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The CommunityNet Aotearoa monthly newsletter.
"News and views on community networking throughout Aotearoa."
Thanks to a $24,000 grant from The Lion Foundation, the Wellington branch of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) has purchased a vehicle enabling them to travel further afield to support people suffering from neuromuscular disease. MDA provides advice and support to people who have Muscular Dystrophy, and there are approximately 200 members in the greater Wellington area (covering Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Central North Island, Taranaki, Manawatu, Wairarapa and the Wellington Region); however it is believed there is up to four times this amount of sufferers in this region. With a new vehicle, the local Field Worker will now be able to venture into these areas and provide case management and service co-ordination, as well as advocacy, advice and information to new and existing members of the MDA, their families, caregivers, and social welfare and medical personnel.
/communitycentre/news/national/mdagrant.htm
Humanitarian organisation SurfAid International is proud to celebrate its 10th anniversary this year after starting with a small malaria program in one village in the Mentawai Islands, off Indonesia’s Sumatran coast, in 2000. “By living in a pilot village in the remote Mentawai Islands we soon learnt that by using drama and song we could facilitate behaviour change among the community. Within nine months we had more than 90 per cent of the village sleeping under mosquito nets,” said SurfAid founder, New Zealander Dr Dave Jenkins. Over the past 10 years, SurfAid has worked in more than 300 villages in the Mentawai and Nias island chain and also more recently in Padang, the regional capital of West Sumatra, after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck the city last September. The scope of SurfAid’s work has increased from malaria prevention to now include water and sanitation, disaster preparedness, and community health programs.
/communitycentre/news/national/surfaidten.htm
New Zealand schools have revealed exceptional musical talent during a competition to find an original song for the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation’s 2010 ‘Shave for a Cure’ ad campaign. The competition, open exclusively to New Zealand primary and secondary school students, asks for original songs, and a music video of the writer performing the song, to be uploaded to the website www.donationstation.co.nz. The LBF Shave for a Cure TV ad used a song by Evermore last year. The LBF is hopeful that this year’s competition will reveal another new, upcoming and talented band or performer. The competition is open to students who are in a band as well as solo performers.
/communitycentre/news/national/lbfsong.htm
Families with debts piling up on them after Christmas spending should seek help before the situation gets worse, says the Families Commission. A recent study by the Commission shows that families that seek help for their financial problems early are far more likely to get back control of their debt. Escaping the Debt Trap: Experiences of NZ Families Accessing Budgeting Services, released in December, was developed in conjunction with the New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services and the Salvation Army. The research demonstrates that budgeting services make a real difference, and empower families with the confidence and skills they need to overcome problem debt.
/communitycentre/news/national/debtservices.htm
Nelson's Victory Village has been named community of the year in the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards. Victory Village, comprising Victory Community Health Centre and Victory Primary School, is a unique example of a community-based support group achieving positive health, social and educational outcomes. After evolving from a number of health and social services operating randomly out of school meeting rooms in a disadvantaged area of Nelson, Victory Village and the wider Victory community have gone on to attract national attention for the way in which they respond and relate to their community’s needs and aspirations. This has resulted in a more sustainable community, with more effective service provision and families that are more stable and resilient.
/communitycentre/news/national/victoryvillage.htm
It’s called the invisible injury, but traumatic brain injury (TBI) is very common and can happen to anyone at any time – in a car crash or while playing sports, as well as through assaults and falls. Up to 95% of all TBIs are mild or moderate (concussion), affecting around 24,000 New Zealanders each year, but there’s very little information available on the social and healthcare implications of TBI for sufferers and their families. And there’s no data on why Māori and Pacific people have a higher rate of TBI at a significantly younger age and with more severe outcomes than the rest of the population. A new Waikato-wide survey of head injuries now aims to fill that gap by collecting information on the how and why brain injuries occur, and what the best treatment options are. The study, funded by the Health Research Council, is being conducted by researchers at the University of Waikato and AUT, aims to record and assess every person who has suffered a brain injury in the Hamilton and Waikato district in the 12 months beginning from March this year.
/communitycentre/news/national/tbistudy.htm
Mapu Maia, the new Pacific Unit at the Problem Gambling Foundation, was officially launched at a special event held in Auckland. Over 50 people attended the celebration including representatives from Pasifika community groups, Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, Child Youth and Family, Kaumatua, NZ Police, churches and other service providers and the Matua Council of the Waitemata District Health Board, who came to show their support for the new service. Graeme Ramsey, CEO of the Problem Gambling Foundation says this is a ‘by Pasifika, for Pasifika service’. “The service is within a mainstream service provider, which builds on the experience of our highly successful Asian team,” he says. For more information visit: http://www.pgfnz.org.nz/Pasifika/0,2765,16532,00.html.
/communitycentre/news/national/mapumaia.htm
A new report from the National Health Committee (NHC), How Should We Care for the Carers makes recommendations to the Minister of Health about how to better support and provide services for informal carers. The Committee considers that informal carers need to be well supported in their role, to protect their health and wellbeing so they can provide care in a sustainable and positive way. To download How Should We Care for the Carers, Now and Into the Future? Manaaki tangata, visit: http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/how-should-we-care-for-the-carers.
/communitycentre/news/national/care4carers.htm
In June 2008, the initial findings for adults and children from the 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey were released in A Portrait of Health: Key results of the 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey. The publication 'A Focus on the Health of Māori and Pacific Children' focuses specifically on findings for Māori and Pacific children that were not explored in the initial report. The findings presented in this report confirm that there are disparities both in health outcomes and in the exposure to risk and health behaviours between Māori and non-Māori children and between Pacific and non-Pacific children. To download A Focus on the Health of Māori and Pacific Children, visit: http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/a-focus-on-the-health-of-maori-and-pacific-children.
/communitycentre/news/national/childrenhealth.htm
If you have created a groundbreaking, successful and exciting fundraising campaign you deserve to be honoured for your creativity, enthusiasm and commitment. As an award winner you'll receive recognition from both your peers and your manager, and future employers will examine your CV rather more carefully. The 2010 Awards for fundraising excellence are presented by the Fundraising Institute of New Zealand and are open to all fundraisers in New Zealand with campaigns that ran during 2008 and 2009. Entries must reach FINZ National Office by 5pm on Thursday 1 April. For more information or to download a registration form, go to: http://www.finz.org.nz.
/communitycentre/news/national/finzawards.htm
“Love Factor” is a nice, cuddly term for the difference between the pay that employees in the not-for-profit sector are willing to accept and what they might receive in the broader employment market. It is presumed that they accept this gap because of the greater personal rewards they gain from working in this sector - that is, “because they love their work!” However, another phrase comes to mind in examining this employment market: “Love has its price!” Even the most caring employers in this sector must remain alert to the hazards of that “price” being reached. If the gap becomes too large, even the most dedicated employees will be tempted to question the value of their love for the work. Love alone may not be enough to keep them on the job. Employers must pay close attention to the gap to the broader employment market in order to keep these employees. Why? Simple: Because They Are Worth It!
/communitycentre/news/national/nfppaysurvey.htm
Ethnicity data is essential to the measurement and monitoring of Māori health and inequalities in health status, experiences, and outcomes in New Zealand. Issues in monitoring Māori health and ethnic disparities: an update is one in a series of topic-based discussion papers considering ethnicity data issues. It discusses technical and practical issues that relate to the monitoring of Māori health and ethnic inequalities in health over time. For full details visit: http://www.ethnicity.maori.nz.
/communitycentre/news/national/ethnicitydata.htm
Children and young New Zealanders are bearing the brunt of the recession, according to The Salvation Army’s 2010 State of The Nation report, A Road to Recovery. There are close to 30,000 more children living in workless households compared to two years ago, and 45,000 fewer people aged 15 to 19 with a job than in late 2007, Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit Director Major Campbell Roberts says. The report estimates 21 per cent of children – more than 231,000 – were living in benefit-dependant households at the end of 2009, a 12 per cent increase during the year. “It’s becoming apparent that with the downturn of employment there is a real danger of a growing underclass of children living in material hardship,” Major Roberts says.
/communitycentre/news/national/salliesreport.htm.
For the first time, the Charities Register has brought together up-to-date information about individual charities, from which we can obtain information about the charitable sector and its work. Charities registered under the Charities Act 2005 have a wide range of purposes and activities, and touch on New Zealanders lives in many different ways, providing services and support where it is most needed. Some are large and complex, but many are small and have minimal resources to do their work. For a “snapshot” of the over 23,000 charities registered with the Commission as at the end of November 2009 visit: http://www.charities.govt.nz/news/fact_sheets/stats.htm
/communitycentre/news/national/charitiesprofile.htm
Māori Television is keen to hear from anyone planning to hold their own memorial service for ANZAC Day 2010. “We are putting out the call to hear from people out in the community organising services and events with a bit of a difference,” says Kotahi Te Wairua – ANZAC Day 2010 executive producer Ross Jennings. “Some groups and individuals may choose to remember the fallen their own way, and outside of the more formal wreath laying ceremonies. Those are the people we hope will make contact.” The special commemorative services will feature in the channel’s all-day ANZAC Day broadcast on Sunday April 25 2010. People can e-mail information about their planned events to: carmel.jennings@maoritelevision.com.
/communitycentre/news/national/anzacservices.htm
You may remember the Working Together for Sector Wellbeing meeting hosted by COSS back in August 2009. The Pegasus Exchange project has come out of this meeting. The Pegasus Exchange project is creating a local complementary currency which will enable individuals, not-for-profit organisations and businesses to be more involved and have greater participation in the economy. The currency is set up as a membership organisation with a focus on small business activity and to support the not-for-profit community organisations in Canterbury's urban and rural areas. It will enable enhanced economic activity through increased trade, by providing an interest-free means of exchange.
/communitycentre/news/national/pegasusexchange.htm
New Zealand’s first Postie Bike Challenge has attracted 20 participants to ride the length of the North Island next month to raise funds for children’s charity Camp Quality NZ - with a call for more riders to join them. The ride from Cape Reinga to Wellington over six days (26 - 31 March) will be on bikes formerly used for postal deliveries in rural Australia and New Zealand. A popular annual event in Australia, organiser Glenn Groves says it was time Kiwi riders had a go at completing “The Challenge”. The 6-day traverse down the west coast of the North Island, at about 70 km/ph, on sealed roads with special stages along the way, includes stops at 90 Mile Beach, Opononi, Warkworth, Manukau, Hampton Downs Race Track, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Levin before finishing in Wellington.
/communitycentre/news/national/postiebikechallenge.htm
Latest community news, events, jobs and ads are online at:www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news.
The New Zealand Disability Support Network is an association of disability support services providers working for a strong and collaborative community support sector that contributes to a society that values the lives, dreams and aspirations of disabled people.
http://www.nzdsn.org.nz/
MIC Toi Rerehiko is a charitable trust that supports the innovative work of the independent film and digital media communities and brings it to audiences. MIC Toi Rerehiko builds capacity, professional skills and connects with diverse audiences.
http://www.mic.org.nz
SAMS is an independent, not-for-profit organisation conducting evaluations, delivering training and providing support to the disability sector. The primary focus of SAMS is to work in partnership with consumers, families/whānau, agencies and other stakeholders to improve community services for people with a disability and/or mental health issues.
http://www.sams.org.nz/
CORE Education is a not-for-profit research and education organisation, with its headquarters in Christchurch and staff based all around the country. Through a variety of e-learning approaches, CORE equips learners of all ages with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the future. CORE also promotes technologies for learning across all education and training sectors.
http://www.core-ed.net/
The WAVES Trust seeks to strengthen and encourage a multi-agency intervention and integrated family violence programme to reduce violence against women and children in Waitakere City.
http://www.waves.org.nz
The Toi Ora Live Art Trust is a unique shared creative space in the heart of Auckland city for adults using mental health services. Toi Ora offers studio space to people wishing to work on individual or collaborative projects and also provides a programme of classes covering the arts, tutored by experienced practitioners who are practicing artists themselves with experience and/or an understanding of the issues surrounding mental health.
http://toiora.org.nz
The Banana Boat is a loose collective of Pasifika writers who meet once a month in Grey Lynn. Established in 2008, they are now moving into a phase of active writers’ development, with workshops, retreats and productions.
http://bananaboatnz.blogspot.com
Maxim Institute is an independent research and public policy think tank committed to the people, land, history and culture of New Zealand. The institute's mission is to foster ideas and leadership that enable freedom, justice and compassion to flourish in New Zealand.
http://www.maxim.org.nz/
The Banking Ombudsman resolves disputes between people and their banks. Our service is independent and free of charge.
http://bankomb.org.nz
Take Note Singers are ordinary people having heaps of fun singing great songs in harmony. The only requirement to join is that you love singing. There are no auditions and no previous singing experience is required.
http://www.takenotesingers.co.nz
Healthy Christchurch is an inter-sectoral initiative aimed at fostering collaboration between organisations who have signed The Healthy Christchurch Charter. There are currently over 200 Charter Signatories, ranging from government agencies, businesses, voluntary sector groups and networks. The specialist focus of the signatories ranges from children’s welfare to sport, from the arts to literacy.
http://www.healthy.christchurch.org.nz/
Telecommunication Dispute Resolution (TDR) is a free, independent service to help consumers with complaints about their telecommunications company. You can use the TDR service if you have made a complaint with your telecommunications company and are unhappy with the result.
http://www.tdr.org.nz
The Otago Community Hospice provides the highest quality specialist palliative care to the communities of Otago at no cost to the patient and family.
http://www.otagohospice.co.nz/
The New Zealand Rural General Practice Network works to promote the networking, support and advocacy of the rural general practice workforce.
http://www.rgpn.org.nz/
You'll find these and more links at:www.community.net.nz/links.
These Events are coming up in the next few weeks. Find details at: www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/events.
These Training events are coming up in the next few weeks. Find details at: www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/training.
I guess when paper was invented it was a rare, precious, and costly thing. And probably for hundreds or thousands of years after that.
It was probably both hard and costly to make, and not the kind of thing you used lightly.
Now we engage daily with mountains of inexpensive paper, whether it's in the book we're reading, wrapping products we buy, or drying our hands.
A similar thing is happening with computer chips. At first costly and scarce, they're now becoming ubiquitous. They show up in cameras, cellphones, washing machines, perhaps medical bracelets, swipe cards and elsewhere.
The cost of computer chips is almost low enough to start using them in all kinds of objects.
A computer chip can be very specialised. For example, it would be easy to imagine a chip that could be attached to a rubbish bin on a public street. The chip could detect if the bin was full, or if the bin had been pulled away from its support.
Now imagine that chip could report back over the Internet, to alert the Council to empty or repair the bin.
If computer chips are really cheap, and easily networked, perhaps we'll start to use them in many more places, for many more purposes.
This is a scenario that Adam Greenfield explores in his 2006 book: Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing.
Greenfield also spoke at the Webstock conference recently. I was fortunate enough to participate in his 'walkshop'. That was a workshop where we walked around a couple of blocks of Wellington streets, considering some of the technology around us.
I have to say I was astonished at how many surveillance cameras Greenfield pointed out. Have you noticed them in your nearest town or city?
I've never been entirely sure what the small blue 'flying saucers' attached to walls or poles were. Now I know that they are often cameras, claimed to 'keep the streets safe'.
But do we know who is collecting the recorded images? What they're doing with the images? How long they keep them? Is there any data to prove the cameras do keep us safe?
If computer chips are sufficiently cheap, and easy enough to network, Greenfield suggests we may start adding them to things, just in case they're useful. It's a kind of 'Why not?' approach; for another $5 why not add a networked device to track 'something'.
We might track temperatures, air quality, rainfall, visitor numbers, traffic flows, who runs red lights, who breaks the speed limit, how many tall redheads use a particular intersection.
Of course, the data may be totally benign: if we understand traffic flow, perhaps we can reduce pedestrian injuries from vehicles.
But there are obvious worrying implications too, such as when we detect that Person X always buys a bottle of wine on Fridays before visiting a certain address.
It seems inevitable that networked computer devices will become ubiquitous in our lives. It also seems obvious that they may be used for good or ill.
You can read more about Greenfield's concepts of ubiquitous computing in my NZ Herald article: Webstock: Cheap as chips — your networked chair or at his blog Speedbird.
10 years ago The Brooklyn Museum in New York, started looking for ways to involve their community more deeply and actively.
The building itself was rather daunting and unfriendly — not the kind of place to 'invite' you in. So they started reaching out.
Not content with offering better seating, free evening lectures and movies, they decided to use the Internet.
Shelley Bernstein, the Chief of Technology at the Brooklyn Museum, explained more in her talk at the recent Webstock conference. Her talk was called 'Fostering Personal Connection to Place'.
Bernstein talked about some of the numerous ways the museum uses the Internet to help visitors be more engaged.
For example, when they ran 'Black List', an exhibition about race, they installed a couple of laptops in the gallery and invited people to record a video of their response.
The laptop sent the videos to YouTube.
This meant that the exhibition became more than just the voice of the museum, but a focal point for wider discussion.
The museum staff use both blogs and Twitter, to communicate not only to, but with their visitors.
They don't use an impersonal 'institutional' voice either, but instead make sure the writer of each piece is clearly named.
Nor do they only write about the 'good stuff'. They share both good and bad news; their triumphs and their mistakes.
They recently live tweeted about the cat scan of some mummies. In a way, the cat scan process became an exhibition in its own right.
The audience became part of the journey, and discovered only moments after the staff did that the 'male' mummy was in fact a female. (Or maybe vice versa.)
Te Papa did a similar thing last year with live video of their giant squid inspection.
When the museum had an exhibition about graffiti they put up a special wall for visitors to graffiti. Then they took photos of the wall each day and posted them to Flickr.
Many of the graffiti artists also took their own photos and added them to the Flickr exhibition.
And so, the exhibition moved beyond the bounds of the museum buildings and drew in the public, amplified their voices.
The museum have a 'posse' — a group of people who add information to collections the museum put online.
For example, the 'official' information about an art work will include the name of the artist, media used, date, and so on.
But viewers may add tags or descriptions such as 'mystery' or 'foreboding'.
In some cases, online visitors have been able to highlight errors or confusion in what the museum knows about works.
Bernstein spoke with a passion about her work. She also gave us many more examples of how the museum are using the Internet in other ways to engage with their community.
The video of her 45 minute presentation will probably be added to the Webstock website soon. I'd urge you to watch it.
You may also like to read my article that was published in the NZ Herald — Webstock: Amplifying the community's voice.
Panui tips contributed by Miraz Jordan, http://knowit.co.nz . Need help or advice about the Internet? Contact Miraz.
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