasia is stroke. Every day in New Zealand, around 24 people have a stroke and 6 or 7 will acquire aphasia. There are at least 17,000 people in New Zealand with stroke-acquired aphasia. Aphasia can also be acquired after a brain injury or brain tumour. Aphasia is more common than Parkinson’s disease. Aphasia can be hardly noticeable or very severe but it affects families and communities as well as the individual.
The Christchurch Aphasia Support Group meets at the Papanui RSA on Monday mornings. Anyone with aphasia is welcome to attend.
AphasiaNZ is holding a mini-conference and workshops in Christchurch for people affected by aphasia, and health professionals working with people with stroke and aphasia, on the 23rd and 24th of April. Dr. Carole Pound, an internationally renowned aphasia expert, is facilitating the workshops at the Quality Hotel Elms on Papanui Road.
For more information about the workshops, please visit the web page: http://aphasiaworkshop.weebly.com/
For information about support group meetings at the Papanui RSA, please go to the AphasiaNZ website: http://www.aphasia.org.nz/public/services/public-support/
To find out more about aphasia and the AphasiaNZ Charitable Trust, you can email or go to www.aphasia.org.nz or call us on our free phone on 0508 274274.
HAVE YOUR SAY
COSS alerts readers to consultation processes or lobbying initiatives that we think are of particular relevance to the social services sector or to non-profit organisations. However you can keep an eye out for issues of importance to you or your organisation by regularly visiting the following websites:
Christchurch City Council consultations: http://www1.ccc.govt.nz/haveyoursay/index.aspx
Central government consultations: http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/SC/BusSum/0/c/6/00DBHOH_BSC_SCALL_1-Bills-before-select-committees.htm
COSS NEWS Christchurch 2 April / Paenga Whawha 2015
Environment Canterbury Long Term Plan
Consultation on Environment Canterbury’s proposed work programme for the next ten years is open until April 13 and you are invited to make a submission. The proposed work programme supports our Long-Term Plan 2015-25.
You can make a submission at www.ecan.govt.nz/plans, where you can find out about the proposals and use the online submission form.
Alternatively, you can use the printed form in the back of the Consultation Document, which is being delivered to every household in Canterbury. Further copies are available by phoning 0800 324 636.
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Christchurch City Council Long Term Plan
Submissions close on Tues 28th April and public hearings will be held in May 2015.
The plan includes the city strategy to meet an estimated $1.2 billion shortfall. To view the documents go to the Council website and click on the Long Term Plan link: www.ccc.govt.nz