Safety volunteer threatens to return award
A Wellington party-strip volunteer dealing with spiked drinks, vomiting, and 11-year-old children on the town is threatening to return an award if Wellington City Council funding of $2500 a week is not continued.
The council partially funds Take 10’s mobile truck parked at the Taranaki St end of Courtenay Place on weekends. But with the summer party season coming, it funded a separate summer pop-up at the other end of Courtenay Place, better known for festivities.
The council pop-up funding has ended and it would need to make a decision to continue that to keep it open – or Take 10 would have to find another way to raise the funds.
Leigh Keown from the Vulnerable Support Charitable Trust, which runs the Courtenay Place “safe zone”, said the need for the pop-up was so high it needed to continue.
She went to the council but “there was no money found”. “Now councillors are involved it will be escalated and, hopefully, more money can be found,” she said, as she also appealed for donors.
Amanda Richardson was one of the 2023 city council Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian Award winners for her volunteer work at Take 10 each Friday and Saturday night from 10pm to 3am the following morning.
She was flattered to be nominated but it was just a “stupid bit of metal” if the council did not put its money where its mouth was, she said.
“I am [considering] giving back this award because I don't want local councillors using me to claim they support volunteer harm reduction support services to help clean up Courtenay Place,” she said.
Her volunteer work involved her team helping a young woman found lying on Courtenay Place who had her drink spiked. She had dealt with children aged as young as 11out in the early hours, and there had been a recent spike in people using drugs laced with powerful prescription opiate Fentanyl. Vomiting punters were a weekly occurrence. Her team offered alternatives to drinking with games such as giant Jenga and bean bags. It also offered water and medical help, phone charging, and was in regular contact with people monitoring security cameras, as well as bar bouncers.
Council connected communities manager David Ensor said “we have not cut or reduced any funding for Take 10, nor have we received a request for additional funding”.
The pop-up was always meant to be temporary and to cover orientation week and Homegrown “when alcohol and drug-related behaviours can increase substantially”.
The funding for the pop-up was additional to multi-year funding for Take 10, which would continue until at least June 2025.
He confirmed he met with the Vulnerable Support Charitable Trust last week and discussed support for the future.
Lambton/Pukehīnau ward councillor Geordie Rogers said the first he heard of the issue was when Richardson emailed all councillors on Monday night and he was keen to talk to the organisation.
“Take 10 is incredibly important to the safety of the central city,” he said.
Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said the “temporary pop-up site has closed as intended” but council Take 10 funding continued.
“As mayor I will continue to support the awesome work Take 10 does to look after Wellingtonians.”