Fresh faces for good neighbours
Neighbourhood Support in Palmerston North has dusted itself off after the blow of losing a $25,000 a year grant from the city council.
The organisation has a new base in Highbury, a co-ordinator just three months into the job and on Thursday elected a new chairwoman who is determined to rebuild.
Outgoing vice-chairman Evan Torrance said it had been a horrible year for the group. It started in March with missing out on a city council strategic priority grant for the next three years.
Given the council’s goal for a safe and connected community, and Neighbourhood Support’s goal to create safe, resilient and connected communities, the decision was a surprise. Torrance said despite submissions by members and a letter of support from mayor Grant Smith to help with future funding applications, the loss of its biggest benefactor could not be overturned.
Later in the year chairwoman Katrine Imrie stepped down, coordinator Sian Bullen left and three suburbs lost their co-ordinators.
But Torrance said efforts to find new people had been positive, and the group was poised to prove to itself and potential funders that it was worthy.
Newly elected chairwoman Diane Hirst said there was no way the organisation was going to fail and she was determined to work with the city council, which had an important role in building safer communities, even without the funding deal.
She was keen to develop stronger networks and review how older members of neighbourhoods could be better supported.
Co-ordinator Alison Jarden said much of her first three months had been spent applying for grants to help cover her salary, the group’s biggest single expense.
She said her conviction that Neighbourhood Support was such a good cause helped her to be an authentic advocate and the best answer to its financial stability would be to find a corporate sponsor.
Jarden said there was exciting potential to work with city council housing areas, Age Concern and retirement villages to develop a sort of ‘‘senior’’ Neighbourhood Support.
‘‘But we need to get reestablished and build our capability and capacity to move on.’’
Former Palmerston North police chief and now city council candidate Pat Handcock had not heard the council had cut the group’s funding.
He did not know enough about the reasons to comment on the decision, but said he hoped the group would find the money to keep going.
His personal view was that having police working with the community at grassroots level in the way Neighbourhood Support encouraged was an excellent way to build more cohesive communities.
‘‘We need to get reestablished and build our capability and capacity to move on.’’