Kia ora koutou,
Welcome to Community Living’s new look newsletter! We are planning to produce these quarterly as part of our commitment to keeping you informed. Hopefully many of you will have noticed a lift in our presence on social media recently (we’re on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube) and we would love to engage with you there too.
The end of 2024 is fast approaching and it will be remembered as a particularly tough year for the disability community, in particular for disabled people, their family and whaanau.
We know many whaanau are seriously concerned about funding, restrictive purchasing rules, access to equipment and respite services among other things. We are here to help you advocate for the support you need so please share your concerns with our staff who work with you.
Community Living is working hard to be more responsive to people we support and their whaanau and to improve the experience our staff have at work. We believe we are making steady positive progress. We won’t always get it right though and when that happens, we want to work with you to find a better way. For that reason, your feedback is always welcome and appreciated so please keep it coming.
We were pleased to host Louise Upston, the Minister for Disability Issues and Social Development at Community Living earlier in October. It was a short visit, but helpful to hear the Minister speak to a group of staff about the government’s priorities in the disability sector. We also had the opportunity to bend her ear on issues that are important to us.
We are keeping a close watch on the work of the Disability Support Services Taskforce that has been established by the government to oversee implementation of the recommendations of the Independent Review of disability support services now underway. The Taskforce has shared that it is meeting with different groups in the sector and we hope to get in front of them to advocate for our community.
Our quarterly forums for people we support, family and whaanau and for staff are coming up in November and I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. You will find details of the forums in this newsletter so please consider registering to attend (in person or online) if you haven’t already. These sessions are for you so please take the opportunity when you register to tell us what you want us to cover.
Best wishes to you and your whaanau from all of us at Community living in the lead up to the end of the year.
Ngaa mihi nui,
David Oldershaw
Chief Executive
Minister Louise Upston at Community Living
Our vision at Community Living is “Disabled People Thriving in the Community”. This means putting power in the hands of people to live the life they choose in their communities. We call this Nou Te Mana – “the power is within you”.
We are working on a pilot programme with a small group of people who are currently supported in our residential services. This programme will transform the services we provide so they and their whaanau are in control. This is the Nou Te Mana pilot.
For more details, click here
Strategy 2024-2027
Thanks to your input to the future focus sessions, we're pleased to be able to show you all our new strategy for the next few years.
To find out more and download the strategy document,
An easy read version is also there along with a video that covers all the main points.
Community Living has a new Quality Assurance Framework. For details, click here
Over the last few months we've kicked off Creative Crew, a way for people to tell their stories and be in the draw for a $100 prezzy card every month. Make sure you're following on our social channels!