What’s on our mind
Recently, we set out to interview community social sector providers about their experiences navigating the complex and ever-changing landscape of the past few years. While we remain concerned about the significant funding cuts our sector is facing, we’ve noticed the rich and varied ways organisations are adapting and shifting to keep supporting their communities. These stories give us hope and ways forward to collaborate, navigate and invigorate the ways we work with government and each other. We don’t have to reimagine or reinvent – simply harness and vitalise what is already working.
Key themes from our stories
Personal and organisational endeavour can prevail through:
- rebuilding trust between government and the sector, built on the common purpose that binds us – thriving communities
- exploring and building on varied models of operating that already exist – collective contracts, creative ways to respond to community challenges, collaborative endeavours, high trust models.
Funding partners and the sector need to resist:
- pivoting when it’s at the expense of progress and just keeps us going around in circles
- allowing unhelpful narratives about our sector or the people we work with (they undermine trust, creativity and potential)
- being forced into ‘patch protection’ – we build stronger communities when we each play to our strengths.
One thing that stood out to us
All of those we interviewed had lost contracts or had funding reduced. Some were servicing sizeable debt through unsigned government contracts and unpaid invoices. They are expert operators who are surging on regardless. They maintain an unwavering belief in themselves, in the outcomes data they hold, and in the children, rangatahi & whānau they walk alongside every day.
Food 4Thought
- What are the golden threads that bind the government and community social service sectors together?
- What’s needed for the government and community social service sector to get back in tune with each other?
- How much pivoting is too much (takes us around in circles?) and how much is just right (keeps us responsive and on our toes)?
- How do we negotiate and balance the gap between community need and government need?
- What’s needed to free up our sector to do what we know it does well?
- What’s needed now to have a vibrant community and a high level of social wellbeing?
What now
Te Pai Ora SSPA will share these stories with government and across our sector to champion personal and organisational endeavour. Join us to amplify these voices by sharing them within your own networks and exploring the key themes and inquiries they raise. Mauri ora!
Our stories
