CHARITY REDUCES SUPPORT, SILENCES MEMBERS
When Katherine Thomas questioned cuts to staff and services she was met with legal threats. James Baker reports.
Katherine Thomas admits raising a daughter with type two cerebral palsy is hard but during a lockdown, it is overwhelming.
‘‘You feel super isolated, there is very little government support.’’
But in March, help came from Cerebral Palsy Society (CPS) family advocate Gemma Overton, who provided both information about services still available and emotional support during the stressful period.
‘‘She was fantastic,’’ says Thomas.
‘‘We would have conversations that were an hour-long, what I could do, what was available to me.
‘‘Sometimes it was just good to talk to someone who knows what you are going through.’’
She says Overton appeared to be a part of an ongoing change in the 1700-member charity.
Only a few years ago, Thomas says, the benefits of CPS membership were largely limited to vouchers for transport and special equipment, which were often unusable due to the small number of partnered suppliers.
But by 2020, the voucher programme was streamlined for improved access and expanded to cover $1550 of the yearly costs of equipment, physical therapy, transport and counselling.
A one-time grant of $1950 was also provided for legal fees.
The charity became active on social media, gave grants, hosted social events, funded research into medical treatments, and staff such as Overton provided face-to-face information and support to members, all for an annual membership fee of only $10 for someone with cerebral palsy or $15 for a family member.
‘‘I was actually really proud of the society ... I was excited about the future, it felt like there were changes in the air,’’ says Thomas.
But in June, the charity changed.
Overton was one of four fulltime staff members removed from the 11-person organisation as part of a cost-cutting restructure.
Member vouchers were officially reduced by half and now had an expiry date of three months, sometimes they were not mailed at all or arrived late.
‘‘They never came ... when I went into the [CPS] office they did not know what I was talking about; when we did get them, they were almost expired.
‘‘I am not the only one, there are so many people that rely on those ... with the same story.’’
Stuff has obtained a recording of then CPS president Anthony Smith telling staff it was ‘‘problematic’’ that members had begun to rely on vouchers and that the role of the organisation should be to ‘‘enhance lives’’ not provide a ‘‘total solution’’.
It was not just the vouchers, Thomas says, the charity seemed to be ‘‘stripped of its soul’’.
‘‘Before when I went into the office everyone would talk to Ella ... now the board just ignored her and a lot of the staff were gone.’’
The difference, she says, became obvious during the second level 4 Auckland lockdown in August.
‘‘In the first lockdown we got so many phone calls ... in the second, we got one generic text message. ‘‘We were alone.
‘‘I felt really let down, frightened, silenced, unappreciated ... I felt physically sick.’’
Thomas shared her concerns on social media, joining 270 other charity members in the private Facebook group ‘‘Members of CPS’’ which sprang up in response to the restructures.
Group member Melissa Neville has an 8-year-old daughter, Maddie, with cerebral palsy. She describes the experience as a constant grieving process. ‘‘It knifes your heart ... to see them upset because they cannot do something like other kids their age.’’
She says the changes in the charity felt like ‘‘the rug was pulled out from under you’’.
‘‘That good work just died... it was like: here we go back to the old days.’’
Wanting to know more, she began looking into the organisation’s finances using publicly available documents through the Charities Register.
She discovered CPS had spent $2m, investing in what were supposed to be high-stakes, highreturn business ventures.
The four companies were owned by CPS, under the directorship of then-board president Anthony Smith and appeared to have provided no financial benefit to the charity.
In a previous story, Stuff outlined that Smith and colleague Brain Yee were paid tens of thousands of dollars for running the companies, which were yet to return a dividend to CPS.
Smith and Yee declined to answer detailed written questions from Stuff. Yee declined to be interviewed when contacted by phone and numerous attempts to contact Smith elicited no response.
Neville posted details of the companies’ structure and financial arrangement to ‘‘Members of CPS’’ private Facebook group with internet links to the information, asking members to consider it before voting at the upcoming annual meeting.
One week later she received an email from CPS lawyers, threatening her with legal action unless she removed the post and issued an apology in three days.
‘‘I was in abject fear, horror ... seriously a charity is attacking members?’’ says Neville.
Stuff has seen a similar warning issued to another group member.
Other members chose to contact the board directly, sending a group email to the charity’s former treasurer, Dave Thomas, requesting a special meeting, a member right under the charity’s constitution.
They did not get a warm response.
‘‘You have breached my privacy by using an email address that you do not have permission to use and have obtained illegally,’’ wrote Thomas.
When a member responded that Thomas’ email was publicly available through a quick Google search, he threatened to contact the police.
‘‘You are now testing my patience. Do you want me to talk to the police about your constant harassment?
‘‘I have noted also the names of your associates ... I am asking that all members of your group immediately delete this email address and refrain from using it in [the] future.
‘‘I suggest it is in your interests to do so.’’
Thomas declined to comment to Stuff over the phone saying: ‘‘I have got absolutely nothing to say to you but thanks for trying.’’
However, in October, Thomas was one of the six, out of seven, board members replaced as part of the charity’s annual election.
The current board would not comment in detail but said the questions emailed by Stuff ‘‘raise a number of matters that have been subject to review and consideration by the Cerebral Palsy Society over the past 12 months or so’’.
In an email to members, the current board said the charity was in a ‘‘period of transition’’ as a result of the election.
‘‘We recognise that the society and the membership have had many challenges in recent months,’’ they wrote.
‘‘It will take some time for the new board to work through issues and to determine our future strategy for the society, and we will be seeking member input into that.’’