From the brink of shutting down . . .
. . . to Wellington community award winner in 18 months
Te Ara Korowai in Raumati Beach has won the Education and Child/Youth Development category at the 2021 Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards, the only Kāpiti group to come away with a win.
The 2021 awards, announced last week, received the highest number of nominations since they first began in 2004, with 270 groups nominated from around the wider Wellington region.
Wellington Airport chief executive Steve Sanderson said this was impressive given the challenges faced because of Covid-19.
“One thing that’s really stood out this year is how groups have stepped up to make sure their communities are connected and well cared for throughout Covid-19, whether that’s delivering food parcels to those in need, supporting positive mental health or providing online services to maintain social connections.
“Each and every group nominated is a winner and it’s great to be able to recognise their amazing efforts”.
Nominated for the work they did over the first lockdown, Te Ara Korowai offers free creative and wellbeing classes to the Kāpiti community, with a special focus on those going through a tough time with mental health, and those with disabilities.
During the lockdown, staff and volunteers ran all classes online using Zoom, to keep members connected and supported as they recognised that a number of members were quite isolated.
In the second lockdown, they did the same along with distributed art packs, making daily phone calls to members, and had people from all around the country joining their online classes after they were advertised by Arts Access Aotearoa.
Passionate about supporting positive mental health in the Kāpiti community, Te Ara Korowai provides a safe, supportive place to connect, participate and learn new skills.
Despite providing a crucial service for many with mental health challenges in the Kāpiti community, and the awards nomination from the work they had done earlier in the year, the centre was on the brink of closure in August 2020.
With Sarah Yuile coming on as centre manager, she was brought on as a caretaker with only two months of funding left.
“I decided I would try to do everything I could to keep the place going and applied for every grant I could,” Yuile said.
“All the centre managers did the same before me, always fighting for funding.”
Managing to get through to the start of last year, the centre then gained three years of funding from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s creative spaces care fund.
This meant the centre could go from operating four mornings a week to five full days with evening and weekend classes.
“This was a massive turnaround for us.
We now provide a mixture of creative and wellbeing classes including meditation, mindfulness, seated yoga and other classes, all of which are free for members.”
The centre was then able to provide extra support in the second lockdown with staff going well over their paid hours to help members.
“There is a great sense of pride in receiving this award. The awards focus a lot on volunteering and while we have some paid staff, all our staff went way over their paid hours and were essentially volunteers during those lockdowns.
“It’s been a very emotional year and a half. I got brought in as a caretaker for a few months, but your heart and soul just instantly get attached to this place. All the staff are incredibly dedicated to keeping it going.”
The centre is currently looking for board members and volunteers, who can register their interest through Volunteer Kāpiti by emailing info@volunteerkapiti.org.nz .