Annual Report 2019-2020

Annual Meeting 4.30pm Tuesday 27 October 2020 Porirua Club, 1 Lodge Place, Porirua

Supporting people to live the life they choose within their own community

Community Connections

Main office: 5 Sheffield Street, Paraparaumu, 5036

PO Box 563, Paraparaumu, 5254

04 298 7703

www.ccslt.org.nz

https://www.facebook.com/communityconnectionssupport/

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Table of contents

Services offered by Community Connections Supported Living Charitable Trust -- Page 3

Agenda for 2020 Annual Meeting -- Page 5

Annual Meeting minutes 6 November 2019 -- Page 6

Chair’s annual report -- Page 8

Executive Director’s annual report

Highlights from people we support

Auditor’s and financial report 2019-2020

Our year 2019-2020

Communnity Connections' Board of Trustees

-- Page 10

-- Page 15

-- Page 18

-- Page 24

-- Page 26

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Services offered by Community Connections Supported Living Charitable Trust

Community Connections Supported Living Charitable Trust is a community-based disability service offering supported living and 24/7 services. We also provide supported employment and transition services through Employment Connections and facilitate peer support groups through Neighbourhood Connections.

We operate in the Greater Wellington region (Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua, Wairarapa and Kapiti), Manawatu and Horowhenua region (Otaki, Levin, Palmerston North and Feilding), Taranaki, Eastern Bay of Plenty and the Hawke’s Bay.

We have a strong commitment to a person-centred approach so people can live the life they choose within their own community. We work in partnership with disabled people and their families/whanau. We plan for, coordinate and provide flexible and creative supports that enable each person to live in their own home, actively take part in their community and reach their individual goals and aspirations.

Our vision is of a society where disabled people are embraced as fully participating citizens, where barriers to inclusion are removed and where each person is respected and valued for who they are.

We believe that, with support, disabled people can live the life they choose within the community of their choice.

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Purpose statement Supporting people to live the life they choose within their own community.

Core values • Honour people and their stories • Build capability – in people, in communities, in the team • Check it’s right • Celebrate – diversity, challenge and success

Goal Exceed expectation

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Agenda for the 2020 Annual Meeting

Commencing at 4.30pm, Tuesday 27 October 2020

Porirua Club, 1 Lodge Place, Porirua

1. Welcome

2. Record of those present

3. Apologies

4. Previous minutes

5. Chair’s report

6. Executive Director’s report

7. Financial report

8. Appointment of trustees

9. Appointment of Chair

10. Appointment of auditor for 2020-2021 financial year

11. General business

John Taylor with Jeremy Tapari before John’s Tour of Aotearoa fundraising bike trip

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Community Connections Annual Meeting Minutes 6 November 2020

Porirua Club, Lodge Place, Porirua

5.30pm, Wednesday 6 November 2019

Sue welcomed everyone, especially Valerie, who may join the board.

There are 2 annual reports – CC & Emerge. Emerge is still an entity, so still needs a Board, that will be needed to sign it off when it is over.

Sue reflected that this is the 12th year of CC operations. It has been a year of change and challenges and of opportunity and growth.

Most importantly, it is another year of helping people we support to live the life they want to in their community. Sue enjoys reading about people’s achievements, which are made possible with Community Connections’ support.

Sue passed thanks from Board to John for the work of Community Connections

1. Attending: Sue Shotter (chair), John Taylor, Valerie Smith (observer and potential Board member), France Aziz (staff), Jocelyn Brace, Lee Rutene, Ross Pritchard, Sara Hamer (minutes)

2. Apologies: Esther Woodbury, Frankie Gaston 3. Previous minutes

16 October 2018, contained in the 2018 annual meeting booklet.

Lee moved that the minutes are a true and correct record. Seconded Jocelyn. All in favour: carried.

4. Chair’s report Sue iterated the challenges, but also achievements. She is looking forward to this year

Jocelyn finds Community Connections great – in a volatile, frustrating environment – she appreciates the commitment and flexibility to work with the challenges to stick with Community Connections’ values

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Ross finds a lot of it confusing. He has a lot to learn. He appreciates the experience of other board members

Valerie – found acronyms she didn’t know

Lee has been on the Board for 6/7 years now. He finds it interesting to see where we have come from to now – Community Connections is stronger.

5. John’s report John praised the fabulous team of senior staff – young and strong

Sue moved to accept the two reports, Lee seconded. All in favour: carried

6. Finance report Ross noted the cashflow is missing from the annual report booklet (although it is in the full report in the Board meeting papers).

The management report from the auditors was not included. Sara will send out as soon as possible.

Ross moved to accept the report, Jocelyn seconded. All in favour: carried

7. Appointment of trustees Jocelyn, Ross and Lee are all happy to carry on

The Board officially reappointed Jocelyn, Lee and Sue for another 2-year term

Ross has been on board for 1 year, Esther less than a year.

John asked to elect the chair – Ross nominated Sue, Sue accepted. All agreed: carried

8. Appointment of auditor John is happy with CKS

Sue agreed. Carried

9. General business None

Sue closed the meeting at 6.00pm

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Chair’s annual report

Tēnā koutou katoa

Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei

Seek the treasure you value most dearly: if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain.

Aim high for what is truly valuable, be persistent and try not to let obstacles stop you from reaching your goal. COVID-19 has certainly put obstacles in our way this year, however it has also created opportunities. Community Connections as an organisation has shown that it can innovate, change and respond to external factors while ensuring the priority of those we support remain in front of mind for all decisions made. It has been a tumultuous year that has brought challenges we have not faced before. Yet there continues to be a passion within the organisation to ensure it continues to evolve and be the best it can. Our standards and best practice are open for review, strengths celebrated, weaknesses acknowledged and a strong back office is evolving. Our pandemic response has been strong and John and his team and everyone we support have shown what it means to truly come together for the common good.

It is not just COVID-19 that have provided challenges this year. The housing shortage, technology barriers, changing demographics and an ageing population, politics, funding and climate change have a big impact on our environment and as an organisation we need to remain aware of these factors and adapt and change to these in order to thrive.

In response to these factors a new strategic plan 2020-25 is underway and our financial management remains strong. Significant work has been undertaken to assist with our bicultural development and the guidance of Pouroto Ngaropō has enabled this to happen.

This is my final report as Chair. I want to acknowledge the work and commitment of the board for your willingness, commitment, input and

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expertise over the year. It has been an honour and privilege to chair the board for the past four years. My thanks to John and the senior team for doing such a great job, for your commitment to our vision, mission and values and for your willingness to always go that extra step. Be proud, stay strong and continue that passion.

Hei konā mai i roto i ngā mihi

Sue Shotter

Chair

Community Connections Health and Safety Committee, March 2020.

Henry Smith is second from the left, with the guitar.

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Executive Director’s annual report

Kia ora tatou

Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro, nōnā te ngahere Ko te manu e kai ana i te mātaurangi, nōnā te ao! The bird that consumes the miro owns the forest (but) the bird that consumes knowledge owns the world! It is my great pleasure to reflect back on the past 12 months of operation for Community Connections, to consider what we have learned and to thank the Board and staff for their continued commitment to what we do. It has been an interesting 12 months with its share of highlights to balance out some of the more difficult aspects. It has included COVID-19 and all that this entailed. Despite the difficulties COVID-19 presented, it also showed up how people have continued to work together to support wonderful outcomes for the individuals we support. The challenges have helped us grow in our ability to respond to diverse expectations and demands. Before I move on to talk about some of the activities of Community Connections, the achievements of people we are privileged to support and the staff who support these people, I want to thank the Board, and Sue Shotter as Chair, for their stewardship of the organisation over the past 12 months. They assist us to thrive through their active engagement and clear strategic leadership. Every year the Board provides governance for our activities, ensuring we operate in a safe, legal and financially sound way and that we stay true to our purpose. They apply themselves energetically and with good spirit to Board meetings, planning days and evaluations, resulting in issues being debated and dealt with in a trusting, informed and professional manner. I thank Jocelyn Brace, Ross Pritchard, Lee Rutene and Esther Woodbury for their time and commitment over the year. We welcomed Valerie Smith onto the Board and I thank her for joining our small but impressive team. Ka maumahara tatou ki nga tāngata i mate i roto i te tau. We remember those who passed away during the year. We remember: Meryl Knowles, Stewart Sherley and Sue Stevenson; all people we had the honour to

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support. We also remember Henry Smith, our larger than life staff member from Porirua, who passed away in March this year. Mana Wai Ora and Iramoko Marae (Ngati Awa ki te Awa o te Atua, Te Tawera hapu) He manu hou ahau, he pī ka rere. I am like a fledgling, a newborn bird just learning to fly. During the past year we have strengthened our relationship with Iramoko marae. Amohaere Tangitu has continued to support our staff and guide us in the development of policies and processes. She has been our guide as we have navigated iwi engagement in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region. (As an aside, Amohaere has recently had a book published on her 30+ years of working with the health sector. She has been instrumental in embedding Māori practices into the everyday work of hospitals and other health services within Aotearoa/ New Zealand. When she started that journey she was a team of one!) Pouroto Ngaropō MNZM, who is our Pou Tikanga (senior cultural advisor), has continued to work with us to assist our bicultural development. Pouroto now attends most of our induction sessions and has made a great contribution and impression on the staff. The significant development Pouroto has assisted us with is the development of our own Māori framework for our work: Mana Wai Ora. Mana Wai Ora is still in the final development stages but it has been accepted as our way forward. It offers us the framework to continue doing what we already do, better. It reflects our values from a Te Ao Māori worldview. It has generated a great deal of excitement with the senior leadership team and, for me personally, it has reignited my hope that we will be able to create an organisation that can walk in two worlds. The whakatauki above is one from Ngati Awa and speaks to the beginning of our journey. Services I think we can feel well satisfied by the support we have been able to offer and arrange for people over the year. We have worked with some people whose support needs provide significant challenges for us and

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we have done well with them. We are proud of the many amazing achievements people we support have made over the past 12 months and especially the way people dealt with the COVID-19 Lockdown. During the Lockdown, some people went to stay with family and many more remained in their own homes and navigated the difficulties that the Lockdown restrictions brought. One of the most obvious was the requirement that we had as little face to face contact as possible. This meant that we did much more support by phone, Zoom and Facebook. People rose to this challenge and continued to do well. Outside of the Lockdown people continued to do amazing things including: completing courses, getting work, buying or renting their own homes, entering new relationships, getting married, travelling around NZ and overseas, selling artwork and other business initiatives, becoming involved in their local communities and a myriad of other activities that citizens of our country do. Many of these things people do for themselves or with the support of their family and friends, and a lot of it they achieve with our support. Stephen Neal has made great progress in assisting us to introduce the practice of self-organising teams. He has been working with the Napier/Ahuriri team, and the Kapiti/Levin team. Our work in the Taranaki has increased a lot due to the efforts of our new coordinator - Hannah Watson - and the support she has had from Frankie and France. We are struggling a little in the Eastern Bay of Plenty but are working with Iramoko Marae to find a better way to engage with Māori; 48% of the Eastern BoP population is Māori. Staff The people we employ have continued to give great service and work hard to implement our strategy of supporting each person in a manner that uniquely fits their requirements. Through this hard work of the staff and the commitment from our leadership team, we continue to grow and develop even as some people come and go. On that note, we have had a number of changes to our senior leadership team over the year: Pete Wilson, Richard Bennetts, Maureen Laphen and Josh Leith left and we were joined by Michelle Friedman as Business Manager and Korozaan Fourie taking on the 24/7 Lead role. Each of these people who left are missed for the contribution they

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brought but we are pleased they have all moved onto something else that inspires them. The remaining team of: Frankie Gaston, Matt Sang, Brendon Mercer, Karen Woodfield, France Aziz and Anthea Lowe have joined with Korozaan and Michelle to create a strong, robust and creative leadership team for the organisation. I am indebted to them all for their work, energy and dedication, without which we could not have accomplished what we have. (I also acknowledge the work of Nicola Morgan who held the 24/7 Lead role for us between Maureen leaving and Korozaan commencing.) Other significant staff changes include:

• We welcomed Amohaere Tangitu officially into her new role with a powhiri at the BOP office. This was recorded by Maori TV for a documentary on Pouroto; he was doing the welcoming.

• Jade Bufton commenced as a coordinator for Kapiti and Levin • Lisa Withey was welcomed back from maternity leave as

Administrator & Transition Support Worker • Hannah Watson commenced as Taranaki Coordinator • Geoff Kelly and Mele So’onata’a both left as coordinators and were

replaced with Bjorn Christiansen and Anna Hansen respectively. • Kobus van der Merwe joined our finance team

Other activities Below is a quick round up of a few of the other significant events that happened during the year.

1. We brought the finances back in-house after 10 years of them being done externally. Pete Wilson began that process and Michelle Friedman has completed it.

2. Michelle has also led, with support from Frankie, Kobus and Michelle Trowell, the return of all HR and Payroll functions.

3. We had the first anniversary of Ashley Peacock successfully living in the community. It has now been nearly 2 years at the time of writing.

4. The Ahuriri team was nominated for the Access Alliance People’s Choice Awards

5. We added in the “client portal” to our FlowLogic platform. This allows the people we support to directly access information about them, including their plans, support notes, their funding budget, and allows them to provide feedback to us and have others that they choose to have all this information.

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6. We began building our “Whare Mātauranga:” our store of knowledge. This is an accumulation of various policies into a Mana Wai Ora framework.

7. Paul Benson and Pip Brewer got married 8. Frankie Gaston and Sarah Rogers both got married (not to each

other!) 9. I cycled 5070kms around NZ raising funds for Jeremy Tapari.

So, again I thank the Board for their work and vision, and in particular Sue our chair. I am especially grateful to Pouroto Ngaropō for his guidance, and to Frankie Gaston, Josh Leith, Pete Wilson, Michelle Trowell, Michelle Friedman, Richard Bennetts, France Aziz, Karen Woodfield, Brendon Mercer, Anthea Lowe for all working hard over the past year to ensure things run smoothly. We are fortunate to have such capable people at the core of our staffing; between them they ensure our vision and purpose are enacted in our day to day efforts.

Noho ora mai

John Taylor.

John heads off on his fundraiser bike ride

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Highlights from people we support Taranaki Network "Network Kitchen Crew" meal

The Taranaki Network members love to cook! We decided we would like to make a meal in the style of 'My Kitchen Rules' but with our own twist. We have called ourselves 'Network Kitchen Crew", we designed our own aprons and recently held our first dinner at Louis' home. The team who cooked called their instant restaurant 'Superstars Restaurant'. We had a beautifully decorated table with placemats, place cards and folded serviettes. We had some cards with ideas of things to discuss during the meal which was fun. We even made our own sausage rolls and homemade ice cream! Everyone scored 10/10 for an amazing meal!

Some comments from the members were:

- I loved it and I loved the rice and mango chicken. It was really awesome(Samantha).- I liked the broccoli, chicken, rice, crumble and ice cream (Tim).- I liked seeing the people (Nicola).- The mango chicken was good and the crumble was da bomb! Cookingthe meal was easy, fun. It was like a lovely dream (Chris).

- I loved everyone coming tomy place. Chris is a goodcrumble maker (he is thebomb) and Jack is a reallygood ice cream maker. Iloved to take the box ofaprons and gave them topeople when they came tomy place (Louis).- The meal tasted awesome,the table looked good(Terrwynn).- It felt a bit like being in arestaurant. One day I wouldlike to work in a restaurant,anything involved with foodand drink (Louis).

(left to right) Terrwynn, Samuel, Nicola (obscured), Jack, Louis, Samantha, Tim, Chris

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Nik Androutsos’ Remutaka adventure

On Friday the 6th of March I went on a tramping trip in the Remutaka Forest Park. It was a blast!

I was really excited for my trip and everyone is pleased at how well I did. I tramped for 2 and a half hours and carried a heavy bag on my back the whole way. Bjørn and Harry supported me on my trip and I did the hike at my pace. We walked 9 kilometres! I even had to cross a river three times to get to our hut. I worked hard to get there.

We had a warm fire and after dinner I enjoyed a few quiet beers. We even roasted marshmallows. In the morning we were up early and then hiked back the 9 kilometres to our van. I am really happy that we went on this adventure together.

Nik (centre) with Bjørn and Harry

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Paul and Pip’s story

We, Paul and Philippa (Pip), got married on the 7th of December 2019. It was a special day. The groom looked very handsome, waiting for Pip to make her entrance, but was really emotional when Pip walked down the aisle to him.

Pip walked down to “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri. It was really special - that song was so beautiful. All the guests were waiting really patiently for her.

The reception was held at the Community Connections office.

Paul and Pip with the staff team

What I did in Lockdown. By Leann Irwin

Hi, my name is Leeann Irwin. I am 61 and live alone. I love knitting and started knitting dishcloths to sell to family and friends. I am looking for an outlet that can sell them on my behalf as the shop I was making them for has closed. I have been unable to go anywhere over the lockdown and have knitted 50, which gave me something to do. I knit some in two colours and some plain. I also did lots of reading, played tri-ominos and wrote stories.

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Auditor's and financial report

2019-2020

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Our year 2019-2020 July 2019

• Welcome Jade Bufton (Levin/Kapiti coordinator) • Finance department moved in-house after over 10 years

outsourced to Back Office Support Services (BOSS) in Palmerston North.

August 2019

• Lisa Withey welcomed back from maternity leave as Administrator & Transition Support Worker

• Farewell to Maureen Laphen (Booth) as 24/7 Residentials Service Manager

• Welcome back Rich Bennetts (overseeing change management, H&S, PD)

October 2019

• Welcome Hannah Watson, Taranaki coordinator • 1 year anniversary of Ashley P moving to Reikorangi on 23

October • Farewell to Pete Wilson, Finance Lead

November 2019

• Welcome Michelle Friedman, Accountant • Management team gift volunteer day at HUHA Otaki • Frankie Gaston got engaged

December 2019

• Rich Bennetts starts as Pou Mahitahi • Pip and Paul Benson got married on 7 December

Jan 2020

• Korozaan Fourie, new 24/7 Lead starts • Farewell to Nicola Morgan, temporary 24/7 Lead • Ahuriri team nominated for the Access Alliance People’s Choice

Awards • Frankie Gaston got married 17 January

Feb 2020

• John cycling round NZ March 2020

• Farewell to Josh Leith

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• From midnight 25 March NZ lockdown - all support moves to virtual support

• Esther Gillam starts as Te Rito o Rehua (personal cares) coordinator

April 2020

• Farewell to Rich Bennetts • Farewell to Wellington 24/7 Coordinator Geoff Kelly • NZ moves to level 3 lockdown on 27 April. Most support continues

to be virtual May 2020

• Farewell to Mele So’onata’a, Tawa Coordinator • NZ moves to level 2 alert level. Community Connections provides

more face to face support • Community Connections turns 13 on 14 May! • Sarah Rogers (nee Hobden) got married

June 2020

• Levin Office moves to a new office • Post-COVID celebrations held organisation wide after level 1 is

announced on 8 June. • Welcome to Kobus van der Merwe, Accountant • Clem Lienard takes over as Tawa coordinator • Anna Hansen takes over as Central Wellington coordinator

Bereavements: Meryl Knowles, supported in Tawa, passed away September 2019 Stewart Sherley, supported in Kapiti, passed away 10th October 2019 Sue Stevenson, supported in Lower Hutt, passed away in early November 2019 Staff: Henry Smith, Tawa team, passed away 14 March 2020

Facebook Stats Facebook - on 16.12.19 - 604 page likes

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Community Connections’ Board of Trustees 2019-2020

Sue Shotter (Chair)

Jocelyn Brace

Esther Woodbury

Lee Rutene

Ross Pritchard

Valerie Smith

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