Council and Sunset School win national award

Sunset School was part of a pilot programme for low decile schools

A Rotorua Lakes Council pilot project designed to support tamariki living in deprivation has won a national award.

The council won the Minister of Local Government's Award for Innovation in Council/Community Relations from the NZ Society of Local Government Managers (SOLGM) yesterday.

The award, which is one of the categories in the 2020 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards, is for the Rotorua Child Equity Pilot Programme, a collaboration between Rotorua Lakes Council, several community and central government agencies and decile one school, Sunset Primary School in Rotorua.

The programme provides tamariki living in deprivation with access to activities, services and experiences that enhance health and well-being and was one of 20 entries in its category.

Following a successful pilot, the scheme has been extended to five decile one and two schools.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said the award was testament to the commitment of all those who contributed to make a difference.

The judges praised the programme as a successful community-based approach to well-being.

SOLGM chief advisor Raymond Horan says this is the type of community-based solution that Parliament intended when it restored the four well-beings into the Local Government Act.

'The council identified a local issue and took a systems approach, taking on the role of advocate, broker and coordinator,” Raymond says.

The programme provides access to activities, services and experiences that enhance health and wellbeing and can have life-changing implications into adulthood.

'We want Rotorua to be a place for everyone and that means we need to address the barriers to full participation that exist for our most vulnerable," Steve says.

"Every child matters and simple things can have a big impact, as the programme has shown and I think Rotorua can be very proud of this.”

Research shows children living in poverty are disadvantaged in many ways, face a wide range of issues, and miss out on activities and experiences that can affect their ability to thrive into adulthood.

The mayor paid tribute to the commitment of council staff, Sunset School, its wider community and other partner groups central to the success of the child equity programme.

'It was heartening to hear Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta describing this as exactly the sort of programme they had in mind when they re-introduced the wellbeings into the purpose of local government.

'This programme was driven by a need we saw to interrupt the poverty cycle and reduce inequities to limit associated long-term impacts and it is making a difference.”

Sunset School agreed to partner with council to pilot the child equity programme and it has since grown into a group of schools and organisations taking collective action to improve outcomes for tamariki, with a particular focus on reducing the impacts of child poverty.

Rather than piloting the delivery of a specific programme, the pilot explored the potential of accessing multiple opportunities through collaboration between community and stakeholders to achieve collective impact.

Council partnered with the school to co-design a programme that was tailored to the needs of the school's students and the local community.

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