Brent Eastwood: Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa fund supporting Northlanders

The Northern Wairoa community's new "play trailer", which is available for community use thanks to Tū Manawa funding.

OPINION:
In my last article, I talked about how a community investment fund from Sport NZ is now available for innovative physical activity initiatives.

Northland play, active recreation and sport providers (such as regional sports organisations, clubs, schools and other community groups) are now able to try new and different ways of encouraging Northland tamariki and rangatahi to become active with the aid of funding from Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa.

The next few articles will feature some of the innovative initiatives arising from the fund.

The Northern Wairoa community has been quick to take up the challenge through the planning, sourcing and administration of a new "play trailer", which is now available for community use thanks to Tū Manawa funding.

The play trailer idea came about from residents in Te Kopuru looking for something to keep tamariki active and off the streets. The Te Kopuru Community Development Group (TKCDG) came up with the idea that a mobile trailer would be great to fill this need.

At the same time, there was a desire from the partners with a similar interest to also have a coordinator who could take the trailer to different parks and work with rangatahi and tamariki in schools on utilising the play equipment. Together they worked on an application and Tū Manawa was able to fund the trailer and some equipment.

The trailer has been filled with sporting, play equipment and loose parts to suit all ages.

TKCDG member Violet Hutchinson says, "It's great having everyone on board and our tamariki are so excited, they feel that they have been a big part of this, from their ideas around what is going in the trailer to their pictures on the outside of it."

Sport Northland community connector Roxanne Kelly says some of the best play projects are as simple as "stuff in a place".

"If it is novel or sensory, it is likely to nudge our tamariki towards play. So if anyone from the community has items they could donate, it would make the play trailer that much more exciting. For example, if upholsterers have piles of leather cut-offs, builders with wood scraps or plumbers with PVC pipes and connectors lying around we would love to have them."

Roxanne says items such as cable reels, old car steering wheels, old baby car seats, milk crates or tyres would all make great loose parts for play.

"Essentially anything considered 'junk' we would be glad to have."

The trailer is now a true community collaboration between Dargaville Blue Light, Dargaville Police, Dargaville Intermediate, Te Kopuru School, TKCDG and Sport Northland.

Sport Northland manages the Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa fund on behalf of Sport NZ in our region and this provides funding for programmes or projects delivering tākaro/play, ngā mahi a te rēhia/active recreation and hākinakina/sport experiences for tamariki and rangatahi. These may be new or already operating.

• For more information see www.sportnorthland.co.nz under the Helping Sport Happen/Whakatinana Hākinakina tab.