Newsletter

March 2016

The future looks bright for South Aucklanders interested in taking up a trade – with employers struggling to find skilled workers.

That was message from Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce gave attendees at a breakfast hosted by The Southern Initiative (TSI) Māori and Pasifika Trades Training Infrastructure Consortium last month.

More than 100 business and community leaders turned out for the breakfast, which showcased the MPTT programme.

Auckland International Airport Ltd chief executive, Andrew Littlewood spoke about the employment opportunities development at the airport is generating. Auckland Council chief engineer Sarah Sinclair also spoke.

Mayor Len Brown announced KS Holdings and UGL as the latest companies to sign up to the Auckland Council Youth Pledge.

The pledge is a key initiative of Auckland’s Youth Employment Plan and involves leading Auckland businesses making a pledge to show their commitment to employing young talent.

The mayor praised efforts to boost employment opportunities for young people across Auckland.

“Improving opportunities for young people to get a job is something I have been talking about for 25 years, and what is great to see is that at last, we are all working together.”

For more about MPTT go to our website mptt.co.nz or likes us on Facebook (MPTT:Māori and Pasifika Trades Training).

Trades offer bright future for workers

Pictured from top: Adrian Littlewood (Auckland Airport), Mayor Len Brown, Hon Steven Joyce Minister Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment; Guest speakers with MPTT trainees and MPTT team, pledge partners and Cr Alf Filipaina; Len Brown with UGL chief executive Nick Thomas and Erin Murdie of KS Holdings.

Building greater relationships with mana whenua As part of our commitment to better understand the aspirations and priorities of mana whenua, the TSI team were recently hosted by the Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust at Wharekawa Marae in Kaiaua.

Trust chairman Gary Thompson and secretariat Haydn Solomon outlined the trust’s strategy to improve the wellbeing and prosperity of its people.

“Building relationships and making connections is at the heart of the TSI’s way of working,” says Gael Surgenor, Director Community and Social Innovation (pictured).

“Meeting Ngāti Paoa in their own patch gives the team a deeper

• Raise youth employment rates

• Facilitate home ownership

• Enhance marae development.

Gael was also invited to sign a kawenata (covenant) – symbolising a commitment to working together and to uphold the principles of:

• Tika – being correct and right, maintaining high standards

• Pono – being honest and acting with integrity

• Aroha – being empathetic and respectful.

understanding and empathy of what matters to them.”

Ngāti Paoa has identified three strategic priorities to be achieved by 2020:

Trust takes Smith’s Ave community to heart TSI continues to work with Te Whanau Hapori Charitable Trust to realise its aspirations for the community of Smith’s Ave, Papakura.

The trust sees the reserve as the heart of the community – a place to inspire the community’s transformation.

The Papakura Local Board has already planned an upgrade of the community house. TSI has been supporting the trust through local initiatives and building capacity of the neighbourhood.

We have linked it with other community groups such as Urban Neighbours of Hope in Randwick Park and The Roots Collective.

In the summer holidays – the trust encouraged local children to create works of art from things found at home. Their efforts were recognised with a certificate and a special afternoon tea at the community centre.

Trainees turn over a new leaf Cramming to finish bookwork needed to pass their latest module is just one example of how trainees with Te Whāngai Trust are making big changes in their lives.

For many of these trainees, the path to education has been a bumpy one with histories of illness, violence, crime, substance abuse and family issues.

So the fact they are committed to finishing the assignment so they don’t let themselves or their trainers down is a huge step forward.

Established by the Gary and Adrienne Dalton in 2007, the trust assists at-risk people through ongoing mentoring in a structured and safe workplace and providing them with life and work skills, as well as educational opportunities.

Many of the people involved in their programmes come from Papakura and Manurewa.

TSI recently visited its site in Miranda, including the tour of the extensive nursery. The trust also has nurseries at Glenbrook and Pukekohe.

The co-design approach the TSI uses also struck a chord.

“That approach of designing where the community owns the solution is something I would want to take back and use in Papua New Guinea a lot more.”

But it is the people she met along the way that have left a lasting impression.

“I couldn’t have asked to work with a better group than TSI who made me feel like part of the team from day one.”

“I asked lots of questions and picked everyone’s brains.”

She says talking to fellow scholars; she got to do a lot more in her 10 weeks than the others.

Joy has now returned to Massey University for her third and final year before returning to PNG.

South Auckland pure joy for Pacific scholar Lessons learnt in the communities of South Auckland proved the perfect classroom for Pacific scholar Joy Sevese.

The Papua New Guinean spent 10 weeks with the council’s Southern Initiative as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) Pacific Scholars summer programme.

“This has been such a great experience, both professionally and personally,” says Joy (pictured) of her time at Auckland Council.

“Being involved in projects on the ground has put all my studies in to perspective and confirmed that a career in planning is for me.”

During her time with TSI Joy worked across the team, shadowing and assisting staff on a wide range of projects including:

• With the Cook Island Development Agency of NZ in Māngere

• Auckland Teaching Gardens

• Māori and Pasifika Trades Training

She also met with community leaders, town planners, social entrepreneurs and attended various workshops.

these enterprises, says it was surprising how many of the groups had no idea of the others’ existence.

“A big part of our role is connecting people so we floated the idea of the network and it has just grown from there.

“The social entrepreneurs themselves have now taken the lead on how they want it to work.”

There are around 15 groups or individuals involved in the network with those with more experience acting as mentors.

Network members are already benefitting from the collaborative approach with one member commenting on the feeling of ‘aroha’ amongst the group.

The group meets every few months, rotating the venue and a roadshow is also being planned to showcase their work.

Among the groups involved include Roots Collective, CIDANZ, Affirming Works, Friendship House and Manukau Beautification Trust.

Network bringing social entrepreneurs together A new network of social entrepreneurs in South Auckland aims to boost capability through shared ideas and peer support.

While there are many social entrepreneurs across the TSI area, they are not always connected to each other.

TSI advisor Joel Umali, who does a lot of work with

Kohanga reo buddy up for a brighter future A buddy system is just one of the projects kohanga reo in Ōtara are implementing to provide support and advice to whānau new to the movement.

The idea was one of several to come out of an ideas and prototyping session of the project Mauri Tuu Mauri Ora.

During the session, participants examined how to:

• make the value of kohanga reo more obvious to whānau

• make themselves more visible to whānau

• make it easier for whānau to engage with kohanga reo systems

• be clearer about expectations for whānau

• support each other to ensure all kohanga reo can flourish.

The Mauri Tuu Mauri Ora project examined why rolls at kohanga reo in the area were falling.

It involved TSI and the Auckland Co-Design Lab engaged by Te Puni Korkiri to work with nga purapura - Nga Kohanga Reo o Otara – a collection of kohanga reo in Otara.

Some of the other ideas being looked at are:

• Developing a shared resource hub where kohanga could share necessary, but costly resources

• Pop up kohanga at community and council events

• Develop social media channel groups to share information, and showcase videos and stories with whānau

• Developing stories of well-known kohanga reo alumni

• a handbook of unique information about kohanga reo in the purapura.

Workshop digs into gardening for food and profit Several South Auckland community gardening groups were among those to attend a workshop by the urban gardener Curtis Stone in Māngere last month.

Hosted by the Cook Island Development Association of New Zealand (CIDANZ) at it is OneSHED, the workshop looked at growing food for profit on urban borrowed or leased land.

More than 50 attended the event, including a network of 11 South Auckland community gardening groups invited by the TSI to participate.

Topics included gardening in the ‘burbs’, crop planning, the business of urban farming and how to identify the right site.

Curtis Stone is the author of The Urban Farmer. Growing Food for Profit on Leased and Borrowed Land.

ItsNOON gains momentum Close to 80 posts were received for TSI’s “What do you love about South Auckland?” call on ItsNoon.

Everything from the local dairy, favourite landmarks, the local neighbourhood and swimming pools were showcased in the posts – all expressing the pride and love for South Auckland.

A report is being compiled on the themes and insights from the first call and should be finished by the end of the month.

Across the whole platform, there are now 350 people involved.

The call is now closed, but several more have been launched. Go to itsnoon.nz to find out more.

A prototype of a pop-up kohanga reo that could be used at events.

A makerspace workshop hosted by TSI earlier this year is already generating plenty of inspiring ideas for South Auckland communities.

Around 12 makers attended the five day workshop, which challenged participants to create a platform to connect and strengthen the maker movement and culture in South Auckland.

The result is #makerhood – a platform for young South Aucklanders to develop the skills they need to leapfrog unemployment and underpaid work.

#makerhood has two components:

• a base where people can learn design concepts and critical thinking, build entrepreneurial mind sets and provides a space for experimentation using both analogue and digital tools

• pop-up pods at street level to bring communities in to foster creativity and imagination.

Fix-it pods coming to a street near you

One of the first projects in development is Fix-it pods, portable sites that will be set up on selected streets in the Ōtara-Papatoetoe area.

The idea is that residents bring something to the pod that is broken to get it fixed – but at the same time learn how they could fix it themselves. That way people learn a skill that could spark future training, a career or a community enterprise.

Ōtara’s Roots Collective is teaming up with the Oceania Career Academy on the project, with support from the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board and council’s solid waste team, TSI and the maker community.

Find out more about #makerhood on the website makerhood.nz

Makers creating spaces in South Auckland hoods

The Kōtuitui Trust a collaborative initiative focused on improving education, health and social outcomes for whānau in Papakura. It is funded by the Middlemore Foundation.

Other streams of work include:

• Manaiakalani Outreach programme – a cluster of schools based in Papakura with the purpose of using digital affordances to enable learners to learn create and share to an authentic audience

• Mana Kidz – also delivered through local schools to improve health outcomes in the area.

Trust examine ways to influence social and economic outcomes What do Lego®, elephants and sticky notes have to do with influencing social and economic outcomes for whānau in Papakura?

They were all part of an innovative co-design session with Kōtuitui Trust known as LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®,

It’s a method involving participants building a three dimensional models as a basis for discussion. In this case it was used to create shared understanding of the current state and will be used in future to derive a shared vision and outcomes.

The trust invited TSI to support the development of a framework and strategy to improve outcomes for Papakura whānau.

“We are looking at how might we impact a social and economic impact for whanau in Papakura,” TSI social intreprenuer Angie Tangaere says of the process.

She adds that it still way too early to say what the outcome of the process may be, but that the trust was open to the co-design process to delve deeper.

SouthSci seeking curious minds Could the next Ernest Rutherford or Sir Peter Gluckman be from South Auckland?

The team from SouthSci certainly hope so.

The Participatory Science Platform: South Auckland (aka SouthSci) is a programme offered by COMET Auckland and The Auckland STEM Alliance to increase the number of local youngsters participating in sciences.

Schools or community groups team up with scientist to carry out research.

“This is our second year and last year we had some fantastic projects carried out,” says SouthSci project manager Dr Sarah Morgan.

One of these was a team from Rongomai Primary in Otara, Manurewa High School and Landcare Research to investigate mould and took samples from 22 homes.

Through projects like this, SouthSci hopes to show youth the value of science and science skills, highlight local career pathways within the sector and build relationships between local science businesses, researchers and young people.

Projects can apply for up to $20,000.

For more information got to cometauckland.org.nz/SouthSci

Applications close 3 June 2016.

Rongomai Primary and Manurewa High schools joined forces with Landcare Research to investigate mould in residential homes as part of last year’s SouthSci programme.

The Southern Initiative represents Auckland Council on the 2016 Steering Group for this project.

South Auckland is one of three Participatory Science Platform pilots across the country. The others are in Taranaki and Otago.

It is an initiative under A Nation of Curious Minds, a Government programme to encourage all New Zealanders to get involved with science and technology.

PROJECT UPDATES

Attitude Gap Challenge The challenge is now in the imagine and test phase and the team has been sharpening its insights, developing personas and designing five ideation workshops scheduled for this month.

The workshops will look at the invisible purpose of the recruitment process, integrating home culture and work culture, cycle of motivation, risk and reward.

More than 75 people attended the February workshops.

The team visited Aorere College to hear from Year 13 students about the world of work. The students also role played a job interview.

A workshop was also held in Wellington with representatives from a range of government departments.

Project work is expected to be completed at the end of the month and the writing up completed through April.

Team member and TSI project manager Michelle Wilson

says she has enjoyed getting out and gaining a better understanding of the challenge through conversations with young people, employers, teachers, private training providers, whānau and the wider stakeholder groups.

“It’s been extremely insightful and enlightening and the empathy skills learned along the way within the co-design process can be utilised throughout a range of social entrepreneurial projects that our communities can benefit from.”

The challenge is led by the Auckland Co-Design Lab.

Spatial project areas TSI team members are keeping across the various projects in the south including the Middlemore-Ōtāhuhu, Manurewa-Papakura-Takanini and Manukau.

Their focus is to influencer economic and social transformation opportunities for South Auckland in these projects.

TSI is one of two geographical-based priorities in the Auckland Plan. To find out more about the project go to aucklandcouncil.govt.nz