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TacklingPovertyNZ Workshop – Gisborne, 31 August 2016

1. Introduction

Thank you for completing this survey. It is based on a workshop held in Gisborne on 31 August 2016. This survey will be open until Monday, 31 October 2016.

Results from this survey will shape an upcoming discussion paper. The paper will be published later in the year and a copy will be sent to the Chief Economist at the New Zealand Treasury.

The 'hows' developed at the workshop come under six key themes or groups: A: working families/working poor, B: gangs and drug users, C: children under 12, D: health and mental health, E: elderly, and F: Māori. 

The survey contains version 3 of the 69 'hows' which were refined from the original 122 'hows' discussed at the workshop. Version 1 is the raw exercise sheets from the workshop and version 2 is the collated list of 'hows' discussed at the workshop. If you would like to see any of the versions mentioned above, please go to the Gisborne workshop outputs page on the TacklingPovertyNZ website here.

It would be terrific if you could complete the following survey by rating each of the 69 ‘hows' from 'not a great idea' to 'a really interesting idea', and/or adding new ‘hows’ (those that may have been missed or new ones you have thought of since the workshop took place). The survey can also be repeated; so if you think of another idea, you do not need to redo the whole survey. Instead just add your name at the top and then go to the question you want to add to or expand on. None of the questions are compulsory.

In the interest of gaining a broad overview, this survey is designed to seek feedback from attendees and non-attendees alike, so please share the survey with your friends and whanau. 

Thank you for your interest. If you have any questions, please email us at tacklingpovertynz@mcguinnessinstitute.org.

All the best, 

Wendy McGuinness and the team at the Institute
1.If you would like us to get in touch with you about the survey and discussion paper, please put your name, mobile number and email address in the boxes below. (Please note, all questions in this survey are optional.)
2.What is your connection with Gisborne?
3.Did you attend the TacklingPovertyNZ Gisborne one-day workshop on 31 August 2016?
4.Are you:
5.What age bracket do you belong to?
6.To help us understand your answers, can you tell us if you
7.A: Please rank the 'working families/working poor hows' below.
Not a great idea
Kind of interesting
Interesting
A really interesting idea
1. Innovating the current system: Innovating the current financial system by reducing or removing GST on basic items, cutting dishonour charges for lower income families, and providing access to low-interest loans.
2. Saving schemes: Creating incentives to save and encouraging financial literacy by creating short-term saving schemes to help with budgeting (e.g. Christmas Clubs or saving for car registration).
3. Re-teaching: Re-teaching basic life skills and educating families so that all can contribute (e.g. through a family mentor).
4. Parental leave: Increasing paid parental leave.
5. Seasonal workers: Creating: a smooth pay system; an income to cover the basics; and increased holiday pay to help seasonal workers in the off-season. This could be a WINZ system (e.g. seasonal workers could volunteer over the off-season but would be paid by WINZ).
6. Employers: Implementing a lower tax-rate for employers who offer employees a living wage and redundancy packages.
7. Minimum wage: Increasing the minimum wage.
8. Training: Consulting stakeholders to develop a plan which ensures availability of skilled seasonal workers and implements targeted training for Tairawhiti region. This would also increase job security because jobs would reflect demand (e.g. through looking at local industries such as forestry and horticulture).
9. Grants: Promoting awareness of small business centre grants.
10. Stand-down periods: Removing stand-down period in jobs. (From Work and Income New Zealand: ‘A stand down is a period, of up to a maximum of two weeks, where the client cannot receive a benefit payment.’ Source: http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/about-work-and-income/our-services/what-is-a-stand-down.html)
11. Transportation: Encouraging employers to provide transport for employees to and from work.
12. Financial training/literacy: Ensuring financial training is a part of any job so that employees learn financial literacy.
13. KiwiSaver: Encouraging employees and employers to contribute to KiwiSaver.
14. Union: Setting up a Seasonal Workers Union.
15. PEP scheme: Putting people back on marae under the PEP scheme (Project Employment Programme) – designed to provide fully tax-funded jobs and short-term jobs for those at risk of long-term unemployment.
16. Hub: Bringing the Hub to the community instead of the community to the Hub.
17. Funding: Implementing ongoing local funding.
18. Belonging: Encouraging whanaungatanga (relationship, kinship, sense of family connection) (e.g. getting a ride to town with neighbours, getting neighbours to do your shopping, or having a Saturday driving service).
19. Pasifika: Encouraging Pacific Islanders to seek help both within and outside the Pacific Island Community, and encouraging employers to provide information about support services and networks available to the Pacific Island community.
20. Mobile health clinic: Creating a mobile health clinic.
21. Sharing meals: Creating a ‘sharing meal’ system.
22. Emergency housing: Creating affordable emergency housing (e.g. through transportable shipping containers).
23. Housing regulations: Reviewing housing regulations to improve housing stock.
8.B: Please rank the 'gangs and drug users hows' below.
Not a great idea
Kind of interesting
Interesting
A really interesting idea
24. Services: Reviewing current services and bringing services directly to gang families and wananga, and ensure they are whanau-led (e.g. Ruia Sisters in Red and Notorious).
25. Whanau: Listening to the experience of gang whanau and involving whanau – from the beginning to the end – and letting them set goals.
26. Acceptance: Accepting the scale of the problems, especially by the community at large.
27. Re-integration: Improving re-integration after prison sentences, particularly for women. i.) Job opportunities – Increasing job opportunities by ensuring social enterprises provide jobs to those who mainstream employers might not consider. ii.) Housing – Increasing access to quality housing, including creating a bank of emergency accommodation, supported housing for those in need, and halfway houses for people coming out of prison.
28. Local prison: Drawing upon the Norwegian prison model of local prisons to decrease impact on whanau.
29. Support and rehabilitation: Ensuring more support is there for those dealing with addictions (e.g. a local drug and alcohol court and a local rehabilitation unit in the Gisborne/Tairawhiti region).
30. Education: Ensuring appropriate drug education is available in the community.
31. Reviewing access: Reviewing access to alcohol licencing.
32. Youth centre: Creating a youth centre/safe zone for children.
9.C: Please rank the 'children under 12 hows' below.
Not a great idea
Kind of interesting
Interesting
A really interesting idea
33. Intervention and support: Having earlier intervention and support for struggling students by building trusting relationships between people and providers.
34. Education system: Making systems adaptable to individual needs by implementing a strength-based educational system and updating the delivery of that system for 2017 and the long-term.
35. Engage youth: Keeping youth engaged in learning for longer by creating more modern trade apprenticeships, encouraging outdoor education programmes and supporting initiatives such as CACTUS (Combined Adolescent Challenge Training Unit Support).
36. Access to information: Ensuring children and families have access to information about education.
37. Family relationships: Strengthening family relationships and role modelling ‘better ways’ to interact as a family. This should include ‘teaching parents how to teach.’
38. Access and affordability: Improving access to, and affordability of, early childhood education (ECE) by identifying children who are not attending childcare, checking in with parents and caregivers and asking why the 20 hours free early childhood education and care scheme is not being used and then addressing these needs.
39. Antenatal care: Improving antenatal care.
40. Supporting existing groups: Supporting community groups that are already established and encouraging groups to collaborate, support each other and scale-up (e.g. Te Ora Hou, -9+ and Tu Tangata).
41. Community governance: Encouraging community governance to reduce bureaucracy (e.g. a community washing machine could be installed at a school, allowing support for struggling families).
10.D: Please rank the 'health and mental health hows' below.
Not a great idea
Kind of interesting
Interesting
A really interesting idea
42. Dress-up shop: Creating a dress-up shop to provide professional clothes for those without clothes, such as for a job interview.
43. Drug management: Improving prescription drug management.
44. Fluoride: Taking fluoride out of the water in Gisborne.
45. Sugar tax: Taxing sugar to discourage unhealthy eating.
46. External review: Implementing an external review of the mental health system and mental health services. This review would ensure that the right people are in the right roles, that staff have the appropriate workload and pay, and could potentially increase funding for mental health. A review would also ensure central government acknowledge the need for change.
47. Services hub: Creating a one-stop shop where services collaborate to share information (potentially though a database) but also ensure confidentially. This integrated approach would assist in removing structural and institutionalised poverty and would put a stop to siloed support systems.
48. Changing the perception of mental health: Ensuring service providers change the way they engage with patients by asking ‘what matters to you’, not ‘what’s the matter with you’, improving responsive services by removing judgement, and encouraging tolerance and empathy by building trust and understanding.
49. Service delivery: Improving service delivery for hard to access groups such as homeless or mentally ill (e.g. through innovation, social media, building relationships not just delivering services and by listening not directing).
50. Local rehabilitation centre: Creating a local rehabilitation centre, which would include meeting rooms, specialists and car parking.
51. Support homes: Creating support homes for those with mental illness.
52. Health professionals: Increasing accountability of health professionals and service providers and facilitate the possibility of retraining.
53.Therapy and counselling: Improving access to therapy and counselling for homeless.
11.E: Please rank the 'elderly hows' below.
Not a great idea
Kind of interesting
Interesting
A really interesting idea
54. Collated information: Creating a Plunket booklet for the elderly; a simplified, universal booklet for elderly to inform them of where to go for help.
55. Housing: Building more Kaumātua Flats (Kaumātua flats are available for people who are 65 years-old and over). Building these houses will create jobs and also provide housing for elderly.
56. Programmes: Creating programmes that combat loneliness and encourage elderly to live interactive and active lifestyles (e.g. implementing a programme where elderly can interact with animals and creating walking, swimming and tai chi groups.
57. Intergenerational connections: Encouraging more interaction between the young and elderly (e.g. through elderly teaching young people basic life skills and young people teaching elderly technological skills; by integrating retirement homes and nurseries; encouraging single mums to volunteer with the elderly; creating a space for elderly to read to the blind and teach young people how to read; and implementing an ‘adopt a Grandparent service’).
58. Emergency and health services: Creating and implementing an emergency police contact or panic button for elderly, and encouraging GPs to know who their elderly patients are and who is living alone.
59. Home-help jobs: Creating home-help jobs with extended hours. This service will create jobs in the community while also providing prolonged support for the elderly.
60. Transportation: Encouraging SuperGrans to create a ‘Superbus’ which facilitates transportation for elderly.
61. Abuse and neglect: Raising awareness of abused elderly (e.g. advertisements on Television, radio and newspapers).
62. Funding: Reviewing and potentially increasing funding and resources for the elderly (e.g. through lowering medical and prescription costs, reviewing the ‘living pension’, creating a superannuation scheme like Australia’s, and eliminating rate penalties and GST for 65+ year-olds).
12.F: Please rank the 'Māori hows' below.
Not a great idea
Kind of interesting
Interesting
A really interesting idea
63. Correct the statistics: Correcting the institutionalised racism of colonisation that results in the over-representation of Māori in negative statistics (e.g. Māori incarceration, Māori mortality rates, more medical tests conducted for non-Māori).
64. Healing: Healing for Tairawhiti cultural oppression by 2019, by: restoring mana; unveiling the truth of Māori history in Tairawhiti; restoring identity; restoring indigenous healing; restoring connectedness; and embracing traditional practices.
65. Asking what it means to be Māori: Addressing lost identities and rethinking what being Māori means, by creating a sense of belonging through cultural education. Drugs, alcohol and gangs are not who Māori are.
66. Connectivity: Celebrating success and encouraging collective living arrangements (e.g. through the ‘20 houses’ model – build 20 units in one area so that nannies, papas, ‘empty nesters’, young parents, and whanau are not isolated).
67. Incorporation: Increasing effective engagement with whanau, and ensuring Māori-to-Māori are in conversation rather than just Māori-to-non-Māori, especially in the implementation of any ‘hows’.
68. Māori male primary teachers: Encouraging more Māori male primary school teachers.
69. Community gardens: Initiating a Maara Kai programme – the Te Puni Kōkiri Maara Kai Programme provides financial assistance to community groups wanting to set up sustainable community garden projects, such as fruit forests.
13.Do you have any new ideas not already discussed above? These ideas may have been missed at the workshop or might have resulted from discussions after the workshop. We would like as many ideas as possible. Please explain and expand here or email us at tacklingpovertynz@mcguinnessinstitute.org.
14.If you have any questions or feedback about the workshop series, it would be terrific if you could share these below. Alternatively email us at tacklingpovertynz@mcguinnessinstitute.org.
We believe tackling poverty is an important issue and we only have limited resources - so we need to know what worked and what did not.
Thank you so much for taking the time to complete this survey.