Hakeke St centre marks 5th birthday
Buzzing community celebrates with day of family activities
The Hakeke Street Community Centre, (HSCC) was buzzing on Thursday, February 1, as the community celebrated its fifth birthday. It opened in January 2019. Free icecreams, a bouncy castle, mini golf, and challenges such as hurdles were a few of the activities.
“Hakeke Street Community Centre has grown from several thousand people coming through in 2019, to more than 10,000 people this year,” said Din Bandara, board member and acting manager for the centre’s trust.
“We have had a lot of support from Love and Learn Care and Education, funders, businesses, and community members who volunteer their time and support. We’ve just grown over the five years and more and more people want to be a part of our HSCC community; our focus is on ownership and making our community feel comfortable and a sense of belonging.
“We have a reputation for providing a service for the community and we are endeavouring to take away barriers,” he said.
Dr Mike Paki, who was also at the event, has been involved with the centre from the start. He opened and blessed it, after having run te reo classes for the community. “It’s the people that work here that make everyone feel accepted,” he said. “The Whanganui East Community seems to be the community that the other side of the river lost,” he said.
Marie Butturini is the deputy chair of the board, and she manages Love and Learn Childcare.
“She’s given up so much of her time, investing time, energy and some big ideas in this community,” said Bandara. “She has seen the hidden gem and decided to be part of this journey to awhi this community achieve its goals.
“One of the initiative partnerships we have with Love and Learn is supporting parents through further education. They are supporting two to three teachers a year through study and providing them with work while helping awhi them to get their Bachelor of Teaching.
“What we have learned from this is, could we do a similar thing with other careers, perhaps with counsellors?”
HSCC’s manager, Jane Bilderbeck, offers a free/low-cost counselling service, which is meeting a real need in Whanganui. This is an area of high demand and limited counsellors.
“Together with board chair Angela Cromarty and the manager of the community centre, Jane Bilderbeck, we had a vision to support this community”, said Butturini, “It came into fruition five years ago with the support of the Whanganui Library.”
“The kaupapa here is in the community working for the community. A lot of the whānau around here are often at our events, helping set up and pack down — they come, they help. They maintain the community gardens, come to events in the community centre, coming and having a voice
— this is their space as well as ours.
“That’s the vision of the centre, it belongs to all of us. It’s about a handup, not a hand-out.
“We’ve got a great community with a friendly vibe. We have people coming from all over Whanganui just to connect here and be a part of it. At our amazing Christmas event, we gave out more than 1200 meals and the vibe was amazing, smiling tamariki everywhere. The community knows this is their space.
“If you would like to come along and see what we do at HSCC, feel free to call in and have a chat with the lovely Kelly, who is always ready with a cuppa and a welcoming smile.”