Te Whare Roopu o Oterepo Waltham Community Cottage

Waltham Web Project aims to bridge the digital divide. They upskill community members with training in online communication methods, creativity, graphic design and encourage and teach each learner to create their own web page.

http://www.walthamcottage.com

From the Beginning

Historically Waltham was more of a shadow suburb of Sydenham. It was formed as a residential enclave for workers employed with the railways, gasworks, brewing factories. Subsequent years however saw many factory closures, with only PDL Plastics remaining.

Statistics show Waltham as an area with the highest percentage of one-parent families in Christchurch. It has a higher number of people on low incomes, less educated, higher unemployment and the largest number of people renting than any other suburb in Christchurch. More than ten years ago, when the Waltham Project began it was considered a low socio-economic area without a heart.

1989

Anglican Care initiated the Family Resource Programme. It aimed to establish community development bases in some of Christchurch's low income areas. Three principal goals of the project were to

1. Break down social isolation
2. Create Support networks for families
3. Assist with the integration of families and individuals into community activities.

Annette Bunting was employed as Neighbourhood Worker to gauge community needs. The project began out of the Waltham School Hall lounge.

1991

• The Toy Library opened.
• The first Cottage newsletter was delivered.
• The opening of WOOSH ... Waltham Out Of School Hours

1992

• The arrival of the community van.
• Excursions began for an Elderly Group.

1993

• The appointment of the cottage Whanau worker, Bett Cummings. The Cottage officially opened its doors from its own premises on the corner of Austin and Waltham Roads with the Spreydon-Heathcote Community Board agreeing to pay the rent. The name Te Whare Roopu o Oterepo Waltham Community Cottage was chosen for the new premises, encompassing a multi-cultural focus and role as meeting / gathering house for the community. A place of empowerment where strength comes from contact, communication and sharing.
• An employment focus was adopted with the employment of an Employment Resource Co-ordinator.

1994

• The cottage Holiday Programme was initiated.
• The constitution was finalized for Te Whare Roopu o Oterepo.

1995

• Te Roopu Atawhai ... a Maori focus playgroup was started.

1997

• Matua Ma Fanau Aogu ... Samoan Playgroup began.

1999

• Moved to larger premises at 201 Hastings Street East, Waltham.

2001

• The launch of the Waltham Web Project (teaching internet to community members) began headed by Julianne Pearce and Don Hammond. The Cottage went online http://www.walthamcottage.com

2002

• Waltham Web Project got a revamp to include Virtual Waltham Cottage.

2002

• The Cottage is forging ahead with an employment and internet focus to promote and market clients' entrepreneurial ideas.

The cottage moves into the 21st century with its Virtual Cottage and the providing of Internet opportunities for all community members. Now more than 10 years on from its beginnings, the three main purposes for the development of the cottage still underpins the current function and services provided at the cottage. This is evident in the continuum of current cottage activities. Go to the activity continuum.

The community generally in Waltham has a united feel about it, which was evident by the recent attendances at a community dinner which was held in the Waltham School Hall at the end of August. At least 90 community members of varying ages attended and some of the comments heard were " It reminded me of parties of my youth when you had a real mix of ages. The same applied here from babies to a good smattering of members of the 'oldies group'". "This community get together reminded me of how multi-cultural our community is." "It was lovely to see some of the young people and remember how they first came to the cottage as babies."

Outcomes since the Waltham Web Project has begun

(November 2001)

The Waltham Web Project began after two community members, Don Hammond and Julianne Pearce set up a series of planning meetings throughout 1999 with cottage workers to explore the possibility of a virtual cottage website and web lessons. Don and Julianne had both been designing websites for a number of years, Julianne ?" professionally as nzwebs.com since October 1999.

Once the project was set up in November 2001, Don and Julianne were invited to attend the Beckenham Service Centre's Participation South Christchurch meetings to discuss a portal website as a wider community tool. They were also asked to hold a workshop at the Flaxroots Conference on Basic Web Design at Canterbury University. Around this time, as a result of Don's role as tutor at the Waltham Web Project, he secured fulltime employment teaching Internet at a local institution. As a result of the Flaxroots Conference, Julianne also picked up some more work under her nzwebs.com umbrella.

Learners at the Waltham Web Project start from the beginning, covering surfing and searching effectively on the Internet, saving websites to favourites and most facets of sending emails, including attachments. Right from the first lesson when surfing the web, thought is given to the last part of the lessons where they create their own web page, which is then displayed on the people page at http://www.walthamcottage.com/people.html. In the coming lessons (5 lessons of 1 hours each, one on one) images are brought in and scanned, the digital camera is available if required, and people also learn how to make their own graphic headings in Adobe Photoshop. The last couple of lessons this is all put together as they create their own webpages.

As a result, there is a celebration of some of the community on the people page. It shows what a wonderful variety of interesting, talented people use the cottage. As it happens, within the community, there are a number of creative people, and people with an entrepreneurial streak. Encouragingly, some of the outcomes for the learners have been

• A learner has gone on to teach internet herself in a work skills course
• A number of learners have received enquiries about their services and products
• A learner has had an article written about her in a newspaper and circulated all over Christchurch after the journalist found her web page
• some learners have designed extra web pages for sponsors of the Project (see the Sponsors Page)
• One of the sponsors is particularly thrilled as he always gets top ten or top twenty rankings for his web page and has had more business as a result of this
• Another sponsor is so thrilled with his web page that he has used it to replace his existing one
• A learner has sold paintings and received commissions from their web page
• A learner has used their web page to display their product to a magazine
• Waltham Web Project had the opportunity to offer work experience to a local youth

Another less tangible result has been the change in outward confidence as some of the learners began to appreciate their unique abilities and that they can, and do, make valuable contributions to society.

Where to from here?

The next funded project has been determined by learners wanting to know about further ways to use the Internet to promote themselves and their products. Julianne and Isabella have set up a small group of learners who have completed their web pages to

• Brainstorm online marketing methods, finding a market
• Effectively submit to search engines
• Receive money from all over the world (eg PayPal)
• Use Ebay and other online auction services to sell products where relevant
• Use email for marketing (not Spam)

Besides the practical side, they also want to include in the program mentoring to help community members realize their potential in marketing their products and services.

Te Whare Roopu o Oterepo Waltham Community Cottage acknowledges the support of the following organisations and people, without whose support they would not be able to continue their work:

• Christchurch City Council
• Spreydon-Heathcote Community Board
• SCAP Committee
• Family and Community of Anglican Care
• Lottery Grants Board
• Community Organisation Grants Scheme
• Community Employment Group Scheme
• Canterbury Development Corporation
• The Community Trust
• Crown Public Health
• United Way
• St Martins Presbyterian Church
• Gassons Motors Ltd
• Hagley Community College
• And for all the koha and kindness from people who have supported us

© 2002 Te Whare Roopu o Oterepo  Waltham Community Cottage

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