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• • January Update from DCM - together we can end homelessness

    • 31 Jan 2020
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 January Update from DCM - together we can end homelessness p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; 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} } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnImageCardLeftImageContent,.mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-bottom:0 !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h1{ font-size:30px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h2{ font-size:26px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h3{ font-size:20px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h4{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } Housing the homeless It is definitely the season of change here at DCM. With the launch of two new teams in 2020, we have had a number of new kaimahi join us. In our November update, we spent time with members of our new Outreach team; this year we will also have a chat with some of our Housing First kaimahi. The front page of this morning's Dominion Post focussed on the homeless crisis in Wellington and included an interview with DCM Director Stephanie McIntyre. As Stephanie observes "We've got more resources and wrap-around support but no bricks and mortar." You can read the article here. With this in mind, the first Housing First kaimahi we are going to get to know better is Peni Fiti. Meet Peni   We have already introduced you to Peni Fiti, whose role within the Housing First team is focused on the procurement of suitable houses for people who have been homeless for a long period of time. This month we had a chat with Peni, and got to know a little more about him. Talofa Peni! Well, it’s been six months now since you joined the team here. What have you most enjoyed about your time at DCM so far? That would have to be getting to know our taumai, and especially seeing some of them move in to permanent housing. Equally I’ve enjoyed getting to know our staff – we’ve got a pretty cool bunch of people here! What are your goals for 2020? I want us to have agreed the lease of 30 properties for our Housing First programme. We CAN do this – but only with the support of all the communities and individuals who support DCM. And in a personal space, my key goal is to exercise more regularly. When people ask you how they can be part of the solution to homelessness, what do you suggest? Lease a property to Housing First - or if you don’t have a property, then spread the word to your friends who do (own a rental or investment property). Many people don’t know they can lease their rental property to a CHP (a Community Housing Provider) to support those who are currently homeless, providing them with a home. I love explaining to them how this works – give me a shout out if you would like to know more! What’s on your bucket list? Watch a heavyweight boxing title fight live in Las Vegas. What’s your favourite...? Food? Malaysian food. Waiata? E i Hoa. Sport? Rugby/boxing – can’t split the two. Film? Starsky and Hutch. Way to spend a Saturday in Wellington? Princess Bay sunset with the aiga - bonfire, bbq and beer *weather permitting of course. At DCM we often share “moments” from our interactions with taumai. What’s a special “moment” you enjoyed sharing with others? We recently housed a taumai who had lived on the streets for many years. When I asked him what he was looking forward to most in his new home, he replied, “I can’t wait to cook a steak on my own oven”. He was an ex-chef and I don’t think he had cooked for himself for a while (possibly years). It reminded me that I can’t take anything for granted, and I must always be grateful. And of course, it’s a reminder of the amazing things that we can achieve together. If you would like to be part of this, to have a chat with Peni, or have him come and meet with your community, group or business, do get in touch. <!-- --> Medical and Dental support for our taumai The generosity of the medical professionals who volunteer their time enables us to offer a dental service, physiotherapy, audiology and ophthalmology appointments here at DCM. In 2019, we were able to provide 190 dental treatments, 30 audiologist, 36 eye doctor and 58 physiotherapy appointments for our taumai. The stories below give some idea of how significant these supports are in the lives of the most vulnerable people in our city. Meet Jeff Photo by Helen Mitchell. J has been rough sleeping for some time; he has been coming to Te Hāpai most days and is now working with our Housing First team to access housing. His physical health has been seriously impacted by his rough sleeping and substance use, along with a serious long-term health condition. J has had several appointments with our physiotherapist, Jeff, to address the pain and discomfort he experiences because of his rough sleeping and multiple health challenges. P is one of our older taumai with a long history of homelessness. He has been working with DCM over many years; he is currently housed and has the support of our Sustaining Tenancies team to enable him to sustain his housing. Due to a violent incident some years ago, he has very significant mobility issues. Initially, P was too embarrassed to receive treatment from Jeff, but was prepared to have a chat with him. As a result of this connection and P’s strong relationships with other DCM kaimahi, P was later willing to receive much-needed treatment from Jeff for his leg. A fiercely independent man, the range of supports which DCM has been able to offer him have further strengthened our relationship with him, and he is in a good space in his whare. Meet our dentists Photo by Chris Bing. One vulnerable man, M, has been a long term Night Shelter resident, with significant mental health issues. He is supported by the TACT team and has also been attending Te Hāpai for some years now. A quiet man, as he has begun to build connection with our kaimahi, he has opened up more. This month we had a gap in our dental appointments, and invited him to see the dentist. He hadn’t complained about the pain he was experiencing, but the dentist discovered that he needed some urgent work. M was really pleased with the treatment he received from dentist Ruth. As a result, he has shared more with us and is engaging with DCM services. DCM assisted R with housing many years ago; a toothache brought him back to us this month. He needed several extractions; dentist Ceri extracted one quarter of his teeth in that appointment; another appointment has been made for him here at DCM and we will be supporting him to get dentures. While he was chatting to Ceri, he opened up about how unhappy he was in his whare and how he was planning to exit his tenancy and to “sleep under a bridge for a while”.  Ceri immediately raised this with the DCM team. After his appointment he had a chat with DCM kaimahi Alan who supports Wellington City Housing tenants to sustain their tenancies. With the support of DCM, R is now working through the issues he is experiencing so that he can sustain his tenancy.   Meet Lisa Photo by John Williams. After a long period of rough sleeping and couch surfing, M was housed by DCM in a Wellington City Housing tenancy and has successfully maintained his tenancy for more than a year now. DCM kaimahi had noticed that M was difficult to speak with, and struggled to hear. M saw our audiologist Lisa as a walk-in appointment. He was intoxicated and not able to undertake a hearing test; however Lisa was able to remove ear wax. M’s hearing continued to be a challenge, and at the next audiology session, he was in the right space to complete a hearing test. This revealed that he is profoundly deaf. Lisa has fitted M for hearing aids and these have been ordered for him – at no cost to him. L is one of DCM’s most challenging taumai; he has been in and out of housing, has many health challenges and has worked with DCM over many years. L saw Lisa at DCM; to our surprise, she discovered that he is very deaf and has been all his life. As a child, this was a major barrier to learning and he cannot read or write; this is something that he is intensely embarrassed by. This makes his dealings with housing and Work and Income even more difficult. Meet Paul Photo by Mary Hutchinson. T has been struggling to maintain her Housing New Zealand tenancy and has been supported by our Sustaining Tenancies team, along with a mental health service. She came in to see our eye doctor because her glasses had broken. Paul was able to provide a check-up which revealed that the reading glasses she had been using were not sufficient for her. She has significant short-sightedness and needs new glasses, which Paul has been able to provide for her. T was also delighted to receive a much-needed dental appointment for a toothache. <!-- --> How you can help Will you become one of our regular supporters - the wonderful group of people who have set up a monthly AP to support our work with people who are homeless? Can you put us in touch with people or groups who own rental properties? We also urgently need more dentists and dental assistants to become part of the team at the DCM Dental Service. Next time you visit your dentist, please ask if she or he volunteers at DCM. If the answer is yes, then thank them and lift them up for the important work they are doing for people who are homeless. If not, maybe you can encourage them to get in touch with us. <!-- --> Please help us get the message out there! Forward this email on to everyone you can think of who may be interested in how to respond to homelessness, and just generally people who are passionate about Wellington. <!-- --> Read More Success Stories Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive <!-- --> Copyright © 2019 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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• • November Update from DCM - Together We Can End Homelessness

    • 29 Nov 2019
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 November Update from DCM - Together We Can End Homelessness p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; 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line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } Support DCM this Christmas Each year, Nota Bene hold a very special Christmas concert at Prefab Hall as a fundraiser for DCM’s work with people who are experiencing homelessness. Those of you who were able to visit our 50th birthday photo exhibition will have seen this image by Wellington photographer Mark Beehre which reflected the loyal support of these talented performers. We encourage you to head down and join us at Prefab for a glass of wine in the sun, some beautiful music and a chance to lift up these kaitautoko of our work. Please get the word out to all your contacts and networks!   Tuesday 3 December, 6-8pm Prefab Hall, 14 Jessie Street No cover charge. Koha for DCM. <!-- --> Reaching out to the most marginalised DCM’s Outreach team helps support Wellington’s most marginalised people. It also gives Wellingtonians a way to make a real difference in the lives of people begging or sleeping rough in the city. It’s the bright blue sleeping bag that catches Natalia Cleland’s eye. The woman is lying on a wooden bench in the winter sun outside the McDonald’s on Manners Street. Her long brown hair falls over the backpack she’s using as a pillow as she tries to sleep, facing the back of the bench. While Rob Sarich stays back, both to not alarm the woman and to remain watchful, Natalia approaches and talks to her. After a few minutes, Natalia returns. "I know her. And I’m really glad to see her because she hasn’t been in for a while and I was starting to get worried. She told me she’s hungry, so I said to come in for a feed and a korero. I’ll also check where she is on the social housing register and see if there’s anything I can do." Natalia and Rob are social workers with DCM. Formerly known as the Downtown Community Ministry, for 50 years DCM has been working to end homelessness in Wellington. Offering a variety of services, one of their main focuses is on supporting their taumai (meaning ‘to settle’, and what DCM calls those who use its services) into sustainable housing and back into life. To ensure people who are experiencing homelessness get the support they need, each week day DCM social workers walk the capital’s streets, usually in pairs, on ‘Outreach’, looking for people who are begging or appear to be sleeping rough. While much of DCM’s work is funded by donors and fundraising, the Wellington City Council pays for DCM’s Outreach team as part of its commitment to ending homelessness and street begging. "Many people experiencing homelessness or street begging find their way here to DCM," says Natalia. "But there are others who we aren’t working with and who aren’t engaging with other services. So we go out to speak with them where they are, and to encourage them to spend some time with us at DCM. "We also get referrals from other social services. Like, the team at the Soup Kitchen might call to say there’s someone new in town and can we come talk to them about how DCM can support them? We take the approach that any door is the right door. We don’t mind how they get to us; we just want them to come in and spend time at DCM. Then we can begin to build a relationship with them, with the aim of getting them off the street and into a whare," says Natalia. Rob and Natalia clearly have great memories for names and faces. At Midland Park, on the lunchtime-busy Lambton Quay, the pair spot a man they’ve seen before. He’s sitting on a bench, his duffle bag tucked beside him. "To most people he looks like someone taking a rest, but we immediately see someone who’s not quite fitting in," says Rob. They both go over and talk; Natalia perches a polite distance away on the bench and Rob sits on a concrete step in front of him. They don’t talk long. "But that’s the longest we’ve managed to talk to him. Usually he doesn’t even let us sit down," says Natalia. "He just says, 'No thank you, no thank you,' and waves us off. But we usually get a bit more information each time." It takes a certain chutzpah to go up to someone sleeping rough and begging to talk about their situation.  But it’s what Natalia, Rob and other members of DCM who go on Outreach do. "We’ll introduce ourselves and say where we’re from, and we’ll invite them down to DCM," says Natalia.  And when they do come down, there’s a lot DCM can offer. They can talk to the physio about their aches from sleeping rough, see a dentist for the toothache that’s giving them constant pain or get something from the food bank. "We look for what’s going to interest them enough to engage, then we can start talking about housing," says Rob.  There is some reciprocity expected. "That might be only that they open up to us a little too, that they give us their real name, or their real date of birth; something that shows some trust in us," says Rob. "What we do is about manaakitanga, which is about hospitality, but also about lifting up people’s mana. So we need to give them the space to show that they can do something too." There’s something the public can do as well, and it’s not about giving money or sandwiches. It’s calling the Wellington City Council if they see someone sleeping rough within the council’s boundaries. The council then calls DCM, who send one of their people out to engage with them, bashing through bush, scrambling up trees or down under bridges if that’s what it takes. "Often it’s people we would never have found on our own," says Natalia. "One time we got a call about a woman sleeping at the Freyberg Beach toilets, and another in the Balaena Bay toilets. We can’t go and knock on all the toilet doors so we wouldn’t have found them without someone calling us." While DCM certainly needs notifications from the public, the best ones come from the taumai themselves, concerned about someone new sleeping rough. "Often they will meet someone at the Night Shelter or somewhere on the streets and they’ll encourage them to come and see us, or they’ll bring them in. We love that. That shows real trust.’" – From the latest One Percent Collective Generosity Journal. Words by Lee-Anne Duncan. Images by Pat Shepherd. We are looking for new kaimahi (staff) to join DCM's Street Outreach Team. If you would love to be part of the amazing work you've just read about, please get in touch with Matt. <!-- --> Giving feels good! One Percent Collective helps to raise money for DCM and 13 other Kiwi-based charities. They’re a tiny crew of two people but they’re making a big difference. Since 2015 their regular givers have contributed $170,000 to DCM. 100% of that money has been passed on to us. One Percent Collective handles all of the admin so the money just shows up in our account – no strings attached. One Percent Collective’s running costs are covered by 50 generous individuals and corporate sponsors but they don’t have big marketing budgets. Between now and March 2020, they’re running a campaign with a target of 200 new givers. That could mean up to $10,000 extra raised per year for DCM! Their campaign celebrates those who give and the good feelings that giving brings. We encourage you to join One Percent Collective. If you already donate to us, please help One Percent Collective inspire generosity in more people by sharing this link via social media. Do good - feel good! Support One Percent Collective and DCM. <!-- --> Buy a gift for DCM We just can’t get by without a reliable freezer here at DCM. We store the wonderful donations of Pandoro products and other frozen goods which we receive from generous Wellingtonians in our foodbank freezers. But our trusty and ageing freezer is beginning to make strange noises, and we really need to replace it in the next few weeks. Can you or someone you know help us with this? A brand new chest freezer will cost us about $1,000.If this is something you'd like to purchase, or contribute toward, please get in touch. <!-- --> Please help us get the message out there! Forward this email on to everyone you can think of who may be interested in how to respond to homelessness, and just generally people who are passionate about Wellington. <!-- --> Read More Success Stories Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive <!-- --> Copyright © 2019 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
    • Accepted from DCM alerts archive 71 months ago by tonytw1
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• • May Update from DCM - Together we can end homelessness

    • 30 May 2022
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 May Update from DCM - Together we can end homelessness p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; font-size:inherit !important; 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} } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnImageCardLeftImageContent,.mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-bottom:0 !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h1{ font-size:30px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h2{ font-size:26px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h3{ font-size:20px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h4{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } Today we introduce you to a few of our kaitautoko, people like you who support DCM and the most marginalised people in many different ways. Kaitautoko   noun Someone who supports, backs up or advocates for TOGETHER we can end homelessness – DCM's tagline acknowledges the many individuals, businesses and groups who share our vision and are part of team DCM. Here we introduce you to a few of our kaitautoko, people like you who support DCM and the most marginalised people in many different ways. Mon Mon has been supporting DCM for many years – in our Foodbank, at the DCM Bookfair, and as a regular donor. "It must have been 18 years ago that I first joined team DCM. I wasn’t working, and wanted to try something a little different. I first heard about DCM through Volunteer Wellington, and joined the team as a Foodbank volunteer one day a week, back when DCM was based in Eva Street. Steph was new in the role of director, and Pam Whittington was another key person on the team at that time. I sorted out the food donations and stocked the shelves in the Foodbank. I got to know Steph well and she shared a lot about DCM’s work and vision with me. After about a year, I got a full time job – but of course I wanted to continue to be part of DCM’s great work. Year after year, Mon was part of the team which delivered DCM's highly successful annual Bookfair. Here she is at the DCM Bookfair in 2014 (left) and 2017 (right). From 2005 right through until the final Bookfair in 2019, I was part of the team delivering the iconic DCM Bookfair, working with the book sorting teams during the year and at the Bookfair itself. In the later years, my job meant I could no longer help with sorting but I continued to work on the Bookfair weekend. Over the last four years, I have also been part of the DCM Foodbank Appeal, another great way to be involved over a weekend. As my working life has become busier and I have had less opportunity to support DCM with my time, I have chosen to become an AP donor, setting aside a little each month to support an organisation and way of working which I am totally committed to. Why is this? I guess I began with an understanding that I was fortunate while others were doing it tough, a sense of social justice and an awareness of the unfairness in our society. Over time, I came to understand more about the connectedness we have to each other. One measure of marginalisation is isolation, lack of connection, being unseen and unknown. Is that the worst thing of all? Quite possibly. To be invisible, to exist in a society where governments, societies, individuals, want you to be out of sight. DCM will NOT let this happen. Over all of these years, I have witnessed DCM doing an incredible job of truly seeing these people. Of knowing them, of connecting to them, and in turn connecting them to others. DCM is genuinely an organisation which is trying to do themselves out of a job! They really do make a difference in the lives of the most marginalised people. I love that they now regularly share awesome stories with all of us who support their work. The challenge to us now is to share those stories with our networks, to make the people DCM works with visible across our society. Through our time, our dollars and our sharing of stories, we can build and celebrate the connectedness we all have to one another." If you would like to know more about regular giving, please get in touch - donate@dcm.org.nz <!-- --> Tia Recently we put out a call for furniture for some of the people we are working with who are now housed. And then we received a message on Facebook... DCM kaimahi Stephen Bowater (left) and Moses Davis (right) visited Tia to pick up furniture for taumai who they are supporting. Tia was moving to the Hawke's Bay, and had a household of furniture to donate, which was great timing for a number of taumai who we are working with. She thought of DCM, as her late stepbrother Brad was supported by us and went on to work here. She was surprised and pleased to learn that we indeed remembered Brad, who died in 2014. You may have read the story of Russell in last month's update or on our website. So many of our taumai pass away at a young age. Brad was 47 years old when he died, but at that time he was housed and doing well. He wanted to give back to DCM, and had started volunteering in DCM's Foodbank as well as helping out at the DCM Bookfair. How special it is that Tia's furniture now lifts up other taumai - the items have been shared with several different people. What a wonderful way to support these taumai to thrive in their very own homes, just as Brad did. <!-- --> Restocking DCM's Foodbank It is that time of year again, when we need to re-stock our empty foodbank shelves for the winter. And this year it is more important than ever, with increasing prices placing even more pressure on those who have very little.  It’s a time when we are always reminded of the many different people who come together, offering their time, money, food donations or skills, to make our work possible. Here are just a few of the many supporters who were involved in last weekend’s Foodbank Appeal. Some are new faces, others will be very familiar to you all. Shaun Shaun Monaghan is DCM's Property Procurement kaimahi. Shaun and Tihema visited New World Chaffers on Saturday to support the DCM team. It was great to see DCM kaimahi popping by on Foodbank Appeal day. Day in, day out, Shaun works tirelessly, seeking out rental properties, speaking with landlords, finding whare for us to house taumai in. His partner Tihema is a dentist who has taken dental sessions at DCM. If you or anyone you know would like to find out more about providing a rental property for someone who is experiencing homelessness, Shaun would love to have a chat with you. And you can enjoy reading the story of one such very special kaitautoko, landlord Dev, again here. Stephanie DCM’s former director Stephanie McIntyre  You never know who may drop by to support the DCM Foodbank Appeal, including our former director Stephanie! "Stephen has done a great job of leading DCM through such challenging times. For many years, DCM has insisted that the answer to homelessness is homes! More than a decade later, everyone is now accepting this. None of the tail-chasing to set up emergency housing and transitional housing has been effective. All can now see that this is not the answer. I am very pleased that DCM remains committed to housing first, to supporting people to access and sustain their own homes. During the period since I left DCM, I have continued to be involved, albeit often at arm’s length, in finding ways to grow the stock of permanent homes for DCM’s taumai. And I know that DCM will continue to deliver the wrap-around support that is essential for taumai to thrive in their homes." Shaun DCM Board member Shaun Greenslade-Hibbert and his husband Alan helped out at the Foodbank Appeal. Shaun joined the DCM Board in 2021 as a representative of the Religious Society of Friends, a community which has been supporting DCM since the very early days. He trained as a nurse in the 1980s and has worked in palliative care for over 25 years. Shaun arrived in New Zealand from the UK in January 2019 to continue his work in palliative care at Mary Potter Hospice. He has welcomed the opportunity to support DCM’s work in any way that he can – including taking his turn on Foodbank Appeal day, welcoming shoppers and telling them about our work. Wesley Church It is quite a job, sorting and labelling the food we receive at our Foodbank Appeal. DCM is very grateful to Wesley Church for providing the space to sort and store this much needed kai. Wesley Methodist Church has been supporting DCM since we began as ICM back in 1969. In fact the original DCM office was located at Wesley. They have always been there when we have needed them – providing space for community events like the Thanksgiving meals we hosted with the US Embassy, a room for our uke band to practice, putting a basket out for food donations at their church services, and groups of volunteers whenever we need them. Many Wesley Church members also choose to donate regularly to DCM. And now, with space all over this city at such a premium, Wesley has stepped up again and provided somewhere for DCM to store kai, and to sort food donations during our two annual Foodbank Appeals. Tree and Rhea Tree was down at New World Chaffers last week, ensuring that the DCM food donation bin was clearly marked ready for the weekend's Foodbank Appeal. We love it when people reach out to us and suggest creative ways that they can support our mahi. Tree Mackay is an accomplished designer who approached us to offer her time and skills. She has helped us re-fresh our food donation bin at New World Chaffers. Rhea is part of a team of talented students who have been undertaking some design work for DCM, developing new templates, infographics and digital tools for us. She created some designs and flyers to let people know which items we most need for the DCM Foodbank. "I'm currently undertaking post-graduate study at Victoria University. I first heard about DCM through Ignite Consulting, an organisation which connects students with socially conscious organisations. A few weeks ago, I was able to visit DCM and see first-hand the work being done and the tangible difference DCM is making in people's lives." If you were not able to drop some food items in over the weekend, why not pop down to New World Chaffers, have a look at Tree’s handiwork, and leave some of the items suggested in Rhea's beautiful shopping list for DCM to provide for taumai. Yes, it takes many different kaitautoko to deliver DCM's mahi and vision. And this month, once again, you all stepped up, supporting us when we needed it most. TOGETHER we can end homelessness – we cannot do this important mahi without you all. It’s as simple as that. <!-- --> Support DCM We call the people we work with taumai, meaning to settle. This reflects the journey we set out on together – to become settled, stable and well. Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive <!-- --> Copyright © 2022 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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• • Ngā Kōrero - Latest stories from DCM

    • 22 Aug 2022
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 Ngā Kōrero - Latest stories from DCM p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; font-size:inherit !important; 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} } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnImageCardLeftImageContent,.mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-bottom:0 !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h1{ font-size:30px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h2{ font-size:26px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h3{ font-size:20px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h4{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } Looking back into the past, and toward the future, Jason remembers kindness – “The biggest thing on my list today.” Building commuities where whānau are housed, connected, valued and thriving About Us Contact Healing through kindness – Jason’s story It’s a cold mid-winter’s Monday morning at DCM, and the building is bustling with activity. Jason has just arrived for work, and there’s plenty to be done. Jason is going to show a new volunteer the ropes. Food awaits pick-up at some local churches, Kaibosh and New World – and when the DCM van returns back to base Jason will have food parcels to pack so taumai can receive emergency food assistance. For Jason, employed as kaiāwhina in DCM’s Foodbank, he knows that there are lots of little ways he can help. For example, “If someone needs an overnight food parcel, chances are they’re rough sleeping. So I’ll go out of my way to make sure they have some disposable containers, tear tabs – I couldn’t think of anything worse than being given some food and not being able to eat it!” Another day in DCM's busy Foodbank. Jason describes it as a selfless job. “It really gets me out of my own way, to help share the vision of DCM. I always walk away at the end of my shift feeling better about myself.” Looking back into the past, and toward the future, Jason remembers kindness. But life was not always kind to Jason, and he is remarkably honest about his journey. Jason was born in the Hawke’s Bay, where family life was pretty tough. “I had an alcoholic stepfather who brought violence into the home,” Jason shares. “My mum was trying to raise me and my two brothers and she kind of got trapped in this relationship and couldn’t escape.” Jason came out when he was quite young, and he was bullied at school. This had a big impact on him, as did working in hospitality from a young age. Jason is reflective about how drugs and alcohol helped him to suppress his emotions. “So you have the cultural aspects, and the family harm aspects, and also depression runs right through my family. I didn’t have good coping mechanisms. So one thing I learned is that when things get tough you just pack up and run. “I learned to pack very lightly, and not put roots down. I couch surfed, spending many years doing that. I learned that all your possessions are the clothes on your back, and what you can carry.” Jason was thrown out of places for not paying rent due to his drug problem, ending up in Australia. But despite the change of scene, and a good job in hospitality, Jason acknowledges, “I thought life would be OK. But I still hadn’t addressed that I had a drug and alcohol problem. Or that I was an addict.” It was back in New Zealand that Jason reached what he describes as his lowest point. “I remember getting to a point where I’d use drugs, walk around the house, and felt like I just ‘existed’. That was a scary feeling. I just felt empty, like I had nothing.” With family help, Jason was finally able to start the process of getting into rehab. That took four months, and in the meantime Jason started going to 12-step meetings, and anything he could find that was recovery-focussed. “I found online blogs of people sharing stories about how they managed to give up drugs, and I was drawn to that kōrero,” Jason says. “I thought, ‘Hang on, there’s a life outside this?’” After a relapse, Jason found himself rough sleeping. He went to Work and Income to ask for help with emergency housing, and they suggested popping down to DCM to get some food, where Dominic was his first point of contact. “I was a mess, but Dom was really kind. He helped me with a food parcel and then we had a bit of a kōrero about how DCM could help. I was willing to take whatever help I could get, and he said that Evan had just started at DCM, and that he would like to engage me with him. I wasn’t too keen on meeting a drug and alcohol counsellor! I just wanted to isolate in my own little bubble, and wallow in my pity. But as I was walking out of the interview room, Dom goes, ‘Oh, this is Evan here!’ So I didn’t have a choice in the matter! And that was kind of a turning point in my life.” Jason with DCM drug and alcohol counsellor Evan. From then, Jason started popping down to DCM regularly. “I would come down most mornings, even if it was only for a coffee and a chat to the staff. Just so that they had ‘eyes’ on me. I started opening my doors for change. I just let DCM in. “I maintained going to regular meetings – every single day, even when I didn’t want to. I joined Te Awatea. I would go along Mondays and Fridays. And have a kōrero in there with the other taumai, sharing my journey, and what was going on for me. It is so good that there is a safe space at DCM for people to speak openly and honestly. “Evan used to call me, saying ‘Hey brother, I’ve put your name down for this. If you’re not interested, you don’t have to do it’. As I started getting better I decided to take up the challenge of doing the things that scared me the most. And one of those things was doing the peer support training with Brodie and Hannah at DCM.” Jason was able to access other services at DCM, such as the emergency dental service. “I was terrified of seeing the dentist!” Jason explains. “I hadn’t looked after myself, but the dentist (Morris Wong) was amazing. He sees people. He talked me through my anxiety. It wasn’t as bad as I expected. I needed a tooth extraction and a filling, probably two things people fear the most. And he helped me through it. I went away thinking, ‘Wow, what a great experience!’” Jason also saw the Te Aro Health nurses at DCM. “Don’t even get me started on them! Rebecca and Bronwyn have been incredible, and super-supportive. I went to Bronwyn with a medical problem and she made it her business to push for the hospital to see me. They helped me, and it’s been great. She went above and beyond, just pushing for them to do something. “All the staff at DCM are amazing,” Jason adds. “All the staff who are there now, and those who have moved on.” Having completed training with PeerZone, another kaiāwhina (Renee) suggested Jason apply for a job working in the DCM Foodbank. “She set up an interview and I was absolutely terrified about going into a job. I hadn’t been in employment for eight years. I didn’t know if I’d be any good or be able to hold the job down. So much unknown, but I used a bit of courage. Then I thought, actually, the job’s not about me. I found purpose in the job and that’s about knowing that the mahi that I’m doing is impacting the lives of others today. “I used to give money to street beggars – until Evan pointed out the dangers. If I’m walking down the street now and hear a taumai calling out to ask for money I say, ‘If you’re hungry, pop down to DCM. WE can help.’” Jason now has a whare with help from Evan and DCM's Aro Mai Housing First team. He is proud to be housed, working, and officially off Work and Income’s books. He’s even ditched cigarettes. But most of all, Jason is proud to be living clean, one day at a time. “What I have learned in that time is to show others compassion and kindness. And that comes from the people who have loved me since walking through the doors at DCM. I wasn’t judged and they were there to help me. So today I try to see people and meet them where they’re at. I’m continuing to show that love and kindness to others.” Jason now has a life he never dreamed he’d have. “Some days I still feel like an alien trapped in my own body. I definitely don’t have it all together – but that’s OK. I’m on the right path. I’ve had many months of re-building my Te Whare Tapa Whā. I’ve learned core values and spiritual principles along the way. I’m a better person today, and I’m OK with who I am. “When I look back to my darkest times, what stands out to me the most are those who showed me kindness. Those who were able to be there for me, to say ‘It’s OK. It won’t be like this forever.’ “So I remember kindness – that’s the biggest thing on my list today.” Photoshoot by Gabrielle McKone. <!-- --> Te Awatea – Doing whatever it takes It's later on Monday morning at DCM – almost 11am. “Last call for coffee!” Clifton announces to the room. Some taumai get their final cup, while others mill around, waiting for Te Awatea to begin. Evan and Jo have set up the space, where taumai are welcome to come and go. They are joined by Clifton and other kaiāwhina, offering peer support for the group. Te Awatea is as accommodating as possible, though Evan and Jo will keep an eye on disruptions, and manage any behaviour that starts to impact other members of the group. Te Awatea is all about harm reduction – and today the nine members of the group start with a round of, “How are you doing today, on a scale of 1-10?” Some taumai rate themselves pretty high, a 7 or 8, while others are feeling a bit down today. A couple of taumai are dealing with medical issues at the moment, which is not making life any easier. Everyone shares how their weekend went. For some taumai, there are challenges. There are members of the group who freely share that they are dependent on drugs or alcohol, and feel stuck. But there’s no judgement from Evan and Jo, or from other taumai in the room. This is a safe space to share whatever you’re feeling, wherever you’re at. One taumai has to leave early to see a nurse. Before he goes he shares how he’s managed to reduce his alcohol intake. He had a great weekend, and is feeling good today. The group cheer him on – “Awesome mahi!” – as he pops out to see the Te Aro Health team. After the intros, Evan leads a kōrero about mental health. By sharing some of his story Evan knows that it will help break the ice, and get the group to open up about their own experiences. Taumai share how they face mental health challenges too, and some acknowledge that they use drugs and alcohol to self-medicate, but that it doesn’t really help. There are a lot of laughs at Te Awatea. Everyone is different – and there are some characters! – but everyone is so open and honest that it’s hard not to share in a joke or two, to lift the spirit in the room. As the session comes to a close Evan leads with the serenity prayer, “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” Taumai chat amongst themselves as they head off. Some are looking forward to the next session, which will take place on Friday. In the meantime, Evan and Jo have their own little side room at DCM for one-on-one sessions with taumai who need them. While the group focusses on harm reduction, the offer of other pathways forward is always there if that’s what it takes for taumai to thrive. “Whatever it takes” is part and parcel of DCM’s kaupapa. Te Awatea truly shows that kaupapa in action. It’s not just on Mondays we hear stories like these. Here at DCM we are privileged to journey with taumai towards their housing and wellbeing aspirations, each and every day. You can help support us by forwarding this email on to anyone you think may be interested in learning more about our mahi. We will share our Ngā Kōrero bi-monthly. <!-- --> Support DCM We call the people we work with taumai, meaning to settle. This reflects the journey we set out on together – to become settled, stable and well. Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi. With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive. <!-- --> Copyright © 2022 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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• • Ngā Kōrero - Latest stories from DCM

    • 30 Oct 2022
    • Downtown Community Ministry
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} } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnImageCardLeftImageContent,.mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-bottom:0 !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h1{ font-size:30px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h2{ font-size:26px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h3{ font-size:20px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h4{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } This month’s update takes a slightly different form as we look into New Zealand’s housing crisis from different angles. Building communities where whānau are housed, connected, valued and thriving About Us Contact New Zealand’s housing crisis This month’s update takes a slightly different form as we look into New Zealand’s housing crisis from different angles. We have been talking to everyone from the decision makers, to private landlords helping solve the housing crisis, to those impacted by homelessness – the people we work with at DCM each and every day. Parties agree on supply, differ on other solutions New Zealand’s main political parties are continuing to debate solutions to the country’s housing crisis as new research shows that bipartisan housing intensification law changes are long overdue. Research by the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga, reveals that house prices have accelerated since 1980 because New Zealand cities stopped expanding and didn’t develop enough infill housing. Both Labour and National supported legislation in December 2021 allowing buildings of up to three storeys in cities without any need for resource consent. Houses in the Lyall Bay suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. Photographer: Mark Coote/Bloomberg. CC BY. But the parties disagree on other solutions to the housing crisis, and National plan to reduce the bright-line test from 10 years to two, and revisit interest deductibility rule changes for property investors, should they be elected in 2023. National Party Housing Spokesperson Chris Bishop says advice from officials is that the bright-line and interest deductibility changes put pressure on the private rental market. Housing Minister Megan Woods disputes this. “There is no evidence that those measures are putting pressure on the market,” says Woods. “We know that rather than leaving the rental market, multiple property owners account for 36.2% of activity (Q3 2022), close to the long-term average since 2017 of 36.5%. “It’s important to note the changes were made to discourage speculators and even the playing field for first home buyers.” In early 2018, the Labour-led government also banned foreign speculators from buying housing in New Zealand, but Bishop says they were never a big part of the market. “Labour for quite a long time didn’t want to deal with the underlying issue, which is supply. They have this thing around foreign buyers, and they have this thing around landlords – who they call speculators – when the actual issue is just supply,” Bishop says. Supply is where the parties agree, though the bipartisan housing intensification law changes are facing opposition from local councils, and National leader Christopher Luxon has also hinted at revisiting the rules. Bishop says National is committed to housing intensification. “The importance of this is that it gives certainty to the market. To developers, and people doing housing, that there’s now a shared commitment across the two main political parties that housing supply is really important.” Woods agrees. “That’s why this Government brought in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to allow more housing in areas where people want to live. In urban centres close to work, schools, public transport, and other amenities. “Similarly, the legislation that Parliament passed last year with near-unanimity, and acceleration of the NPS-UD, allows for more housing types and density to be built to meet the needs of New Zealanders.” Despite the progress made with private builds, public housing has lagged, with emergency housing a dire prospect for some, as revealed in Rotorua after an investigation by TVNZ’s Sunday programme. Labour has built 10,328 additional public homes since coming into office to date, but with 26,664 applicants on the housing register as of 30 June 2022, permanent housing remains out of reach for many. Bishop says he plans to eliminate housing waitlists altogether, but that it must be done through supply.  “The ultimate answer to everything related to housing in New Zealand is more houses. Everything comes back to that,” says Bishop. “You don’t have enough houses for people to buy, they end up renting. When you have more people renting – and less rental properties – rents go up. Some people can’t afford those rents, they end up on the waitlist. The waitlist goes up – there’s not enough social housing – people end up in motels.” Kiwibank has predicted that New Zealand will have a housing surplus at some stage over the next 12 months while building activity outstrips demand. Bishop says he laughed out loud when he heard the Kiwibank prediction. “My response is we will have a surplus when no one lives in a car and no one lives in a motel. And everyone who needs a social house can get one.” Woods looks to the record level of consents made – 50,736 dwellings consented in the year to June 2022, compared to 30,453 in the year to June 2017 – as significant progress. “We’re also mindful that a consent is not a house until it is completed. We’re closely monitoring building activity, particularly as there are headwinds due to global supply issues and other economic factors,” says Woods. “There is more work still to be done to ensure that the right types of dwellings are built where they are needed, and that they are affordable – whether for homeowners or renters.” This article was written by DCM's Kaiarataki Pūrongo Matthew Mawkes as part of a journalism course at Massey University. Special thanks to Lee-Ann Duncan for the newswriting tips. <!-- --> The landlords helping solve the housing crisis Matthew Ryan has been in the news a lot lately – you might have read about him on Stuff talking about property prices, or heard him on his fortnightly Hot Property podcast on Newstalk ZB. Often referred to as a ‘mega landlord’, what may surprise many is that Matthew is helping solve New Zealand’s housing crisis by providing properties to DCM’s Aro Mai Housing First team. Matthew Ryan is our largest landlord, currently providing housing for 17 taumai. Matthew was born in Wellington in 1964. He has a lot of love for the city, where he has spent most of his life. He grew up in a working-class family, working at McDonald’s in Porirua from 1981-1985, where he made $4.34 an hour. “I’ve probably come from a bit of a dysfunctional family,” Matthew reflects. “It was a hard upbringing. I guess in adversity sometimes you have to rise above it. You can go two ways with things. You can decide to be a part of it, or you can make it work for you.” By 1987, Matthew had brought his first property with a friend. In the late 1980s, he relocated to London where he sold real estate. “It was a recession time in the United Kingdom, but it was fascinating living in a big city like that – all the opportunity,” Matthew says. “I was in my early 20s. I arrived with $5,000 – about £2,500 – and I ended up buying three properties by the end of it. I wish I had them now of course!” Back in New Zealand Matthew continued working in real estate – becoming a bona fide property expert in the process – and his focus is now on Wellington. “It’s a bit easier to manage houses where you live,” he says. Matthew is Aro Mai Housing First’s largest landlord, currently providing housing for 17 taumai. Our Housing First team started by taking a few properties, and when that worked out, Matthew offered more – in particular in the Hutt Valley, where a large number of taumai have been housed. “The relationship blossomed,” Matthew says. “Because it makes sense. “It’s taken a while to understand how it all works. Like a lot of things, it evolves as it goes, but I now have a better understanding of how Aro Mai works, and who’s responsible for what.” It takes support from DCM, Emerge Aotearoa as a CHP (Community Housing Provider), and property owners, to make Aro Mai Housing First work. And there are challenges, such as obtaining insurance, which infuriates Matthew. “If an insurance company is prepared to insure a building on the basis that I pick John and Mary Smith, they’re happy enough to rent on that basis, but if I give it to Emerge Aotearoa, and they pick the same John and Mary Smith, they go, ‘No we don’t want them’. “That has to be discrimination. And that is not on, really.” But Matthew says Housing First is an attractive option for landlords, because not only are they helping solve the housing crisis by renting to people who have experienced homelessness, properties are managed for them, and they can benefit from changes to tax deductibility rules. Matthew would like to see the government step in to address the insurance issue. “If they can’t force their hand they probably need to say OK, well, we need to assist here.” In the meantime, Matthew continues to offer properties to DCM's Aro Mai Housing First team. Our vision is for a community where whānau are housed, connected, valued, and thriving. In the middle of a housing crisis, we need many more landlords just like Matthew who are truly making that vision become a reality. If you would like to know more about how you can provide homes for the people we are supporting out of homelessness, please get in touch with our Kaiārahi Whiwhinga (Property Procurement Officer) Shaun. For more information about how Housing First works, visit our website and check out the story of Dev. <!-- --> Challenging perceptions about homelessness The phone call to police was simple, but urgent – “Someone’s dead on the side of the street.” So began John’s day rough sleeping in Wellington, as social workers from DCM woke him up, the police close by their side. It was a turning point for John, who is now housed in a property provided by Wellington landlord Matthew Ryan through Aro Mai Housing First, a government-funded initiative that helps people who have experienced homelessness for at least a year get into permanent housing. Aged only 27, John has experienced a decade of living rough, and challenges the perceptions people have about homelessness, which he says is not always about addictions and mental health – though these issues have crossed his path too. For John, homelessness came about as a direct result of being kicked out of home. “Family life was rough. Especially due to the religious abuse of my mother,” says John. “I got disowned two weeks before I turned 16.” John, 27, pictured in Te Aro Park. He is now housed after a decade of homelessness through the Aro Mai Housing First initiative that recognises that it’s easier for people to deal with complex issues if they have a stable place to live. Raised Jehovah’s Witness, Martin’s teenage rebellion saw him take to the streets of Whangarei. He started self-harming and was on a suicide watch for four years. “I’ve been pissed on, I’ve been shat on, I’ve been spat on. Been abused – physically and emotionally.”  Wanting a fresh start, John hitchhiked to Wellington where the lure of free coffee and internet brought him to DCM. John was able to access emergency housing and, through DCM's Aro Mai Housing First team, a permanent place of his own. “I have my own bed, a couch, a TV. I’ve never physically owned any of this stuff. My prized possession has always been my skateboard. Living inside, it’s kind of like – what am I going to do now?” John’s key focus is on his health, and he is currently going through very serious medical treatments. He looks forward to doing some training and getting into work, helping others his age who have also experienced homelessness. “Years ago I was hustling with a little sign out and this guy yells at me – ‘Get a fucking job!’ An hour or so later he comes back, sits down beside me, and we chat. I explained my history and he had suggestions. He found out I had done the yards. I said bro – don’t judge a book by its cover.” We are relieved that John has a whare of his own, where he can recuperate and focus on his wellbeing. To support people like John, we need many more staff, especially for our large and growing Aro Mai Housing First team. Not only does this team procure properties, they provide the wraparound support needed to ensure those properties are maintained, and that taumai are able to thrive. Do you know anyone who would love to work for our amazing organisation? Visit our website for more info. <!-- --> Support DCM We call the people we work with taumai, meaning to settle. This reflects the journey we set out on together – to become settled, stable and well. Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi. With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive. <!-- --> Copyright © 2022 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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• • Maranui newsletter august 2022

    • 31 Aug 2022
    • Maranui Surf Life Saving Club
    • 96 MARANUI NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2022 p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; font-size:inherit !important; 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line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } Our Purpose is to: Grow people to their potential by providing an INCLUSIVE and SUPPORTIVE environment where people ENJOY what they do, put in maximum EFFORT through a surf environment that is constantly changing and CHALLENGING. Maranui Clubhouse - Photo taken in 1955 for the Evening Post newspaper KIA ORA Spring is almost here. SPRING into the new season by signing up to see if Officiating is for you. The process this season is for anyone who would like to help out, come along and help out as a volunteer for the event. If you like the feel of the job, we will schedule you for another 2 more events in which you will get some training, mentoring and eventually be signed off as an official!  Maranui SLSC would love more Officials - sign up. See details below. It's all starting to happen. On Sunday 25 September we have the Maranui AGM. We would love clubbies to attend the AGM. The AGM is 3pm-3.30pm, followed by refreshments and mingling. Come along. We have the Working Bee on Sunday 2 October from 10am - 1pm, make sure you come along and help give the club some TLC. The more clubbies we have the quicker we will get it done. If there is more to do, we have another Working Bee scheduled for Sunday 9th October. The Maranui Lifeguard Sport Team have a Quiz Night Fundraiser at the Parrot Dog on Tuesday 4 October, 7pm. A FUN evening not to be missed. See details below. We have the Maranui Open Day on Sunday 16 October, 10am - 1pm. If you have friends who are interested in becoming members, tell them about our Open Day. Spread the word. Please get in contact if you are interested in the Club Administrator role. Use your administration and organisation skills to assist behind the scenes to facilitate key club activities. See more details below. Remember to check out the calendar below and the website - www.maranui.co.nz  Ngā mihi. <!-- --> MARANUI AGM Maranui values its members. Membership opinion matters, a shared annual reflection of performance matters, and celebration of success matters.  JOIN US We warmly invite everyone to the Maranui SLSC AGM. Join us and help us celebrate the year in review, reflecting on our achievements and thanking those who have played a big part in helping Maranui operate.                       SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER, 3pm - 3.30pm (followed by drinks and nibbles) Maranui Clubhouse. Refreshments to follow! All Welcome. Come along, mingle and have a drink. We would love to see you on Sunday 25 September. Put this event in your calendar and please register via the online form so we can send you a reminder- https://forms.gle/UgbbRumzvT4CyvVT7  <!-- --> WORKING BEE Calling All Clubbies for a Working Bee Help us dust off the winter cobwebs at our club working bee, the boatshed and the clubhouse need a bit of TLC. We would really like your help, this is a great way to get involved and reconnect with people you haven’t seen over winter. Come down to the club on SUNDAY 2 OCTOBER, 10am - 1pm. (Back up day Sunday 9 October, 10am - 1pm - if needed) BRING ALONG: • Buckets • Rags • Old scrub brushes • Window brush - if you have one • Power tools • Work gloves • Dusters on long polls • Spade • Wheelbarrow Many hands make light work. Look forward to seeing you all. <!-- --> MARANUI LIFEGUARD SPORT QUIZ NIGHT Don't miss this FUN event, an event not to be missed. DATE: Tuesday 4 October VENUE: Parrotdog, 60/66 Kingsford Smith Street, Lyall Bay TIME: 7pm (quiz starts)  TICKETS: $30 each, which includes a free drink courtesy of Parrotdog on arrival and a platter on each table. Bar is open to buy drinks and the kitchen will be open to buy food. Tables of SIX. Reserve your table now by emailing Deb Tapp, debtapp@gmail.com It will be a FUN night! <!-- --> MARANUI SLSC OPEN DAY 2022 SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER, 10am - 1pm, Maranui Clubhouse. Come and see what we are all about! Maranui SLSC invites everyone to come down to the beach and learn more about who we are, what we do and how families can become involved with our great organisation. Always wanted your child to be beach confident, understand beach safety, learn awesome skills and grow to be lifeguards of tomorrow, all while having heaps of fun? Maranui develops lifeguards of tomorrow in a fun, safe environment in a family environment that is inclusive  and caring. If you have friends who are interested in becoming members, tell them about our Open Day. Spread the word. HEAD ALONG TO OUR OPEN DAY OR REGISTER HERE TO JOIN MARANUI - https://forms.gle/7afu2FjNqL1CQE3Z7 <!-- --> CLUB ADMINISTRATOR ROLE CLUB ADMINISTRATOR – vacant - paid Use your administration and organisation skills to assist behind the scenes to facilitate key club activities. This role is two-fold –  (a)    Registrations - manages and responds to registrations.  Coordinates the registration of new and existing members.       Tasks include - 1.    Assist in the organisation of ‘Open Day’ and ensure relevant information and gear is ready. 2.    Liaise with Patricia Kelly to ensure there are no gaps in enrolment and subscription administration with regard to the registration of members. 3.    Coordinate the registration of new and existing members.  Advise Patricia. 4.    Ensure all club members are issued with a Hi-vis vest and Cap (U8’s and above), and a record is maintained. 5.    Ensure relevant information is kept on ‘hard file’ at the office. 6.    Ensure communication databases are current and accurate. 7.    Ensure relevant information is communicated to membership. 8.    Ensure all members are registered with SLSNZ. 9.    Set up google online forms for carnivals, pool champs, oceans, functions, etc 10.   Manage the SLSNZ registrations for carnivals – entering, co-ordination with coaches. 11.   Manage and respond to registrations. (b)    Junior Surf - Sunday is Junior Surf day during the season from October to March.  Preparation for Sunday sessions is essential with a keen eye for detail.  You will need to assemble a ‘sign-in’ team to – 1.    Manage and maintain the Junior sign in sheets; 2.    Undertake second hand clothing sales; 3.    Ensure clothing samples are available; and 4.    Assist with clothing orders when necessary.  5.    Ensure lanes are booked at WRAC for the 200m Badge and Pool Champs. 6.    Manage the 200m badge process. Being part of this team is a great way to meet clubbies.    If you would like to take up this role or request the Job Description, we would absolutely love to hear from you - email administrator@maranui.co.nz     <!-- --> 2022/23 CAPITAL COAST OFFICIALS INTAKE We are on the lookout for new officials for the 2022/23 season,  If you are interested in helping out, please indicate by filling out the online form with events you'd like to attend.  The process this season is for anyone who would like to help out, come along and help out as a volunteer for the event. If you like the feel of the job, we will schedule you for another 2 more events in which you will get some training, mentoring and eventually be signed off as an official!  The Capital Coast is also looking for new, fresh and passionate parents / volunteers to help continue the high quality of surf sporting events we have here in our space of New Zealand.  Perks include but not limited to: Free lunches, a fabulous blue outfit, name tag & the potential to try a vast array of baked good with other officials from around the country side.  PLEASE FILL OUT THE FORM HERE If you have any questions please feel free to email troy.greenem@surflifesaving.org.nz  Troy Greenem Sport Manager – Central Region  - - - - - - - - -  We need more officials at Maranui, so grab this opportunity. This is a great way to help our club and support surf sport events in the Capital Coast region. Please sign up. <!-- --> MARANUI SUBSCRIPTIONS 2022/2023 Invoices will be sent out by Patricia Kelly (Maranui Finance Manager) in October for the upcoming season.   Those attending upcoming courses and those involved in Lifeguard Sport, Pool Champs and the Lifeguard Award Course will need to ensure subs are paid please. Please see below the Maranui subscriptions for this upcoming season. MARANUI SUBSCRIPTIONS 2022/2023 U7s - $60 (+ Hi-Vis Vest Pink $15 or Hi-Vis Vest Red $25) Juniors (U8s - U14s) - $120 (+ Hi-Vis Vest Red $25 and Competition Beanie $15) Active and Patrolling Lifeguard - $85 (issued a Lifeguard uniform and includes training) Associate - $85   Family - $330 three or more members of the same family household - capped SPORTS FEE 2022/2023 (additional add-on, invoiced separately) Oceans (U11 - U14) - $80  Lifeguard Sport (senior competitor) - $150 (+ Hi-Vis Vest Red $25 and Competition Beanie $15) IRB Racing - $150  Subs cover Capital Coast carnivals, lifeguard training courses and SLSNZ courses. Lifeguards are required to return lifeguard uniforms if they are no longer lifeguarding. ADDITIONAL COST:  Hi-Vis Red Vest $25, Hi-Vis Pink Vest $15 and Competition Beanie $15  All club members are required to purchase and wear a hi-vis vest when training and competing, as these are mandatory.  Athletes will need to purchase a Competition beanie and have a Hi-Vis Red Vest for carnivals, as these are mandatory for competing. - - - - -  U7s don't require to purchase competition beanies as they don't compete in carnivals. U7s can purchase either a Red or Pink Hi-vis vest to wear.  - - - - -  Pink vests can be purchased by clubbies to wear for training, to keep their red vests for Carnivals.   <!-- --> 200M BADGE (must be refreshed every year) 200M BADGE (must be refreshed every year) Keep swimming, Keep swimming . . .  All clubbies should be swimming - we don't teach athletes to swim. As we are in the business of saving lives and not risking them, swimming skills go hand-in-hand with surf life saving. Therefore we require Junior Surf members to attain this award so they can satisfy the mandatory requirement to compete with paddle boards in the Junior Surf Carnivals. A safety requirement is that children aged 9-13 years (U10 - U14 age group) must be proficient swimmers and have a 200 metre safety badge. This is advisable for U9s but compulsory from age 9 (Under 10s).  In view of the beach environment in which our activities are carried out, every effort should be made to ensure that all children have some swimming proficiency. It is expected that as children progress through their age groups, their swimming ability increases.  Children are not taught to swim at ‘Junior Surf’ Sunday beach sessions. Life Saving is an aquatic sport and it is strongly recommended that children participate in swimming lessons. Pool swimming is essential to develop the strength, fitness and confidence that they require to negotiate surf conditions. Children who swim regularly prove to be the most capable in the surf and ultimately gain the most from participating in a Junior Surf programme. The 200m safety award must be refreshed every year. Children who do not successfully meet the swim requirements will be unable to use the paddle boards and compete in the water events at junior surf sessions and carnivals until they obtain their current 200m badge.  Dates for refreshing the 200m badge this season, TBC.   <!-- --> RACHAEL BURKE - PEER SUPPORT Rachael Burke has recently undertaken training through SLSNZ to take on the role of Peer Supporter within Maranui Surf Life Saving Club. Peer Supporters are specially trained SLSNZ members who can provide confidential support to their fellow members on a range of issues including wellbeing concerns, personal stress, and traumatic lifesaving incidents.  Peer Supporters can also connect Maranui members with the Benestar programme. All current active members and their immediate families have access to FREE counselling and wellbeing support through Benestar. If you would like to discuss anything further feel free to contact Rachael on 021767347.   KOOGA DECK PARKAS FOR SALE Price: $170 380gsm fleece 3000mm waterproof Comes below the knee.  The fit is quite generous. GARMENT MEASUREMENT GUIDE Please check sizing before you place an order. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aj9zvZchA1SY6Kbd-gcUFQ9YhbQwqPUi/view?usp=sharing Please contact Rhys - rhys.speirs@gmail.com <!-- --> CALENDAR 2022/2023 AGM - Sunday 25th September  Working Bee - Sunday 2 October, 10am - 1pm Maranui Lifeguard Sport Quiz Night Fundraiser - Tuesday 4 October, Parrot dog, 7pm (sharp) Working Bee - Sunday 9th October, 10am - 1pm (backup if needed) Maranui Open Day - Sunday 16 October, 10am-1pm Junior Surf Starts - Sunday 6 November Whitehorse #1 - Sunday 20 November, venue TBC Junior Surf Series #1 - Sunday 27 November, venue TBC Whitehorse #2 - Sunday 11 December, venue TBC Last Junior Surf session - Sunday 11 December (Santa) - TBC Junior Surf Series #2 - Sunday 18 December, venue TBC December Newsletter Deadline - Tuesday 20 December  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  2023 2023 Central Regional Champs (CRC & CRJC) - Friday 13 January - Sunday 15 January, Fitzroy Junior Surf Series #3 - Sunday 22 January 2023, Riversdale Capital Coast Junior Championships  - Saturday 11 February, venue TBC Whitehorse #3 - Sunday 19 February, venue TBC Oceans’23 - Thursday 23 February - Sunday 26 February, Mt Maunganui 2023 TSB NZ Surf Life Saving Champs - Thursday 9 March - Sunday 12 March, New Brighton Beach SLSNZ Calendar - https://www.surflifesaving.org.nz/calendar All dates, times, locations etc are correct when published but subject to change. <!-- --> CLUB CONTACTS Jim Warwick (Club Chairperson) - chair.maranuislsc@gmail.com Rhys Speirs (Director of Sport)- rhys.speirs@gmail.com Francie Russell (Director of Business) - frances.russell@xtra.co.nz Lucy Barry (Director of Junior Development) - lucyjanebarry@gmail.com Pru Popple (Director of Operations) - prupopple@hotmail.com Sascha Német (Director of Membership) - maranuinippers@gmail.com <!-- --> Thank you to our MAJOR SUPPORTERS for your continued support! <!-- --> Copyright © 2022 Maranui SLSC, All rights reserved. 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    Maranui Surf Life Saving Club, 107, Lyall Parade, Melrose, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6242, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • DCM Bookfair 2018 - One Week to Go!

    • 27 Jul 2018
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 DCM Bookfair 2018 - One Week to Go! p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; font-size:inherit !important; 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DCM Bookfair 2018 - One Week to Go! View this email in your browser DCM's annual, fundraising Bookfair is ONE week away! Saturday 4 August, Shed 6, Queen's Wharf, 8am-6pm. Wellington's annual DCM Bookfair has been raising funds for vulnerable Wellingtonians for 23 years - but unless a new storage venue is found, this year's event will be the last. Our thanks to Lee-Anne Duncan for this story, published in today's Your Weekend. There's never a shortage of donations but the storage unit DCM has relied on will not be available next year, leaving the future of the book fair in doubt. Every year, book lovers flock to the DCM Bookfair on Wellington's waterfront to grab an armful of bargains in support of vulnerably housed citizens. But unless a new storage venue is found, this year's event will be the last. Lee-Anne Duncan reports. It's catnip to bibliophiles, that smell. It's the bouquet of books, heavy with dust and knowledge, to be stacked and sorted, packed then transported to Wellington's Shed 6 for next Saturday's DCM Bookfair. This year is the 23rd time hundreds of volunteers have poured thousands of hours into collecting, sorting, boxing and setting out nearly 100,000 books for the country's biggest book fair. The event is also DCM's biggest single fundraiser. Formerly known as the Downtown Community Ministry, DCM works "at the serious end" of homelessness. Along with supporting people to find sustainable accommodation, DCM provides a variety of services to support vulnerable Wellingtonians. The organisation calls the people they work with "taumai", meaning "to settle", preferring it to the less personal "client". While DCM receives funds from local and central government to carry out some of its work, donations and fundraising events like this one are its lifeblood. If this book fair is as successful as those past, a near quarter century of book fairs will have collectively raised at least $2 million to fund DCM's work. "That's $2 million we haven't had to ask of central or local government agencies," says Stephanie McIntyre, DCM's director for the past 14 years. "The only reason we have been able to raise that money is through the generosity of Wellingtonians who donate their books, the people who buy them, and of course the volunteers who give their time to make it all happen." A fundraiser's success often comes down to those volunteers, especially for an event as large and complex as DCM's annual book fair. But this year's event might be its last, as the planned development of Shelly Bay means the Wellington City Council-owned warehouse used to store and sort donated books won't be available next year. "All this is absolutely at risk," says McIntyre. "We have had zero response trying to find another warehouse. We'd love to have another book fair as it's become such a classic Wellington thing and it's essential fundraising for us. Next year is our 50th birthday and it would be a great shame not to have a book fair in such an important year." DCM director Stephanie McIntyre. Many – if not most – of the fair's volunteers give their time year after year. A core group of about 30 helpers travel to the warehouse on Thursdays or Saturdays, or both, for generally five or six hours a day every week between April and August. There, wrapped up against the winter chill, they receive donations, sort the books into categories, then into subcategories, and sometimes even into micro-categories. "I've found quite a few books on grief. I'm hoping I can get enough together to make a section of its own," says long-time volunteer Wendy Nelson. "And I've got all these diet books. This year we seem to have a lot of paleo books." Spirited exchanges have been known to happen over categories. All Blacks Don't Cry by John Kirwan, for example: "Is that sport or mental health? I even found copy in Psychology earlier," says Nelson. If there's more than one copy – and often there is – the books can be allotted wherever book seekers may think to find it. A marine biologist, Nelson works full time as a principal scientist at Niwa but spends her Saturdays sorting. She's been involved in the book fair every year since the first, in 1996. "The then director, Helen Walch, said she'd had this great idea to hold a second-hand book fair as a fundraiser that would engage the volunteers and community. "I thought it sounded like a good idea – I like books, so why not get involved? DCM does such important work, and is such an important part of Wellington. Sometimes it's hard to know how to contribute, but this is a way for us to do our own small bit."  Volunteer Wendy Nelson, a marine biologist and book lover. Each year DCM supports about 1000 people who are experiencing homelessness or in danger of becoming homeless. But the work DCM does goes far beyond putting a roof over their heads. Every DCM day begins with a karakia and waiata. DCM kaimahi (staff) and their taumai gather to give thanks for the new day at 9am when the organisation's doors open in Te Aro's Lukes Lane. Social workers are on hand to talk to taumai to get to the heart of why they're experiencing homelessness. They support the person to access a benefit and manage their money, find and sustain housing, and connect to whānau and culture, health and other services. Statistics New Zealand defines homelessness as: "Living situations where people with no other options to acquire safe and secure housing are without shelter, in temporary accommodation, sharing accommodation with a household, or living in uninhabitable housing." Research by Otago School of Medicine in 2016 put the number of New Zealanders living this way at more than 40,000 people, nearly 1 per cent of our total population – the highest rate of homelessness in the OECD. It's difficult to accurately quantify homelessness. During this year's census, DCM staff worked with Statistics NZ staff to encourage and support people who were homeless to complete the census forms. "We explained that government funding decisions are made on census data, so filling out the census made sure they were counted," says McIntyre. DCM's own data vividly describes the increase in demand. Over the past five years, the number of people who are homeless that come to DCM for support has increased by more than a third. "Even more worrying, the number of people we see who are actually without shelter – so rough sleeping, or sleeping in cars – has more than doubled." McIntyre expects the number of people DCM supports to increase this year. "When you get a severe housing crisis, as we have now, it's the most vulnerable who are kicked to the end of the line. As housing gets harder for everyone it gets especially hard for these people, which makes our work even more necessary." In May, the Government announced $100 million to address homelessness – $37 million of that was allocated to find places by the end of this winter, with the rest spent over four years on the Housing First programme. While DCM will be at the forefront of delivering Housing First in Wellington, the organisation will continue to rely on volunteers and donations to pay for its core services. We visit four Saturdays from sale day. There's a stiff nor'wester whipping the waves a few metres from the warehouse. Out in the harbour, a rare southern right whale is leading the news. Te Amo Roberts, another volunteer and someone DCM has supported, reports he saw the whale on his way in. He stirs himself a coffee between breaking down cardboard boxes and helping with some of the "grunt work". Volunteer Te Amo Roberts received assistance from DCM in the past. Today, he's an important part of the book fair team. "There are some biscuits on the sideboard, Te Amo – Cameo Cremes," says McIntyre, who's holding a brief meeting with a small group of volunteers, a long, tightly written to-do list on her crossed knee. Cut sandwiches and fruit are boxed on the sideboard, along with those Cameo Cremes. Everyone knows a volunteer army sorts and packs on its stomach. Most of the fair's book-sorting volunteers stick to their areas of expertise – a retired anaesthetist is set to work deciding which medical books are still useful, and a war buff flicks through the military books. They determine which books will sell and for how much, which subjects are likely to be "in"' this year, and which – judging by the number of those donated – are on their way out. The volunteers' knowledge also means they're well-placed to spot a valuable book. Then, with the aid of local auction house expertise and internet bookseller searches, a price is applied and the book is included in the high-value stack. "We do get some amazing finds where people might not have realised they've gifted us an extraordinary treasure, but we have no way of reuniting it with its owner," says McIntyre, who, drawing on her own pre DCM music industry career knowledge, found a rare Beatles book some fairs back. "At the same time I'm sure we've had books we've sold for $2 that may have been worth hundreds. But you've got to be philosophical." A hand-drawn diagram of the Shed 6 book fair layout is pinned to the wall. Each table has a number assigned to a book category: children's, history, health, fiction (so much fiction), New Zealand, art, and so on. The more work done now, the better 100 or so volunteers on set-up day know exactly where everything fits. Taking too many books to fit a category's allocated section would lead to chaos – setting out 90,000 books is a precise science. "We've got a phenomenally good offering of children's books this year, so we've had to shuffle up some other things to accommodate that," says McIntyre, scrutinising the diagram. "The foreign languages are fine but the music is the big headache at the moment," says one volunteer, popping in to give McIntyre a quick update on her areas. The team is following a packing plan with scheduled revision points. According to the plan, by this day 75 per cent of books must be sorted, tallied and packed on pallets (each holding about 800 books) ready for transportation to Shed 6 at dawn the day before fair day. With clipboard in hand, Alexi Manouilenko is responsible for the tally. DCM stepped in when he needed support a couple of years ago, which led to him volunteering on fair day in 2016. "As well as wanting to give back to DCM, I'd been out of work for a while and people are reluctant to hire you when you don't have anything to explain your time off. I realised the best way to get back into work was to volunteer to show I could work. I already knew DCM so I volunteered for two years. That led to some paid work and now I have a full-time job with DCM."  Part of Manouilenko's job is to decide how many books in each category should go to the fair and use his maths skills to keep tabs on the packing. "I look at the previous two years to see how many books were taken in each category and how many were sold. From that I try to guess at what we should take this year, and I tell the volunteers how many boxes in each category to pack." This level of organisation is why DCM must close the book on donations four weeks out from the fair. Even on the last day, every few minutes book-toting donors poke their heads around the peeling-painted door. "I just want to drop some books," says a man, setting down his burden. "Thank you, mate," says McIntyre. "Come to the fair and buy a whole lot more, won't you?" Surely he will – book lovers only clear their shelves to fill them with new finds. While the DCM Bookfair is certainly about finding new homes for old books, it's also about raising funds to support marginalised Wellingtonians into homes of their own. Nelson remembers when the team was ecstatic to raise $15,000 – now the book fair raises around $100,000, which goes directly into funding DCM's work with people experiencing homelessness. It's that work, as well as their shared love of books, that motivates the volunteers. Volunteer Tamara Morton with stacks of books ready for the fair. Tamara Morton is a consulate advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, but spends her Saturday mornings in the warehouse's fiction section, estimating the book-buying public's appetite for Philippa Gregory and Dan Brown. "When I was living overseas, circumstances happened that I found myself looking for a place to live. It was short-lived and I've never been truly homeless, but I can't forget the anguish that came with thinking, 'What am I going to do? I've got nowhere to go.' To be able to help an organisation with the resources to address that is why I do this for DCM. "There's also the huge bonus of making connections with people you wouldn't meet in a lifetime of routine days. The people who work here come from all sorts of backgrounds and different stages of life. It's really cute to see the cheeky banter that goes on between a Millennial and a Baby Boomer. It's really delightful to be a part of that." Nelson is busy assessing travel guides (nothing published before 2010 goes on sale). "What I love about the book fair is that everyone's winning," she says. "The people off-loading their books feel they're going to a good place, the people who rock up to the book fair get fantastic bargains, and the people who volunteer get satisfaction from contributing to something. And it's about making connections into the community." Our thanks to Lee-Anne Duncan for this story, published in today's Your Weekend. Feel free get in touch with us at DCM over the coming week if you have any questions about the Bookfair on (04) 384 7699 or events@dcm.org.nz Click Here to Donate Now! <!-- --> Copyright © 2018 DCM, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
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• • 

    A city with a vision? AKL x WLG

    • 6 Sep 2020
    • Talk Wellington
    • Wellington’s got a lot of bustle and noise (Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Spatial Plan – new subdivisions – convention centre – library) but where’s the coherent vision? Hey Auckland – can we learn some things? The Wellington Urbanerds invited some insightful Aucklanders to talk about the Auckland City Centre Masterplan (CCMP) because it’s getting a lot of positive interest in nerdy circles nationwide, and we thought “Wellington needs one of those to galvanise our progress!” But it turns out that the CCMP is not the cause of Auckland’s progress – it’s a milestone marker of a bigger evolution in Tāmaki.  Auckland City Centre’s chief urban designer George Weeks was insightful, visually engaging and occasionally very funny. Auckland city centre’s chief transport designer Daniel Newcombe injected insights that were pithy and thought-provoking. All up it’s worth watching the video – details at the bottom. But this post has some of the big insights for Wellington that we took away.  Hat tip to Charles Dawson for invaluable note taking. A galvanising vision, with a strong whakapapa  What makes the CCMP unusual as an official planning document, Weeks told us, is that it’s not “a planner’s plan” – 2,000 pages of vision down to prescriptive requirements. Instead it’s “the brochure for the city centre”. He told us that “with the 2012 CCMP, we thought it was better to have a 200 page document that 10,000 people see, or at least have skimmed, than a 2,000 page document that 100 people read in detail. We have used this approach to shape the 2020 CCMP.” It has had a major refresh in the last 8 years and the 2020 version is quite something. Galvanising vision  Weeks took us through how the updated CCMP works: how it delivers on the Auckland Plan’s promise of life in Auckland, through the city centre’s form and function. It’s worth laying these out because while we definitely have bits of the formula, there’s some powerful elements we’re missing.   Experience of being there The Auckland Plan (essentially the Tāmaki-Makaurau 30-year plan) sets out ten Outcomes for the city – effectively the promise of life experience that you should get, being in Auckland. The whole super-city is supposed to fulfil these promises, and the city centre’s no exception. In the CCMP, the ten citywide Outcomes or life promises are intertwined with eight place-specific Transformational Moves. The latter are the major initiatives to change the physical environment of the city centre so it can deliver those outcomes – the good Auckland experiences – for anyone who’s there.  A lot of this has come into the 2020 CCMP thanks to Access for Everyone (A4E), the city centre’s transport programme done to support the CCMP refresh process (more on A4E later). Street forms and place shapes… So the 2020 CCMP has street explainers that show – conceptually but with a lot of verisimilitude – the components of the streets and buildings, the overall shape of the whole public realm that’s needed for the city centre to give people that great experience.  a generic “transit street” explainer – from the CCMP These explainers are conceptual, but are tied enough to specific places, that everyone can see the trajectory of how their specific bit of the city will be changing, but crucially they can see a really solid why. …because This means “X street, and its environment, should have Y shape and form because…”. We saw, for example, that one of the biggest streets in the Learning Quarter, Symonds Street, will be a transit street for all these reasons: Symonds St, for example, needs to become a transit street not because of some abstracted notion of “sorting out the transport” but because it is at the heart of Auckland’s city centre universities, and “transit street” is the form for Symonds Street that will let it best serve people in the Learning Quarter with the good experience the Auckland Plan promises. Weeks flicked through a few examples of how the CCMP is signalling change to the built environment of Tāmaki’s city centre (which is pretty interesting – have a play here, the 2020 version is fully digital!) Our impression of all this was that the CCMP, thanks to the Auckland Plan and Access For Everyone (the transport dimension), has pretty well integrated two things that any self-respecting city needs to integrate. This is the roles of movement (transport) and place or exchange (destination activity) in any given area of the city centre. And Auckland manages to integrate these with a nice clear Why and Because for each set of changes. [Hold on, is that anything special? We know about this stuff… This tight integration – of form to function, place with movement, built form to people’s lived experience – seems pretty elementary for self-respecting cities. And you’d be forgiven for assuming Wellington has that integration in place. Indeed, things like the street concepts in Auckland’s 2020 (refreshed) CCMP don’t look too dissimilar to what LGWM put out for the Golden Mile. And the material coming out from LGWM and the Central City elements of the Spatial Plan and Wellington 2040 use a lot of the right words. Golden Mile concept from LGWM But in listening to Weeks’ presentation, we realised just how explicit and unequivocal the CCMP and A4E are about the why, the because for the physical city changes they describe, anchored home to that lived experience promised in the Auckland Plan. And the locked-in coupling between the place / destination train and the movement / transport train so they’re pulling each part of the city in the same direction towards that better experience for all Aucklanders. This coupling is something we’re muddling around in Wellington. We’re hedging our bets on saying explicitly what lived experiences we want to prioritise and privilege in our city centre. This means the transport planning and place planning are making (at best) vague bows in each other’s direction, with lots of hedging our bets about whether and how we’re prioritising “drive-through” vs “go-to” in our city centre. OK back to the presentation…] Galvanising and enabling Weeks told us that in the CCMP, when you combine the Auckland Plan’s Outcomes and the CCMP’s Transformational Moves, the product is the city centre “Opportunities”. Opportunities are projects, quite specific things, and there are quite a few listed. click on the image to have a play in the CCMP Opportunities But they’re not a set of business-case investments that clamp tunnel-vision onto ambition. They seemed to be as much illustrating the kinds of projects that would make the city centre better at giving people that great experience of Auckland living. As Weeks emphasised: “anyone can come up with an Opportunity”. (We imagine the galvanising could run like this… Hello, I’m a developer looking at buying or developing neighbouring Building X and Building Y, I can see the direction of profitable change and unprofitable change that I could make to that property, given the trajectory of change in its environment.  And I can make up a project that creates a much better laneway space between them, plus better delivery access, better stormwater handling, and augmented residential-plus-commercial uses… This bundle of investments will make me money, and enhance really well that little corner of the city – so public investment and other private are likelier to come join me… ) CCMP’s generic laneways explainer (click to expand) Lesson for Wellington: let the vision be the vision, get other activity making it reality A big lesson for Wellington, Weeks said, was to “be clear about what different plans are to do. The City Centre Masterplan sets the vision, which allows many actors to work out how to deliver its different facets, or to develop their own ideas too.” The CCMP is only the green-circled bits in this picture. CCMP: a strong whakapapa The CCMP’s technical pedigree is strong – it makes good application of internationally-accepted principles of urban physics and urban dynamics. But – as Weeks put it – if the CCMP can “see further, it’s because [it is] standing on the shoulders of giants”. Complementing the CCMP’s technical pedigree is its collective human ancestry: the people, organisations, and relationships that have coalesced around it, the support that it’s known and seen to have, and the mana that this contributes to its strong legitimacy and mandate today.  From the presentation a few points stood out on each of these… The technical pedigree of the CCMP  Weeks and Newcombe gave us a whistle-stop tour of the set of transport and urban planning documents of which the 2020 CCMP is the progeny. Auckland Unitary Plan – The supercity’s first joined up District Plan, the “rulebook” for implementing the Auckland Plan. Forced much more collaboration in planning, for everything. City Centre Future Access Study – NZTA, Ministry of Transport, Auckland Council, Treasury, Auckland Transport found the City Rail Link would blitz all other 46 options for getting people to and from the city centre. The City Rail Link (CRL) –  an underground railway link turning the city centre heavy rail terminus into a through-station, building 4 new underground stations. Doubles the number of Aucklanders with 30min access to city centre. After years of arguing, finally underway once tax was to pay 50% (thanks ATAP). Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) (2016-17, updated 2018) Auckland-region-wide (not just one bit) merit-based priority list of all the big-ticket transport projects, costed and agreed by all funders and deliverers.  Crucially: first acknowledgement by central government that Auckland couldn’t road-build its way out of its traffic problems Business Case for Walking – first quantification of the value of city centre walking to Auckland’s economy, done in 2017. [Hey “walkable capital”, where’s ours?] The creation of documents always sounds more coherent in retrospect, but Weeks and Newcombe emphasised that it’s not been a nice clean sequential progress.  Key principles of urban physics (like the role of people walking) have only been given oxygen relatively late in the sequence. The need to get tax funding to co-fund megaprojects has meant a lot of back-and-forth raruraru with central government, and between the various bits of Auckland’s council family.  And some great documents – like the Business Case for Walking mentioned above – have no official legal weight: a decision-making body can completely ignore them if it wants.  But we heard that the various documents have meant that amongst the bureaucracy and other government power-holders, there’s been an accumulation of key principles of good urban physics, akin to accumulation of organic matter. Sometimes it’s just leaves falling, but sometimes there’s a large trunk. These accumulations in the establishment’s hivemind make it much harder to go back and relitigate, as there’s been some crystallisation in the thinking. (Though, of course, as Newcombe noted, that doesn’t stop people trying!)   Access for Everyone – the complementary transport element of the City Centre Masterplan which was developed as part of the CCMP refresh – is a great example. In traditionally car-mad Auckland, the entire Auckland Council voted unanimously to begin A4E trials “enabling a decisive mode shift away from private vehicles, to make better use of finite city centre space and improve the quality of the environment.” Wow. Access For Everyone’s car-free Queen Street / Horotiu Valley with Low Traffic Neighbourhoods around. And no more driving through the city centre! The human side of CCMP’s whakapapa We heard that a major benefit of the sequence of documents was the relationships and conversations that a document creates a pretext to have.   There’s been a lot of investment in behind-the-scenes engagement, with big stakeholders in the city. This has paid off in an unusual level of big players’ trust and buy-in to the vision and the big moves to get there. From large developers, through Heart of the City (the inner city Business Improvement District), through the AA, NZTA, to the City Centre Residents’ Group  (fun fact: 40,000 people live in Auckland’s city centre alone). This good stakeholder engagement bears fruit: it enabled councillors to support the 2020 CCMP relatively easily, despite it having relatively little engagement from the wider public (a few hundred submissions compared with the Unitary Plan’s ~10,000). It’s not a coincidence that Precinct Properties has seen fit to drop a billion (with a B) dollars of its shareholders’ money into the Commercial Bay development – Weeks observed that it’s on the strength of the new trust and joined-up thinking developed through the CCMP process.  Daniel Newcombe spoke from experience about the collaboration that had eventually started to come, once “you can get people to stop introducing competing plans” and come together. Sometimes this requires biding your time, working by osmosis, and finding the sensible individuals in an organisation on whom to work, and building coalitions that chip away at antipathetic organisations. Getting people to issue formal letters of support on behalf of their organisations can be extremely powerful, he said. Iwi influence  We heard that one major improvement of the 2020 refreshed CCMP over the 2012 original is the inclusion of Māori outcomes. For the refresh, the ADO worked closely in partnership with Auckland’s Mana Whenua Kaitiaki Forum to develop a Māori outcomes plan. This work shaped Transformational Move 1: Māori Outcomes, with proposals for a papa kōkiri at the waterfront and a whare tāpere at Aotea Square.  The 2020 CCMP manifests the Auckland Plan’s Māori Identity and Wellbeing outcome and Te Aranga Māori Design Principles via Outcome 1: Tāmaki Makaurau – Our place in the world. It sets out the big interventions and systemic changes to bring mana whenua presence, Māori identity and life into the city centre and waterfront.  There are some big-ticket, high-visibility things and pervasive, interwoven ones. To our (Pākehā) ears this sounded pretty great…  Attack of the roadcones! Plans are essential, but how do you get them going, especially when there’s so many large, cumbersome players with inertia?  Weeks had peppered the presentation with cool before-and-after shots of some iconic Auckland changes, including Te Ara i Whiti / the (pink) LightPath, and localised street improvements like our favourite, O’Connell Street (below). O’Connell Street. oh.yes.melbourne We know (though the webinar didn’t go in depth here) that much of Auckland city centre’s evolution that you and I can see today was driven by the Auckland Design Office, with Auckland Transport and Auckland Council partners. Their projects opened people’s eyes to how good street change could be done, and that actually the good “urban physics” did apply in Auckland too. And they gave Auckland council family a chance to practice delivering street change together, and figure out how it can be done without anyone losing an eye.  They did it with a combination of a figurehead / champion / lightning rod / air cover for the ground troops (AKA Ludo-Campbell-Reid) plus a ninja team of designers, engagers and doers, doing on-the-ground projects that brought to life the good practice of urban design.    Projects like Fort Street, O’Connell Street, Fort Lane, and Jean Batten Place showed that – contrary to received wisdom – replacement of on-street car parking with high-quality streetscape was good for business. Collaboration with Auckland Transport led to the creation of a pop-up cycleway along Quay Street (well before the Innovating Streets for People pilots) which is now being incorporated into a permanent street redesign that will finish this year.  It’s not been an easy road: by now, ten pilots of the street changes for Access for Everyone were supposed to be underway, following that unanimous Council vote, but just one (High Street) has been. And the ADO has now been disbanded, allegedly due to their irritating conservative parts of the establishment with cost-cutting as a pretext.  But there’s momentum now…  Auckland’s changing, and has lessons for us  Throughout the session the Zoom chat pane had been running hot with questions and comments from the “floor” (aka the online audience). Weeks and Newcombe took questions from the pane and from the Urbanerds presenters, and a few highlights stood out including lessons for Pōneke… Lesson for Wellington: get partners on the same transport page Weeks’ and Newcombe’s first lesson was to get a multi agency agreement on transport together. It can’t just be the city council or regional council. It has to have central government buy-in; they can’t be pulling in the other direction from the city or region with their ambitions for the city’s transport. Updated ATAP, with all the partners This consensus shifts the conversation from “Do we need that good stuff replacing the bad stuff?” to “When do we need it?”. You have to keep the focus at that “when” level, not allowing relitigation of the fundamental principle of urban physics that you’ve achieved consensus on. We wonder: is this LGWM? Is it shifting our conversation? Is NZTA pulling in the same direction as the city, as the regional council?   Lesson for Wellington: generate the brochure, together A second big lesson is that you have to have the vision, the brochure, the clear picture of the good life that your city wants to give everyone who’s in the city centre, whatever they’re doing there. This has to be the rationale for any the physical changes that you entertain or consider. The Auckland Plan’s 8 outcomes – promises of the experience of life in Auckland, that the CCMP too must deliver This “brochure” must be developed hand in glove with the actors we want to be supporting it, building on any public mandate you already have but not driven by the wider public. This conversation with the big players should not feel like it’s led by any one player (developers, or transport-planners, or inner-city-residents, or businesses – nor even, we wonder, council?). What it must be is very good quality engagement that builds a strong trust and instils a foundation layer of commitment to (or at least grudging acknowledgement of) solid urban physics, and the trajectory of change needed throughout the city.    Lesson for Wellington: CBDs are doomed Listener Sally asked whether a focus on a city centre had been overtaken by COVID and its boost to working from home, and localism, especially in Wellington where there’s such a large commuter population. Weeks’ answer put it in much more professional terms, but the message came through clearly: if your city centre is mostly a Central Business District, where “business” is the dominant activity, it’s doomed. Monocultures always make a system vulnerable to shocks, in agriculture, horticulture and in cities If it’s a central city, with a hundred or a thousand different reasons for people of all different walks of life to be there, then it’ll be fine – it’ll change and adapt, but the power of people wanting to be there is the lifeblood of a city. “The death of the city has been predicted since the invention of the city, in the Bronze Age” Weeks observed – “and if you’ve got an actual city, it won’t happen.” We wonder… how much of Wellington’s central city is a dead zone by 6.30pm? How much are we reinvigorating and diversifying the reasons to be there?   Lesson for Wellington: lock all good plans to something with teeth Weeks emphasised that the power of these plans comes from linking area plans and other non-statutory plans to ones with statutory power.  So despite being a non-statutory document, the City Centre Masterplan carries weight because they mapped its outcomes tightly against the Auckland Plan (the statutory 30-year plan for the whole city) and councillors have voted overwhelmingly in favour of it. diagram showing how the CCMP is making good on the Auckland Plan’s promises, in the city centre We definitely don’t yet have the vision and its trust, nor the solid hook between statutory and non-statutory … but we have some elements of the recipe.    We wonder… how much of the CCMP-style whakapapa do we have, if not the actual document?  Could we build these levels of trust and vision together?  Some Wellington City Council planning and design gurus attended the session and helpfully fielded some questions about where Wellington was at. Our one-liner summary was: it’s not going to hell in a handcart, but it’s definitely all up in the air. Smart engagement from Urbanerds listeners and Talk Wellington readers is really needed. We’ll pick up “so what for us?” in the next post. Here’s the video: link, passcode SUa&tOC5 Meantime… where have you seen signs of a clear vision of good Wellington city life, for everyone?
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• • 

    Circa 2015 Season - jam-packed with theatre for all audiences!

    • 8 Dec 2014
    • Circa Theatre
    • Red Riding Hood, the PantomimeBy Roger HallSongs by Paul Jenden and Michael Nicholas WilliamsDirected by Susan Wilson2-10 JanuaryCirca One What a big smile you’ll have …Don’t miss Circa’s fabulous Christmas panto! And this year Red Riding Hood is back with one of the great traditional stories – innocent Red Riding Hood, her poor, short sighted grandmother, and of course the handsome woodcutter and that villain of all villains, the Wolf!There’s lots of laughter, hilarious jokes and musical goodies in Red’s basket as she sets off on her journey to entertain young and old with this marvellous magical treat.“A great way to introduce kids to the magic of theatre, and Red Riding Hood is easily the ideal Christmas outing for the holdiays … a treat” – Salient“Roger Hall’s helter-skelter Red Riding Hood… is wonderfully exuberant seasonal fun” – The Dominion Post The Kitchen at the End of the WorldBy William ConnorDirected by Steffen Kreft16-25 JanuaryCirca Two “Something is coming. I don’t know what it is. And I don’t know if I should fight it or welcome it.” One snowy evening, an empty 83-room hotel on the edge of the Vastness receives a thin guest who has walked all the way from the City. Penniless, he is smuggled into the hotel kitchen where a kind cook works near an extraordinary thyme plant. He says that creativity is dying. Described as “intensely beautiful”, “provocative and moving”, The Kitchen at the End of the World is the story of marionettes who know they are limited by the extent of their strings – even kissing can tangle them – but they crave what lies beyond their reach. A story about home, the unknown, and the courage to face everything in between. The show captivated audiences at its sell-out debut season during the Greytown Festival 2012and is a powerful reminder that puppetry is not just a children's art form. SeedBy Elisabeth EastherDirected by Kerryn Palmer17 January – 14 FebruaryCirca One SEX & DRUGS, WITHOUT THE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL IVF isn’t foolproof and IUDs aren’t failsafe. iPhones come with ovulation apps and ‘choosing from the menu’ means selecting your sperm. Seed follows four women as they try to get pregnant, stay pregnant or become un-pregnant - the dilemmas of modern reproduction. Elisabeth Easther’s Seed is winner of the 2014 Adam New Zealand Play Award, which recognises and celebrates the best in new writing for the theatre. It’s a multi-narrative play about the mysterious business of fertility, with all of its challenges, heartaches and hormones. Seed is a drama that’ll have you laughing ‘til the tears are running down your face, and it’s a comedy that’ll make you cry. “Highly entertaining, funny and sophisticated” - Adam Play Award Judges “[A] sophisticated, witty and very contemporary meditation on the timeless processes of procreation.” - NZ Herald STARRING: Tess Jamieson-Karaha, Jamie McCaskill, Emily Regtien, Holly Shanahan and Amy Tarleton Warning: Adult themes and strong language. Demolition of the CenturyBased on the novel by Duncan SarkiesCreated by Duncan Sarkies and Sean O’Brien31 January – 21 FebruaryCirca Two Welcome to the world of Tom Spotswood, an insurance investigator who has lost his socks, his suitcase, his ex-wife and his son, Frank. Fresh from performances in the New Zealand Festival, Auckland Writers Festival, Tauranga Arts Festival and Nelson Arts Festival, Demolition of the Century sees author/performer Duncan Sarkies (Two Little Boys/Scarfies/Flight of the Conchords) stage a humorous and sometimes heartbreaking look at families, memories and the fragility of the human mind. He is accompanied by musician Joe Blossom, who plays a soundtrack that is both haunting and invigorating. “A series of brilliant vignettes, delivered in an inspired cabaret-style reading by the multi-talented Sarkies, and outstanding musician Joe Blossom… Blossom not only creates fluid and essential musical transitions, but his beautiful vocals, self-accompanied on piano and guitar, imbue this work with a powerful pathos that allow glimpses of the inner landscape of these characters. Demolitionis a fast-paced, darkly captivating cabaret-comedy, which leaves us fully entertained and tantalizingly close to solving a puzzle.” –Bay of Plenty Times Wake Up TomorrowPresented by Everybody Cool Lives HereIn association with ActiveDirected by Isobel MacKinnon21-28 FebruaryCirca One Welcome aboard Active Airlines! Join the eccentric passengers during this compelling, surreal and funny flight. Made under the guidance of Wellington theatre makers in collaboration with Active, a service for youth with an intellectual impairment, Wake Up Tomorrow was created from the minds of these incredible young people. Audiences will be transported from the mundane moments on a long haul flight to bizarre and hilarious scenarios.  Please fasten your seat belts, make sure you are in the upright position and enjoy the journey. We may or may not arrive at the expected destination. “In a work of this kind there is always a delicate balance to be held between presenting a polished product at the same time as allowing for a playful improvised quality to emerge that allows the actors to perform to their strengths. This was very evident in the final few scenes …” – Madeline McNamara Yep, Still Got It!By Jane Keller and Sandy BrewerDirected by Alan PalmerMusical Director Michael Nicholas Williams28 February – 21 MarchCirca Two YOUTH IS A GIFT OF NATURE, BUT AGE IS A WORK OF ART – Stanislaw Jerzy Lec Following the huge success of BOOMERS BEHAVING BADLY, Jane Keller returns with another hilarious show. A little older, a little wiser, a lot sassier, and even more confused. Whatever happened to the days when a cloud was a cloud, when face time was over a G&T, and we punctuated our sentences with full stops - not smiley faces? From senior sex and those pesky STDs to shopping sprees and colonoscopies, Jane shares stories of abject embarrassment, medical (mis)adventures, empowerment, and acceptance. In YEP, STILL GOT IT!  she embraces the power of an older woman with no FOMO. Together with the brilliant Michael Nicholas Williams on the piano Jane brings a brand-new show to Circa Two combining her special style of storytelling with her virtuoso Broadway voice. Capital E Kids FestivalCirca One CaterpillarsBy Kallo Collective Directed by Thomas MoncktonProduced by Show Pony7 March 10 am & 11.30am A tale of two puppeteers’ failed attempts at beautification. In the magical world of flitting butterflies, jumping eggs and giant swaying flowers, two lycra-clad puppeteers try their hardest to remain unseen and at service to their puppets: two enormous plump caterpillars. Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, with nothing but their wits to cover up their escalating blunders, two appealingly hopeless clown puppeteers bring upbeat absurdity, slapstick silliness, and a good dose of reality to their hilarious and unpredictable antics. Beards! Beards! Beards!By Trick of the Light TheatreDirected by Hannah SmithWritten by Ralph McCubbin HowellProduced by Show Pony21 March 10am & 1pm Beatrix didn’t want a tiara. Beatrix wanted a BEARD! From Charles Darwin to Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx to Mr Twit, it is said the secret to power and greatness is all in the size and shape of the beard. This is a tale of one young girl’s increasingly inventive efforts to grow the world’s most magnificent beard. Join a madcap and hilarious musical romp of physical comedy and clowning, as our plucky young heroine shakes up social rules and attempts to answer the questions that have puzzled mankind since the dawn of the beard. Suitable for  children 5+. The PianistBy Circo Aereo (Fin) and Thomas Monckton (NZ)In conjunction with Show Pony (NZ)Directed by Sanna Silvennoinen and Thomas Monckton7-22 MarchCirca One Direct from Edinburgh Fringe and the London Mime Festival, last year’s hit returns to Circa! “It would be no exaggeration to declare Thomas Monckton nothing short of a genius.” – Broadway Baby (UK) “I doubt very much that you’ll see, in fact I am prepared to bet on it, a funnier show this year…miss him at your peril”  – The Dominion Post (NZ) Fresh from a five-star reviewed season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a sell-out season at Circa Two last year, award-winning performer Thomas Monckton returns with his smash hit The Pianist, this time at Circa One! The Pianist is a solo comic contemporary circus piece by Thomas Monckton (NZ) and Circo Aereo (Finland). The show is centered on, in, under, and around the magnificent grand piano. Accompanying this elegant apparatus is the poised pianist himself. Only he is so focused on impressing everyone that before he realises it, his show has transformed from the highbrow concert he hoped for, into a spectacularly amusing catastrophe. Suitable for all ages. The Mystery of Edwin DroodA musical by Rupert HolmesDirected by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford28 March – 25 AprilCirca One Who the Dickens did the deed? You decide! A non-stop ride of mystery, murder, and musical delight! Based on Charles Dickens’ final, unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood is filled with clues, red herrings, villainy, and debauchery. Everyone on stage is a suspect – and it's up to you to decide how this mystery ends!Hot off Broadway, this Tony Award-winning theatrical genius is led by director Lyndee-Jane Rutherford (Midsummer (a play with songs)), who reunites with the artistic team that brought Grease and Mamma Mia to the Wellington stage. The cast includes beloved actor of stage, screen and radio, Lloyd Scott, and internationally renowned soprano, Barbara Graham (Christine, Phantom of the Opera). The Mystery of Edwin Drood boasts spectacular big dance numbers, rousing showtunes, stunning theatrics, magic, and illusions!  Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score“One of the most inventive, inspired and rousing musicals ever devised.”—AM New York“Infectious fun!”—Time Out New York “Bawdy fun!”—Associated Press “Sheer fun!”—The Wall Street Journal Two MortalsDirected by Geoff PinfieldPerformed by Rachael Dyson-McGregor & Mike McEvoyComposed by Beatrice Lewis1-18 AprilCirca Two 'A powerful theatrical experience suffused with humour, beauty and emotional intelligence' – The Melbourne AgeTwo Mortals is a delicate, poetic and humorous exploration of life, death and the moment in between. Composed word-for-word from interviews with people who live and work at the ends of life – morticians, cryogenicists, palliative care workers and ministers – Two Mortals weaves these true stories and experiences into a richly theatrical exploration of mortality. This uplifting work about one of our society's most taboo subjects was directed by Chapman Tripp Director of the Year Geoff Pinfield. Created and performed by Rachael Dyson-MacGregor and Mike McEvoy, Two Mortals sold out two critically-acclaimed seasons at Melbourne's La Mama Theatre. Improv for KidsBy The Improvisors7-18 AprilCirca Two Kids love theatre that’s interactive. So do the Improvisors. Kids (and their grown-ups) loved the 2014 season of Improv For Kids, so we’re bringing it back. It’s a great opportunity to introduce your kids to the world of live theatre. We may not have millions of dollars worth of computer-generated effects, but we do listen to kids and we make their ideas central to what happens on stage. In Improv For Kids, imagination is the best special effect of them all! Don JuanBased on Don Juan by MoliereCreated by A Slightly Isolated DogDirected by Leo Gene Peters25 April – 23 MayCirca Two World Premiere A sexy, fierce, raucous celebration.  Don Juan explodes with the energy of a music gig or a club.  It’s a cabaret.  It’s chaos.  It’s a furious adrenalized romp through the games of attraction and sexuality.  It’s the BEST… PARTY… EVER.  Five mad performers use a variety of theatrical forms and styles to bring an adaptation of Moliere’s classic play to life.  Loaded with pop songs and flirting, this imaginative work will continually intrigue, delight and surprise. While the bar keeps serving drinks.  All night long.   Created by A Slightly Isolated Dog, one of Wellington’s most innovative and exciting companies.  Critically acclaimed and award winning shows include:  Death and the Dreamlife of Elephants (2009, 2011), Perfectly Wasted (2012 - in partnership with Long Cloud Youth Theatre) and Settling (2007). A Servant to Two MastersBy Carlo GoldoniA new adaptation by Lee HallDirected by Ross Jolly2-30 MayCirca One NZ Premiere Love, passion and pandemonium Goldoni’s much-loved comic classic is a masterpiece starring a wily servant whose cheeky, inventive trickery gets the best of his masters, in a merry mix-up of mayhem and mistaken identity. Truffaldino, the scheming and perpetually hungry servant, concocts a zany scheme to double his wages (and his meals) by simultaneously serving two masters – the lovelorn Beatrice (disguised as a man) and her lost lover Florindo. Hilarity abounds In this sharp, new, rapid-fire adaptation by award winning dramatist Lee Hall (The Pitmen Painters, Billy Elliot).   A delicious, madcap Italian comedy of lovers, disguises, tricks, traps, mishaps and meatballs! “A sparkling, wonder filled new version by Lee Hall... An evening to cherish” – Daily Mail “A hugely enjoyable night out" – Covent Garden Life TheatresportsBy The Improvisors3 May – 14 JuneCirca Two Part of NZ International Comedy Festival The Improvisors are back at Circa with another season of this very popular show. Each night two teams of Improvisors take suggestions from the audience and spin them into short scenes, songs, poems or whatever else takes their fancy. Each show is completely different – what does stay the same is that Theatresportsis always a great night’s entertainment for the whole family. We don’t know what ideas you are going to throw at us – we do know that our kind of improv magic has been keeping audiences laughing over many years. Theatresports – putting the “make up” on stage. Second AfterlifeBy Ralph McCubbin HowellDirected by Kerryn Palmer29 May – 13 JuneCirca Two Return Season of the 2014 Young and Hungry sensation!Dan was an internet junkie – now he’s calling it quits. But in order to forge a new profile, he must face up to his online history and it’s not going down without a fight.When Dan finds himself sucked into the Second Afterlife – a dark underworld of the internet, a very real and dangerous landscape of broken memes, deleted pages, and the ghosts of profiles past. Second Afterlife is a dark comedy about life (and death) in the digital age. Inspired by Dante's Inferno, and in the tradition of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, it is a twisted allegory for the Facebook generation – a poetic, ass-kicking romp to the darkest corners of the web. “Ralph McCubbin Howell cements his status as one of NZ's best young playwrights with Second Afterlife and director Kerryn Palmer, her designers and crew, and her exemplary cast of six do him proud.” - TheatreviewBy arrangement with Playmarket.Edge/Turning PageBroadway Star, ANGELICA PAGE“An actress of the highest possible voltage” – Wall Street JournalPerforming two shows, alternate nights, two weeks only6-20 JuneCirca One EDGE written by PAUL ALEXANDER Set in 1963 on the day of Sylvia Plath’s death, Edge presents the self-told story of the troubled poet and author of The Bell Jar, The Colossus, Ariel and the Pulitzer-Prize winning Collected Poems. “… a resurrected Sylvia Plath… the showcase of a lifetime” NEW YORK TIMESRETURNING TO OUR STAGE 10 YEARS AFTER ITS SENSATIONAL 2005 CIRCA SEASON TURNING PAGE written by ANGELICA PAGEGeraldine Page’s sparkling career earned her a record-breaking eight Academy Award nominations, an Oscar for Best Actress in 1986, and made her one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century. Turning Page is the triumphant and heartbreaking true story of one of the most celebrated actresses of all time, written and performed by the person who knew her best: her own daughter. “A privilege” Los Angeles Times Matariki Development FestivalPresented by Tawata Productions22 June – 4 JulyCirca TwoAn international indigenous playwrights’ festival boasting an enviable whakapapa of the very best of contemporary Maori & Pasifika theatre.  MDF 2015 features new writing by Natano Keni, James Nokise and Pikihuia Haenga. the beautiful onesWritten and Directed by Hone KoukeProduced by Tawata ProductionsMovement by Dolina Wehipeihana & Hone KoukaDesign by K*Saba, Tama Waipara, Johnson Witehira, Wai Mihinui, Jaimee Warda, Sopheak Seng, Laurie Dean 27 June – 11 JulyCirca One World Premiere A hyperreal digital love story.  the beautiful ones is a story of young love.  A promise Hana made to Ihia – a promise to return.  Will she return?  Will love triumph over temptation?  the beautiful ones bursts from the late night sheen of a city club.  Beautiful bodies & vital vocals.  Defiant dance moves and the meaning of love.  the beautiful ones features a dance floor for the audience to share the vibe.  From the company that brought you I, George Nepia, Sunset Road and TŪ. Warning: Contains Big Beats & Dance Music. The Ugly OneWritten by Marius von Mayenburg; translated by Maja ZadaDirected by Giles Burton11 July – 8 AugustCirca Two A scalpel sharp, absurd comic fantasy about beauty. Lette thinks he is normal, but when he discovers that he is, in fact, unbelievably ugly he turns to a plastic surgeon for help. Suddenly he is the most beautiful man in the world. Fame and riches follow; women want to sleep with him and men want to look like him. And with surgery they can look like him. Exactly like him. Received around the world to great acclaim, The Ugly One now receives its NZ premiere. With writer von Mayenburg’s star very much in the ascendant, this show is a must see.   "A stripped bare satire on the nature of beauty. If you are interested in theatrical story-telling see this show." – The Times (UK) “Savage social satire … A small but perfectly formed play” – The Guardian (UK) “The concept is simple but the philosophical implications are profound: What if money could buy the perfect face? It’s The Elephant Manmeets The Matrix” – Post City (Toronto) The Hound of the BaskervillesBy Arthur Conan DoyleAdapted for the stage by Clive FrancisDirected by Ross Jolly25 July – 29 AugustCirca One Sherlock Holmes vs the Powers of Evil A bloodcurdling howl is heard across a cold, moonlit moor; the horrifying, spectral hound has claimed another victim … When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on his remote estate, in eerie, seemingly supernatural circumstances, Sherlock Holmes, the legendary, world-famous detective and his assistant, the ever-reliable Dr Watson are called upon to unravel the extraordinary mystery of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous and most popular story, in an exhilarating adaptation by Clive Francis (Our Man in Havana), sees four actors playing all the parts in this gripping, classic tale of terror. A thrilling, ripping good night of fun, drama and suspense! “A cracking good yarn … Excellent ... Highly enjoyable." - Daily Telegraph "Chillingly atmospheric... this fun show will really thrill. " - The Observer Downton AdlibBy The Improvisors2 August – 27 SeptemberCirca Two Quality costume drama – only funnier. An aristocratic English family and their servants face the challenges of life in the early twentieth century. A cast of Wellington’s top improv comedians face the challenge of making up a brand new episode every night. We supply the characters, you supply the key plot ingredients and the result is costume drama as you’ve never seen it before. Love, laughter, passion and a wide range of hats! The Travelling SquirrelBy Robert LordDirected by Susan Wilson5 September – 3 OctoberCirca One NZ Premiere “We that live to please must please to live” – Dr Samuel Johnson From Robert Lord, the author of the award-winning and much loved Joyful & Triumphant, comes The Travelling Squirrel, a romp through the fickle nature of the entertainment industry. Protagonist Bart compares his struggles as a writer to those of Roger the squirrel, a misunderstood painter. Hilarious and packed with larger-than-life characters, this play is a testament to Lord’s ability to write brilliant comedy.  A satire tempered with deep affection, The Travelling Squirrel depicts a dangerous world in which fame and fortune are always temptingly just around the corner “This is surely one of Lord’s funniest plays, just as it is one of the most moving”   – Philip Mann “For two decades, Robert Lord’s plays astonished and entertained theatre audiences with their sharp satire and flamboyant farce.”  - David O’Donnell The BookbinderWritten by Ralph McCubbin HowellDirected by Hannah SmithPresented by Trick of the Light Theatre25 September – 10 OctoberCirca TwoThey say you can get lost in a good book. But it's worse to get lost in a bad one... From award-winning company Trick of the Light Theatre (The Road That Wasn’t There) comes a story of mystery, magic and mayhem. The Bookbinder weaves shadowplay, paper art, puppetry, and music into an original dark fairytale in the vein of Coraline and Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell. An inventive one-man performance for curious children and adventurous adults... suitable for children 8+. Best Theatre and Best in the Fringe - NZ Fringe 2014 International Excellence Award - Sydney Fringe 2014 "Spell-binding storytelling at its purest and best..." - Theatreview"Absorbing and imaginative… a small gem of theatre" - The Dominion Post "Tuned to perfection... Bookworms of all stripes and ages will adore it."- The Age, Melbourne For more information visit www.trickofthelight.co.nz GiftedBy Patrick EvansBased on the novel of the same nameDirected by Conrad Newport10-31 OctoberCirca One It is 1955 and beyond the famous hedge something magic is about to happen. In his beloved garden the “Father of the Nations Fiction” Frank Sargeson is waiting for his old mate Harry to turn up. Instead, he encounters a young woman fresh from a mental institution. Her name is Janet Frame. Their world is about to change forever. From the director of Rita and Douglas comes this very funny and profoundly moving story. Touring the Arts Festivals in 2013 to incredible reviews and widespread acclaim it’s now Wellington’s chance to experience this celebrated New Zealand production. “Like an exquisite work of art, the play Gifted is honed to near perfection … go and see this gorgeous production.” – Taranaki “Superb performances by all … it is thrilling … it makes for astonishingly joyful, mischievous theatre.” – Dunedin “Sheer quality” – Christchurch Adventures in PianolandWritten and performed by JAN PRESTONDirected by GAYLENE PRESTON15-17 OctoberCirca Two How I learned to stop worrying and love the piano The irrepressible Jan Preston comes clean on her longstanding and sometimes bumpy road to piano stardom. Jan will spin yarns from dives in Soho to the concert halls of Europe, to stealing a piano in broad daylight from the 1860s Bar in Lambton Quay. She will accompany herself, of course, on Circa Theatres' lovingly cared for piano.  You will hear Chopsticks as you have never heard it, with Jan's original songs and compositions providing perfect counterpoint to her story. AcheBy Pip HallDirected by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford24 October – 21 NovemberCirca Two Fate, chance and rooftop romance.  Ache is a fateful comedy about two thirty-somethings trying to find their way through modern love, materialism and the Wellington dating-drought. At a time when we are promised happiness with the swipe of a card or the swig of a bottle, true joy and connection seems almost impossible. At crossroads and rooftop gardens, fate decides to surprise them. At last, connection, chemistry, charisma. He’s perfect, she’s gorgeous. Only timing’s not as kind – he’s taken. Is it just not meant to be or will she push timing aside and take fate into her own hands?   Achingly-funny and heart-breakingly sad, Ache is a modern story of love, timing and seizing the day.Don’t miss this WELLINGTON PREMIERE, finally on our stage after its SOLD-OUT season at Christchurch’s Court Theatre. All Our SonsBy Witi IhimaeraPresented by Taki Rua5-14 NovemberCirca One World Premiere Courage and loyalty is tested in this new play by Witi Ihimaera “Once they fought each other, now shoulder to shoulder they fight together” Two generations go to war while a third fights a battle to keep her family at home. Waru Mataira and his two sons Tai and Rangi volunteer to represent the Maori iwi of Mataira Mountain in the New Zealand Native Contingent to Gallipoli. Under the guidance of their Pakeha leader Alec Campbell, they join the battle on the western front as part of the newly titled Pioneer Battalion where their courage is tested and so too are their loyalties. Taki Rua Productions presents the World Premiere of All Our Sons, a ground-breaking play by Witi Ihimaera. Roger Hall’s Robin Hood, the PantomimeSongs by Paul Jenden and Michael Nicholas WilliamsDirected by Susan Wilson21 November – 20 DecemberCirca One There he is! Oh no he isn’t. Oh, yes he is!! With loaded bow behind a treeYou never know where he will beHe moves like velvet, sleek and svelteAround the Wellington town belt His eye is quick, his aim is sureHe robs the rich to feed the poorHe’s always on the side of goodThe hero known as Robin Hood He lies in wait for those who ownA big estate and second homeFor millionaires who don’t pay tax  For bankers who don’t watch their backs You’ll see them suffer their defeatIn Circa’s brand new summer treatA pantomime for one and allIt’s Robin Hood by Roger Hall “fabulously fast and furious ... A treat”  - Capital Times “ACTION-PACKED… TONS OF FUN FOR YOUNG AND OLD!”  - The Dominion Post A Child’s Christmas in Wales (and other memories of childhood)By Dylan ThomasDramatised and performed by Ray Henwood28 November – 20 DecemberCirca Two What has been described as one of the most magical of Christmas stories is brought to the stage by Ray Henwood. It is rounded out by other memories of childhood, first presented by Dylan Thomas in one of his regular talks on the BBC Welsh Home Service. Thomas had a very happy childhood and so many of his young experiences resonate still with us today.The town of Swansea which is the locale of his stories had changed little by the time Ray was growing up. While Dylan lived in more salubrious surroundings, Ray was a “Sandfields” boy referred to by Dylan- and played in many of the areas described in the stories. It is a truly timeless tale and family celebrations have changed little, even in countries that celebrate a summer Christmas. Dylan’s work brings back memories that resonate so well with young and old. it is a true celebration of our experiences growing up. www.circa.co.nz
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    Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)