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Te Ara Poutama: Funding Partnership with Trust Waikato

Work has continued to developed Te Ara Poutama. We are extremely pleased to announce that Trust Waikato has agreed to co-fund Te Ara Poutama for the next three years. The funding, which will provide $450,000 from 2023 to 2026, will allow the Wellbeing Knowledge initiative to develop and share a deeper understanding of wellbeing at both the regional and community level, empowering people with greater knowledge about their wellbeing and its key drivers.The intended impact from the initiative is th...

Hau Kāinga: Lots of Little Fires | He pakipūmeka

An Update from Lead Social Innovator: Joe WilsonWe have now released our third video story the ‘Gift of Music’ from Fairfield College where a local businessman stepped up and made the project happen by teaming up with the school and the wider business community and college alumni to fund and provide in kind support to get the programme going.The programme, Takoha Puoro, which means the ‘gift of music’, is a beautiful example of local business, school alumni and community combining their ...

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy: MBIE Electricity Demand and Generation Scenarios

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is seeking submissions on New Zealand’s electricity demand and generation scenarios, with several changes and updates proposed in the report since it was last released.The 2023 projection of electricity demand and supply to 2050 will consider developments in new and emerging technologies such as solar, electric vehicles and green hydrogen, alongside the potential construction of offshore wind farms. MBIE’s scenarios are...

Call for Expressions of Interest: Kaitiaki Advisory Board Member

1. BackgroundThe Waikato Wellbeing Project (WWP) is a regional initiative to achieve a more environmentally sustainable, prosperous, and inclusive Waikato region. The project is led by an Executive Director, with guidance from a Kaitiaki Advisory Board. A leadership network of 25 manu taki (community outcome leaders) provides activation, direction and connection for the project.Our vision is that Our Mokopuna are Thriving and our mission is To hear our People and Transcend their Future through P...

Congratulations Tania Jones

Since last year we’ve known that our amazing Project lead Tania Jones was hapu and would be leaving us for a while to welcome her new family member into the world. We were super thrilled that Tania gave birth to a healthy young boy on Friday 3 March. Both Tania and her young pepi are doing very well. Tania has kindly shared a photo below....

Wellbeing Progress Report

In February we published our first progress report since the WWP started in 2020. The report acts as both an accountability document for our funders and stakeholders, as well as a summary of the region’s overall wellbeing progress. You can read the full report here Waikato Wellbeing Project | Waikato Wellbeing Project The report recaps the development of the WWP since then, including the development of our core operating model and strategic framework. The report shows the project’s ongoing e...

Poutoko: Impact Project Update -The Rangatahi Opportunity

Since the launch of our Case for Change in October 2022, we have shared the report with over 200 youth wellbeing stakeholders in the Waikato and beyond. The Case for Change has also been relied on by other youth organisations, such as Hamilton City Council and SEED Waikato, to guide their kaupapa. Key areas and ways where we have remained active include:Youth Friendly EmployersWWP Project Innovator Joe Wilson and Hamilton City Council Youth Advisor Zeta Mohn are co-leading the development of a y...

Poutoko: Impact Project Update - The Waikato Kai Challenge | He wero whai hua

Through 2021-22 our Manu Taki have been listening to the voices of those who experience food poverty, as well as sharing and celebrating the stories of communities who are finding ways to both feed their whānau, restore mana and knowledge about food cultivation, caring for the land and enhancing community connections.  Manu Taki for SDG 1 and 2 have undertaken a series of consultation hui to understand how we can develop kai resilience and kai sovereignty in our region including:· &n...

Pūrākau: Waikato Wellbeing Knowledge Centre | Te Ara Poutama

In early 2022 the WWP convened a cross-sector working group to review the current situation and develop options to better meet our strategic goal of sharing stories through data and insights. Research commissioned by MartinJenkins and Melde found that there is a case for change to enhance current arrangements to better understand wellbeing across the region.  Building on the Strategic Case developed by MartinJenkins we have further refined the opportunity as the confluence of empowerment, i...

Hau Kāinga: Lots of Little Fires | He pakipūmeka

An Update from Lead Social Innovator: Joe WilsonThe concept of ‘lots of little fires’ captures the idea that there are many small ‘fires’ of passionate people ‘burning bright’ across the Waikato. In the night sky, from above, we can see them all and it is a beautiful sight, but often at the ground level all we see is the fire in front of us and we feel the constant heat. When we rise above and look down from the sky, we can see there are so many others fuelling their own fires of pas...

Waha: Using our Voice to Advocate for Positive Change

In late February we submitted on the Future for Local Government Review. You can read the review report here. The WWP has submitted on this report because of the important and far reaching recommendations it makes about the form, function and role of local government in New Zealand. Like the review panel, we are not overly concerned with administrative boundaries, are and more interested in how local government functions in contemporary communities which re diverse, complex and dynamic.Some of t...

Aotearoa New Zealand SDG Summit Series

The 4th Aotearoa SDG Summit Conference was held 9-10 February this year in the Waikato. Co-hosted by the University of Waikato, Waikato Wellbeing project, Te Pukenga and Waikato Tainui. A wide range of speaker from the Waikato and across Aotearoa spoke to the summit’s theme of indigenous perspectives on sustainable development. Keynote speakers included Waikato Regional Council Char Pamela Story, WWP Co-Chair Mike Rolton, Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate, Koi Tu Director and President of the Int...

The Waikato Kai Challenge Project Activator 

12 month role | 20-25 hrs per weekFlexible Work Options AvailableAre you an experienced Project Manager looking for a role where you can use your creative thinking and strong people skills to achieve a food secure Waikato? We're on a journey to understand how we might create a region where all whānau have access to healthy kai, and are seeking a motivated Project Activator to activate the Waikato Kai Project.The Waikato Kai Project is an exciting and evolving ...

2022 in Retrospect

As the final newsletter for the year, it’s a time to reflect on 2022 and the WWP. Work led by our Kaitiaki Advisory Board has reframed our strategic goals and priority areas. Our new vision of “Our mokopuna are thriving” is a much clearer statement of what sustainable development in the Waikato looks like to us. Our mission makes clear our role as careful and active listeners, looking to really understand the root cause of our wellbeing challenges, and applying that to find transcendent b...

Waikato Awa Tira Hoe

On 12 December the Waikato Wellbeing Project team, manu taki, kaitiaki and partners joined together with Rahui Pookeka Water Sports to undertake a tira hoe journey from Turangawaewae Marae to near Waahi Pa at Rahui Pookeka | Huntly.  The purpose of the tira hoe was for us to all gain a deeper and better appreciation of the Te Ao Māori dimensions to wellbeing in the Waikato, to better appreciate te mana o te awa, and how it forms the backbone for any conversation about cultural environmenta...

Poutoko: Impact Project Update

The Rangatahi Opportunity Project reached a major milestone with the launch of our Case for Change “YouThink You Know” on 26 October. An event at the WINTEC Atrium was attended by community, government, philanthropic, youth and iwi leaders from across the Waikato. As well as sharing the major findings from our multi-year research, the event also celebrated our rangatahi and showed their incredible talent and potential. We were thrilled to host performances from Dujon Cullingford, Rosalie N...

The Waikato Kai Challenge | He wero whai hua

The WWP has an ambitious goal of reducing child poverty in the Waikato region to less than 1% and eliminating child hunger by 2030 and a vision that “Our children can thrive because none are hungry at school or cold at home. They can afford to participate in social, artistic, cultural and sporting activities.”  To date our Manu Taki for SDG 1 and 2 Anna Casey-Cox, Norm Hill, Ioana Manu, Cilla Abbott and Jo Wrigley have undertaken a series of consultation hui to understand how we can dev...

Waha: Using our Voice to Advocate for Positive Change

In November we lodged a submission with the New Zealand Productivity Commission in response to their interim report on ending intergenerational disadvantage in New Zealand (Productivity Commission | Interim report on A Fair Chance for All). Our submission can be viewed here: The key points we made included: Centralisation and localism- many effective wellbeing programmes have their origins at grassroots levels, especially in terms of their design, delivery and governance. Those interventions sh...

Hau Kāinga: Lots of Little Fires | He pakipūmeka

An Update from Lead Social Innovator: Joe Wilson...

Pūrākau: Waikato Wellbeing Knowledge Centre | Te Kikokiko o te Whakaaro

We have continued to evolve the concept we have been developing since late 2021. Our advisors from MartinJenkins and Melde have been working to develop the Strategic Case (the Case for Change) and then a framework for turning this case into action. Our work has confirmed that the current arrangements around how we generate, access, and utilise both data and insights could use enhancements and that there is a need to: Increase visibility and accessibility: with better communication, visualisatio...

Aotearoa New Zealand SDG Summit Series

The 4th Aotearoa SDG Summit series has now concluded its lead up webinars, and we are now less than 60 days away from the 2 day summit in early February 2023. The final webinar on “Reimagining the Economy” was held on 7 December. Speakers included Taiporutu Hauraki(Ngaati Hauaa, Ngaati Werewere) and SDG 6 manu taki; Justin Connolly, founding member of the Aotearoa New Zealand hub of WEAl and WWP Kaitiaki Advisory Board member and Reza Yacobi, founder of XertCoin. A big thanks to our amazin...

Aotearoa SDG Alliance

The Aotearoa SDG Alliance continues to develop and grow. We have been a member of the Steering Group since the idea of the alliance was agreed to at the 3rd SDG Summit series in 2021. We have widened the Steering Group to include more community leaders from across Aotearoa. We are currently recruiting co-chairs to lead the next stages of development of the Alliance. Iris Pahau has agreed to be the tangata whenua co-chair for the alliance, and a tangata tiriti co-chair will be announced shortly....

Seeking Expressions of Interest for a Project Activator - 6 month contract role

We're on a journey to understand how we might create a region where all whānau have access to healthy kai, and are seeking a motivated Project Activator to activate the Waikato Kai Project.The Waikato Kai Project is an exciting and evolving project, providing an opportunity for the right candidate to shape and define the best pathway in creating systemic change, through collaboration.As our Project Activator, you will have a passion for kai security/resilience, the abil...

Manu Taki Voice: Jo Wrigley, Manager of Go Eco and Manu Taki for SDG 1/2 and 13

Black Friday: Are you dying of consumption?If you are anything like me, you have an inbox quickly filling with marketing emails for Black Friday, not to be confused with Friday the 13th. True to the name, Black Friday sales are the coal smudge of retail marketing, clogging our inboxes and minds with messages about how buying new stuff will make us happy. Messages that fool us into thinking we’re getting a deal, on an item we didn’t know we needed. Black Friday sales are a lazy, yet profitab...

An introduction to the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) - networking event

The Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) is a global collaboration of groups, movements and individuals working to transform the economic system into one that delivers a healthy planet for healthy people. To achieve this, WEAll seeks to create a space for the important concepts and discussions to enable such change to occur, and to support and encourage them by providing a wealth of knowledge and narratives for people to draw on. This event is one of a number of networking events we have been hold...