Kia orana kotou katoatoa. Greetings to you all.
I hope everyone has been keeping well, despite the winter weather.
One of the key focus areas of our newly developed Strategic Plan involves implementing environmentally sustainable principles to minimise the impact of our activities on
the environment and reduce our carbon footprint. From September, therefore, we'll be going paper-free and will start emailing you our flyers instead of providing a paper version. We'll also email the monthly newsletters for a trial period. Copies of everything will be displayed on your village noticeboard. Please can I ask everyone to make sure that your Community Manager has your correct email address. If you don't use email. remember to check the noticeboard from next month for any new announcements or village maintenance updates. Let's all work together to help save the planet however we can!
It's been an eventful few weeks on the sporting front, with the New Zealand rugby, football and netball teams all in action. For those who prefer other activities, our recent outings have included a fish and chip lunch, visits to the Maritime Museum, Butterfly Creek and a local RSA as well as longer day-trips to Morris and James Pottery in Matakana, tea at the Chelsea Sugar Factory and a scenic drive in West Auckland. I encourage you to sign up for these lovely trips which are fun and enable you to meet fellow tenants from other Haumaru villages. Just call our Helpdesk if you'd like to book a place on the next trip departing from your village.
As a new engagement opportunity, we'd like to set up a tenant advisory group to enable us to seek occasional feedback on specific topics or projects that Haumaru aims to deliver (eg, in response to the tenant satisfaction survey) and which would benefit from having tenants' input. We wish to hold the first meeting on 26 September. If you're interested in participating in this group or the advisory group for our Maori tenants, we'll arrange transport for you to our office in Grafton and morning tea will be provided. Each group size is limited, but we'll respond to all those who are interested, as we'll have several meetings per year so that many voices can be heard. Please indicate your interest by calling the Helpdesk.
The daffodils are due out next month and spring is in sight, but do stay warm and well wrapped up until the winter chill subsides.
Ka kite
Gillian Schweizer,
Chief Executive Officer
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Tenants celebrate digital literacy success
Congratulations to the tenants of Otara Court who’ve recently completed their ‘Digimatua’ digital literacy course. Delivered in the Samoan language by 360 Tautua Trust, the course consisted of six classes, with participants completing modules on using a laptop and general IT skills. A total of eight tenants took part and, to mark their success in completing the programme, they were presented with graduation certificates at a special celebration held in Otara Hall on 4 August. The event was attended by tenants’ children and grandchildren and by Gillianne Ray of Auckland Council’s Connected Communities Department, with lovely speeches of thanks as well as song, dance and prayer before a delicious shared lunch. The course graduates have been able to keep the laptops they’d been using during the course, so they can keep practising their new-found skills.
360 Tautua Trust offers a wraparound service for the Pasefika elderly community and their families, and we’d like to thank Romana Fetu, Fatu Su’a and everyone who helped bring this initiative to fruition for our Samoan community at Otara Court.
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Haumaru promotes age-friendly living
Haumaru Housing recently hosted a workshop to provide an update on our progress towards implementing our commitments to Auckland Council’s Te Rōpū Whakamana ki te Ao, Age Friendly Auckland strategy, specifically its housing component and supporting older people to ‘age in place’. Many stakeholders from across the housing and social services sector attended, including Kāinga Ora representatives, the CEOs of Papakura Marae (Kaumātua Housing) and the CNSST Foundation which provides social housing for older Chinese residents, and Age Concern.
Our Tenancy Quality Manager and Chair of Age Friendly Auckland, Maxine Stiling, introduced the proceedings, and Community Manager Nicky Bibby spoke about our wide range of initiatives that are supporting tenants to live independently in the community. These range from our delivery of the ‘Healthy Homes’ standards for heating and ventilation, regular minivan outings and in-village social activities to connect tenants with their neighbours and local communities, collaboration with external agencies and other providers who offer services to older people, our annual tenant satisfaction survey which invites tenant feedback, as well as many other initiatives that are in the pipeline.
Approximately 50 delegates attended the workshop, with valuable new contacts made which will be of benefit to our tenant community. It was an extremely positive and inspiring event, and our thanks go to our tenants from Wisher Village, Kaumātua Koroua George Taua and Ope Maxwell, who offered the karakia, waiata and blessing of the kai on the day and also brought the hui to a close.
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Watch this space for village enhancements
Now that we’ve analysed all the feedback and suggestions from this year’s tenant satisfaction survey, we’ve a number of new initiatives underway or in the planning stage that are designed to enhance tenants’ enjoyment of their village surroundings. The following is just a sample of some of the positive changes that you’ll notice in coming months. Watch this space for more to come!
To support our village get-togethers and encourage greater engagement and connection amongst neighbours, we’ll be investing in a super-duper, transportable BBQ complete with all the latest features. This high-quality, versatile unit will definitely add some pizzazz to our sausage sizzles!
You told us that having more lighting and safety measures around the villages was important to you, so we’re now reviewing fencing and will be replacing or upgrading the lighting to improve safety. This will be undertaken in consultation with tenants at each village, and your Community Manager will connect with you in due course.
The frequency of lawn mowing is of particular interest to people, but this has been problematic due to all the wet weather we’ve been having. As we survey the grounds and decide when may be best to mow the grass, we’ll let you know the status through the display of new ‘Too wet to mow’ signs.
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A special karakia for Haumaru Housing
Haumaru Housing is proud to have its own, specially created karakia which has been gifted to us recently by Geremy Hema of Ngāti Paoa, Te Rarawa. Geremy is a Poutiaki Rangahau Māori/ Māori Research and Data Sovereignty Steward at Auckland University and a Minister with Te Hāhi Mihinare (The Māori Anglican Church). Our new karakia incorporates our Haumaru values, and Board members and staff now use it to open formal meetings as we continue to learn and grow our cultural understanding. We’d like to thank Geremy for these unique words of affirmation:
Mā te atawhai, te ngākau whakaute, te kakama ki te aro, me te tū pono, ka haumarutia te iwi. Tukuna kia ora ēnei mātāpono. Tūturu whakamaua kia tina! Tina! Hara mai te toki. Haumi e, hui e, tāiki e!
It is through kindness, respect, responsiveness, accountability, that values of Haumaru are achieved and bring mana to people. Let this be our commitment to all! Draw together! Affirm!
