Why the

ISSUE 1 April 2012 We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities

Support the Y

Welcome to the first issue of the YMCA of Greater Wellington Why the Y Newsletter. The aim of this newsletter is to tell our stories to our many stake-holders and acknowledge those who have contribut-ed to the success of this fantastic organisation. The YMCA is a not-for-profit organisation. Whilst we do have programmes and services which attract an income such as accommodation and gym member-ships, many of our programmes are offered at mini-mal or no cost in order to remove barriers to partici-pation and to provide important services to the community. Additional funding, from donations, grants and contracts, is often required to run these programmes. The YMCA of Greater Wellington is a charitable trust registered with the Charities Commission. Donations of $5 or more qualify for a tax rebate on production of an official receipt.

This Issue

Kiwibank Local Hero’s Medal-Lisa Phillips P1 Camp Kaitoke Turns Kids’ Lives Around P2

CE’s Message P3 Camp Gets New Flying Fox P3 Community Gets In Behind Masterton Y P3 Current and Upcoming Events P4

Board Profile-Tony Hassed P4

Kiwibank Local Hero’s Medal The Kiwibank Local Heroes rewards everyday people doing extraordinary

things in their local communities and recognises the enormous contribu-

tion, sacrifice and commitment of Kiwis who selflessly work to make their

local communities a better place. Local Heroes may be involved in business,

leadership, voluntary work, community and environmental groups, educa-

tion, sporting clubs, working with the disadvantaged or have displayed

courage in overcoming a personal adversity.

The Local Heroes Awards celebrate one national winner each

year. This award also recognises Local Heroes at a regional level by award-

ing up to 250 Kiwibank Local Heroes medals in 15 regions across New Zea-

land. YMCA of Greater Wellington Education Manager Lisa

Phillips has received one of these prestigious medals for her outstanding work with youth. Simon Jackson, CEO of YMCA Greater Wellington, said, “Lisa was nominated by the young people she helps which demonstrates the great respect and love they feel for her. “She is an inspirational manager of the Education Pathways programme that motivates and tutors 15 to 18-year-olds, often those who have fallen out of the education system. The programme guides them through their NCEA levels so they can get a job. “Pastoral care is a huge part of her role with one aspect being to help them resolve the risks in their private lives. For example, while the rest of New Zealand was enjoying the Rugby World Cup opening gala last year, Lisa was responding to emergencies and rehousing five young people to protect them from danger. “At the Y, we understand that young people can’t be expected to study if their life’s in a mess. Lisa is one of the Y’s most valuable assets and a role model to those around her. We are lucky to have her.” Lisa said she felt embarrassed to be singled out. “But I am very appreciative of the fact that the people who nominated me thought highly enough of me to do that. I really enjoy my work with the tutors and the young people on the programme – they are all very special individuals.”

RONNIE’S STORY – INDEPENDENCE WON FROM AUTISM

Camp Kaitoke holiday programmes have given Ron-nie Harrison, 20, the confidence and skills to break through the social barriers autism creates and lead a more independent life. Autism no longer defines him; it’s just a condition he deals with. Four years ago the idea Ronnie Harrison might one day lead an independent life was unthinkable. That has all changed. Since that time some major influ-ences have impacted on the life of this young Welling-ton man, who has a mild form of autism, a develop-mental disorder impairing social and communication skills. In particular, Ronnie’s regular experiences at YMCA Camp Kaitoke are helping him develop into the person he wants to be. “I’m not autistic Ronnie. I’m just Ronnie. I’m Ronnie with autism,” he says. Ronnie’s mother Julia Harrison says, “The prognosis to begin with was ugly. But autism doesn’t define Ronnie any more. He’s worked really hard on that and most importantly, he’s made the changes himself. “I’m lucky to meet this Ronnie, the one who’s letting everybody in, accepting people being themselves and appreciating them, whereas before everything was black and white.”

What happened four years ago was a sud-den decision Ronnie would live with his mother and no longer be with his foster parents. Julia’s single per-son flat was not set up to house a teenage boy so she cast around for somewhere he could go while she sorted out their living arrangements. It was the school holidays and Julia and Ron-nie’s luck took a turn for the better when she called Camp Kaitoke. “The amount of knockbacks I’ve had in the past, I didn’t know if they would take him. But they just said, ‘Sure, bring him along’. It’s good to know that with YMCA, he’s not a file number; he’s not in the group that’s ‘over there’, not forgotten in a corner somewhere. He’s allowed to express himself.” So Ronnie went out for his first week long camp at Kaitoke and started to discover himself within the structured and supportive environment the camp provides. Camp manager Aidan Tansell says Ronnie is now a camp regular and is in the camp leader scheme. “He’s a role model for the younger campers. Ronnie wants to be a staff member. He won’t be the usual type of staffer but we’ll find a way.”

The amazing thing about youngsters com-ing home from a week at YMCA Greater Wellington’s Camp Kaitoke is how they

have changed. Parents wonder if they have brought home the same kid. The self confi-dence, the skills, the good manners, the niceness to the little sister, the helping with the

meals... the list goes on. For many youngsters, what they learned about their ability to challenge themselves and take control of their lives comes to define the way they behave through the school term. Many come back in their next school holidays to the camp in the foothills of the Rimutaka Ranges – and what they learned before is reinforced. How can such a big change happen in the space of a week away from home? Talk to YMCA Greater Wellington Chief Executive Simon Jackson or any of his staff and they are not surprised the short

but intense experience of the camp has the power to change lives. Simon says, “It’s the camp spirit – we call it mind, body and spirit. We operate on hon-esty, respect, caring and responsibility. They take this in at camp and they take it home with them. “Camp gives their days structure. That’s something much needed for kids, especially boys, who need to know where they belong and who need an outlet for their energy. “They learn self confidence through outdoor activities that stretch them. They don’t have to be anybody but themselves. They’re asked to take care of their camp buddies or anyone else who needs help – and they rise to the occasion.” Camp Kaitoke is an Outdoorsmark Approved Site, certified by Outdoors NZ which operates the national audit scheme of physical safety systems for outdoor activ-ities.

ANNIVERSARY FOR A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE Camp Kaitoke celebrated its fifth birthday on October 30 after being bought for the second time by Greater Wellington YMCA. The camp was originally set up by the YMCA in the 1950s but sold in the 1960s to the Kiwi Ranch organisation. The camp occupies 15 hectares of fields and bush. It provides year-round facilities and programmes for all kinds of groups for personal development, including leadership, bush craft, kayaking, canoeing, horse work, archery, a ropes course, teambuilding and orienteering.

For youngsters – whether ordi-nary kids or kids trying to overcome prob-lems – buying back the camp was the best thing the Y could have done, Camp Kai-toke Manager Aidan Tansell reckons. “We want to make Camp Kai-toke a centre of excellence. The YMCA is about relationships and experiences and Camp Kaitoke is here to support that vi-sion. People know there’s magic here. Every staff member wants to come back to work here, knowing they can make a difference on a personal level.”

SPONSORING KIDS TO CAMP YMCA Greater Wellington offers a scholar-ship – called “Campership” – to ensure cost is never a barrier to participation. “Parents often donate to the Camperships; they pay for their own child and put some extra money into the Camp-

ership fund so someone else’s child can come,” Aidan says. “The Winton and Margaret Bear Trust put in a significant amount for gen-eral use and a lot of that goes on helping kids come to camp.” Youngsters may qualify for a government subsidy to attend a camp or any of the YMCA’s Y-OSCAR (Out of School Care and Recreation) programmes run before and after school and in the school holidays.

YMCA history: the original 1950s cabins - long since replaced

Camp Kaitoke TURNS KIDS’ LIVES AROUND

Article by Lynsey Morgan, published in Vibrant Hutt Magazine

CE’s MESSAGE

When you enjoy one of YMCA Greater Wellington’s services, you will experience quality service, great value and staff who care. At the same time, we make sure you will have a great deal of fun. The YMCAs nation-wide work together on various shared projects with the aim of building strong kids, strong families and strong communities. We are locally responsive and engaged but also nationally co-operative and supportive. We provide hostel accommodation - not just to generate revenue for our other programmes and services - but to provide a safe and healthy envi-ronment. Located in Pilmuir Street, our 102-room hostel provides an affordable option for our residents, who are mostly there on a long-term basis. Our youth education programmes for NCEA levels and work skills are based in Wellington and Masterton. More than 60% of the young people who learn with us move on to employment or further edu-cation. Our outdoor programmes at our Kaitoke camp cater for around 10,000 young people every year. We continue to develop new activities, the latest being a 143-metre flying fox. We are installing a giant swing for which several 16-metre high poles are being specially cut. Next on our agenda is a canopy walk high in the native forest surrounding the camp. We continue to explore new partnerships. YMCA Wellington runs seven after-school programmes based in schools. We continually explore win / win opportunities with schools. They are happy that we reinvest any money we make into helping young peo-ple rather than lining a commercial provider’s pocket. Some schools receive hugely significant revenue as a result of their partnership with the YMCA to reinvest into their schools. Our partnerships with local authorities have enabled us to develop recreation and sports pro-grammes for their communities in a more cost effective way than they could provide. More than 300 teams of youngsters compete in the sports leagues we run. And from April our holiday programmes will continue to operate throughout the region catering for hundreds of children every day. We thank you all for your support and patronage and look forward to exploring more ways of building stronger kids, families and communities.

A Special Thank You!

YMCA of Greater Wellington gratefully acknowledges the following donors over the last two months. This funding helps us continue our mission to build strong kids, strong families and strong communities

COMMUNITY GETS IN BEHIND MASTERTON Y DEVELOMENT The Masterton community has got in behind the redevelopment of the YMCA Masterton Facility. In February 2012 the YMCA gave up its head tenancy agreement with the Master-ton Trust Lands Trust around the usage of the Masterton YMCA Facility. This change meant that the YMCA could change its focus from running a building back into what the building was set up for; offering quality programmes for the community. This being the case, Mandy’s Gym-nastics Club moved out of the stadium freeing up the facility for YMCA and community based programmes. The YMCA along with the Mas-terton Trust Lands Trust has invested in the stadium by remarking and polyurethaning the stadium floor. The stadium is now set up to run badminton, futsal, indoor soccer, basket-ball, netball, volleyball and a variety of junior sports. Following this we would like to acknowledge the support from JNL, McAulley’s Transport, ITM and Stihl Hire Shop who all donated materials to redo the interior walls of the stadium. A special mention must go to Dennis Tapp of Wairarapa Futsal who organised his members to donate their time to installing the new wall lining.

Wairarapa Futsal are one of the first groups to book out the centre to run their futsal leagues and development programmes and the YMCA is proud to have them on board. Dennis and his wife Robyn do an amaz-ing job running futsal throughout the Wairarapa Region and we hope YMCA Master-ton will make an excellent new home for Futsal in the region. From term two 2012, we will be growing our programmes in the facility to include sports leagues, dance, kiddies gymnas-tics and movement programmes along with School Holiday Programmes. The YMCA Mas-terton Centre will once again be a key contrib-utor to the community and offer exciting, fun and educational programmes for residents.

CAMP GETS NEW FLYING FOX Camp Kaitoke has a brand new flying fox! Thanks to funding re-ceived from the South-ern Trust the camp now has a 143m long zip line taking campers through the tree tops in Kaitoke. This is an exciting addition to Camp and will be one of many new attrac-tions to be developed over the next 12 months

BUILDING OUR PRESENCE

You will notice the YMCA vehicles around your community more often. We now have three sign written cars and the trailer to spread the word about our fantastic pro-grammes. More to follow in 2012!

Camp Kaitoke campers in the army tents

Volunteers from Wairarapa Futsal donate their time to relining the stadium walls

Melissa running our new Y-Dance programme

Simon Jackson

Chief Executive, YMCA Greater Wellington

Current and Upcoming Events

Y-Camps

Have you heard about YMCA Greater Wellington Y-Camps? Campers will notice a few changes on past years including new bunk beds and the fan-tastic new flying-fox. Hundreds of kids each year aged 7-15+ learn inde-pendence, teamwork and leadership skills, whilst having heaps of fun each school holidays. April’s programmes kicked off on the 15th.

School Holiday Programmes

School Holiday Programmes are about to get underway in April again. These are now held all around the Greater Wellington Region, We have centres in the Wairarapa, Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City. Pro-grammes include dance, drama, outdoor activites, visits, theatre and movies. Many children attend the week-long programmes on a regular basis, a testament to the fun, care and learning they experience. Y Camps and School Holiday programmes are funded jointly by the Minis-try of Social Development and by parents. For families unable to afford the full fee and ineligible for a WINZ subsidy, the YMCA offers its own subsidy programmes to reduce barriers to participation.

New After School Care Centres

YMCA of Greater Wellington has two new After School Centres to go along with its five others. We welcome Te Aro School and Trentham School to our Y-OSCAR programmes. Schools that wish to learn about joining the Y-OSCAR programme should email Emily Robinson on emilyrobinson@ymca.org.nz

YMCA of Greater Wellington

67 Pilmuir Street, Lower Hutt PO Box 30247, Lower Hutt

Ph: 04 568 3252 Fax: 04 568 9528

www.ymcawellington.org.nz

Board Profiles

The YMCA of Greater Wellington has an amazing gov-ernance team. The board is full of very experienced leaders in their respective fields and we would like to introduce one of them in each edition of this news-letter.

Tony Hassed Tony has been a business consultant for the last 10 years. Through his company, BoardSense Ltd, previously Hassed Advice, he has provid-ed advice to some 400 boards and councils and their CEOs on governance and the role of the CEO.

He undertakes extensive mentoring from young entrepreneurs to CEOs and board chairmen. Tony is a former CEO of General Finance; a senior ex-ecutive with the National Provident Fund; an invest-ment company general manager, an IBM manager and an advisor in management, marketing and acquisi-tions. Tony has conducted public seminars on the topic of governance, and forums for CEOs on the topic of the Board’s relationship with the CEO. He served as National President and Chair of the NZ Institute of Management (NZIM) 2003-2004 and served on the National Board for thirty years. He was also National President in 1985-86. His commitment to NZIM was recognised in 1996 when he was awarded an inaugu-ral Life Fellow of the Institute. He has been a Trustee of the NZIM Foundation for 11 years. He previously chaired the Audit NZ Advisory Board and Quality Health New Zealand. He has held a national role in the Anglican Church, and was the treasurer of the Rotary Club of Wellington for 10 years. He chairs the Upper Hutt Health Centre, the YMCA Greater Wellington, Colum-bia Group Ltd, the Lakeside Villas Timeshare Resort and the Anglican Resource Centre. He is also a board member of New Zealand Kindergarten Inc.

We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities

You can follow many of our programmes in Facebook including YMCA Camp Kaitoke and YMCA Upper Hutt