Dannevirke: Drawing up a blueprint for the future

Chrissy Severinsen is the author of a community needs assessment for the Project Tararua development scheme. Photo / Christine McKay

Rolling out Project Tararua and its community needs assessment is an exciting time for our community, says Peter Barton of Tararua Reap.

Speaking at a community meeting in Dannevirke last week, Mr Barton said the release of the first stage of the project, a report by Chrissy Severinsen, had created a lot of interest in the project.

Funded by a $240,000 grant from the Department of Internal Affairs as part of the Government's Community Development scheme, the project allows communities to generate their own solutions and work towards becoming more self-reliant and resilient.

Kerry of budget services adds her sticker to the wall of ideas at the community meeting on Thursday.

"This is a chance to make a real difference in our community," Mr Barton said. "This project is a collaborative way for positive outcomes for our community."

The three-year project is focused on community development, identifying needs and solutions, with the steering group receiving $80,000 a year.

There are 15 organisations that make up the project group, with seven to eight people on the steering group.

The first stage has been to establish a picture of where the communities in the Tararua are now, nine years on from the last Ministry of Social Development mapping of the district.

Robin Winter of Woodville has been appointed project manager for Project Tararua.

"In 2006, family violence, educational under-achievement, drug and alcohol abuse and a lack of parenting skills were some of the seven areas which needed addressing," Mr Barton said. "Programmes were put in place to tackle those problems and now it's important to see how far the community has moved on from then."

Dr Severinsen said her research was aimed at getting a clear picture of how things were in the Tararua at the moment and what were the needs, challenges, strengths and priorities.

"The overall socio-economic profile of the Tararua is contributing to poor health outcomes, with pockets of very high deprivation, low income and unemployment in Dannevirke East, Woodville, Pahiatua and Eketahuna," she said. "Eight of the 11 areas of the district identified are equally or more deprived than in 2006."

However, despite the figures showing pockets of very high deprivation in the Tararua, home ownership was relatively high, with low household crowding and a sound home insulation programme.

"There are some concerns over housing costs, and most of those on lower incomes spend a bigger proportion on housing, with households left with little money for food and transport," Dr Severinsen said. "In the Tararua, increasing numbers of people are renting."

But Dr Severinsen's research has found education outcomes are improving, with some really positive trends.

"An increasing number of 18-year-olds are leaving school with NCEA Level 2 and there is a declining number of those with no qualifications, and truancy is trending down. This is really encouraging," she said.

"But stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions remain high and concerning for schools. In some areas of the Tararua, stand-downs for Maori males is six times higher than the national level."

However, Dawid de Villiers, principal of Dannevirke High School, said his school did not have as many stand-downs as the figures suggested.

"It goes back to the family and we need to get away from numbers because it starts with family," he said. "We have to make changes in the way we educate our young people because they now grow up in a complex world and it's not as simple as in my day."

And Kerry of Dannevirke Home Budgeting Services queried the high deprivation figures in the report.

"I think it's got more to do with being a rural district and Dannevirke is no worse than other similar rural towns," she said.

Although crime in the Tararua is consistently lower than national figures, it is still increasing, Dr Severinsen's research shows.

"Social deprivation is one of the drivers of that increase," she said.

The most common offences across Tararua are burglary, wilful damage and theft, and people under 17 represented 17 per cent of all offender arrests in Tararua last year. Between 2011 and 2014, Dannevirke police youth aid dealt with an average of 80 offences a year. Shoplifting, burglary, graffiti and wilful damage accounted for 50 per cent of that offending.

Senior Sergeant Nathan Davis of the Tararua police told the Dannevirke News much of the offending was down to a core group of juveniles.

Moving forward, Dr Severinsen said there was increasing demand for services in Tararua but organisations were seeing no change in resources or a decreasing capacity for funding.

"There's a lot of concern there are people in the Tararua who are missing out on good, quality services," she said. "Areas requiring further work include housing, education, employment, family violence, mental health and access to services.

"It's a mucky picture and complex, but too many Tararua households don't have the same access to resources, and community development work requires a broad lens."

Dr Severinsen said the Project Tararua team would need to engage central government, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and local government and residents to maintain the positive cycle of change.

Mr Barton said the report would not be sitting on shelves and the next stage was to take it to every corner of our community, with Woodville's Robin Winter appointed as project manager to do this.

Ms Winter said: "I love this place and I love the people of the Tararua, and I'm looking forward to being at your place, making connections and taking this project forward.

"I want to talk to everybody."

Wairarapa MP Alastair Scott said the communities between Norsewood and Eketahuna had the challenges of rural isolation and poor public transport networks.

"The project aims to ensure people living in this area have awareness and access to well-resourced and connected community services," he said.