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1. Introduction

This survey will be open until Monday, 10 October 2016.

Results from this survey will shape an upcoming discussion paper on the 19 August 2016 workshop. 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: youth, community, housing, financing debt, business and government initiatives. From these, '44 hows' to tackle poverty were identified.

It would be terrific if you could complete the following survey by rating each of the '44 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 survey in its totality, but 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. 

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

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* 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.)

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* 2. What is your connection with Rotorua?

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* 3. Did you attend the TacklingPovertyNZ Rotorua one-day workshop on 19 August 2016?

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* 4. Are you

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* 5. What age bracket do you belong to?

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* 6. To help us understand your answers, can you tell us if you

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* 7. A: Looking at ways to tackle poverty around youth in the Rotorua area, here are some of the ideas raised at the workshop. We would like to know which you recommend we highlight in the discussion paper. Please rank the 'Youth hows' below.

  Not a great idea Kind of interesting Interesting A really interesting idea
1. Changing the way we teach in schools: From theory to practical ‘hands on’ learning; having smaller teacher/student ratios in classrooms; working with whanau; and having teacher aides and social workers at all school.
2. Changing how we motivate youth: having inspiring kaumatua mentors in schools; having adults who listen; learning styles catered to – aiming to create students who love to learn; providing youth courses for all students that focus on building individual strengths; and ensuring local funding for scholarships.
3. Changing what we teach in school: Teaching Te Arawa, Te Reo (Whakapapa), employment skills, addiction education and life skills (cooking, life planning, budgeting, gardening, sewing, emotional and financial literacy); teaching the values of education, community, healthy relationships, self and family; teaching real life stories (e.g. talks from recovered drug and alcohol addicts, drink driving outcomes and pregnancy (including fetal alcohol syndrome) outcomes).
4. Ensuring schools reflect the reality of their communities making it easier for parents to afford what’s needed. For example, allowing canvas shoes from Kmart ($4) instead of leather shoes from The Warehouse ($20).
5. Valuing children: Showing parents how to actively love their children; and registering and working to become a UNICEF NZ Child Friendly City.
6. Supporting childcare: Providing agency support and empowerment for solo parents (focusing on strength based services and fathering programmes); providing a minimum five-day stay in hospital for new mums to help them on their journey to motherhood; providing additional government funding to District Health Boards to ensure everyone has support for first 1,000 days of a child’s life (valuing the role of mother and father); providing free childcare for all pre-schoolers, not just subsidized; establishing a universal caregiver allowance; ensuring needs assessed disability and carer support; and providing residential respite for carer’s children.
7. Interacting more with youth on social media platforms – ensuring key directory services are on social media pages for easy access.
8. Promoting boarding schools for teenage years.

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* 8. B: Looking at ways community could better contribute to tackling poverty in the Rotorua  area, here are some of the ideas raised at the workshop. We would like to know which you recommend we highlight in the discussion paper. Please rank the 'Community hows' below.

  Not a great idea Kind of interesting Interesting A really interesting idea
9. Providing community services: A 24-hour Social Care Centre; universal access to health services, counselling, rehabilitation centres and housing; and creating community hubs for social solidarity and to share knowledge between generations in gardening, knitting, creative and computer skills. This will also build social, mental and health awareness.
10. Providing community food: Replacing the flowers in roundabouts with fruit and vegetables; providing free kai for kids distributed from the local community centres (not from within the school gates); and campaigning to love food, hate waste.
11. Community led decision-making: Allowing communities to make decisions about how to allocate funds; funding initiatives for community and iwi; creating independent evaluations of local social services to make sure that the impacts/KPIs are met; and funding for medical, police and community services specific to Rotorua due to visitor pressures on services.
12. Showcasing through social marketing, good examples of initiatives that are working in the community.
13. Access to information: Councils to notify the community of upcoming events and services by contributing to school/community newsletters and websites and improving their website for easy access to information.
14. Encouraging learning about the community: the ability to reflect, understand and identify beliefs; move away from the ‘one size fits all way of thinking’; and establish a collective together, creating good relationships.
15. Including elderly in everything we do in the community: Pick them up and take them to hui meetings; visit them in their homes; and involve them with rangatahi e.g. reading buddy or schools adopting grandparents.
16. Changing the stigma of poverty: By creating a culture that cares for our most vulnerable. Being in poverty doesn’t mean you’re uneducated or not contributing to your community.
17. Helping those who want help: Creating volunteering initiatives which enables the unemployed to volunteer (for a certain number of hours) in return for receiving things such as financial support to get photo ID taken or to buy a suit and tie; and establish a Daytime Educational Drop In Centre to provide clear pathways for whanau who want help and retraining.
18. Providing a temporary address for people to start the benefit process.
19. Changing the WINZ financial assistance process to be more informed, have background checks on who they support, pay to assist clients and do follow ups on their service.
20. Providing sustainable funding for supportive initiatives: support in the home long term; consistent support for workers; and support for those with identified needs (culturally appropriate services).
21. Providing a universal caregiver wage.
22. Providing rehab grants for offenders who spent time in prison and community detention centres. The grant does not have to be in the form of money but could aid integration with support programmes, which could provide basic work and living skills training.
23. Making it compulsory for social service providers to let clients know what they are entitled to. We need easy access to services that work for the people.
24. Introducing better processes within the ACC department to make it easier for disabled people.
25. Breaking barriers to extend service providers restrictions.

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* 9. C: Looking at ways housing could better contribute to tackling poverty in Rotorua, here are some of the ideas raised at the workshop. We would like to know which you recommend we highlight in the discussion paper. Please rank the 'Housing hows' below.

  Not a great idea Kind of interesting Interesting A really interesting idea
26. Providing communal housing – Papakainga – as a long term accommodation option.
27. Telling Housing New Zealand (HNZ) to step up and stop selling houses.
28. Allocating the empty houses in the region to families waiting on the HNZ waitlist (which is currently a three-year wait). Funding will be necessary to get some of these houses up to a living standard. This should come from HNZ.
29. Establishing emergency shelters: a Centre for Homeless Whanau and a homeless night shelter.
30. Reforming social housing: Building affordable homes; reviewing accommodation costs; easier criteria for access; compulsory warrants of fitness for housing; and providing housing bonds to working families still struggling due to low paying jobs.

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* 10. D: Looking at ways to tackle poverty around financing debt in Rotorua, here are some of the ideas raised at the workshop. We would like to know which you recommend we highlight in the discussion paper. Please rank the 'Financing debt hows' below.

  Not a great idea Kind of interesting Interesting A really interesting idea
31. Capping debt.
32. Providing free legal advice for the elderly.
33. Revisiting laws for students to protect them from the burden of debt and providing interest-free loans.
34. Reforming the tax system.
35. Establishing more regulations around money lending and our financial system.
36. Campaigning for a living wage: Increasing the hourly rate to a minimum of $18 per hour; and community specific benefit entitlement to cover living costs.

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* 11. E: Looking at ways businesses could better contribute to tackling poverty in Rotorua, here are some of the ideas raised at the workshop. We would like to know which you recommend we highlight in the discussion paper. Please rank the 'Business hows' below.

  Not a great idea Kind of interesting Interesting A really interesting idea
37. Careers evenings for businesses with employment vacancies. Community members have the opportunity to attend a four-step training programme to gain the skills to fit the vacancies. The idea comes from Ruapehu, where it was successfully trialled and saw a high placement of workers.
38. Providing a subsidy to encourage businesses to hire people on the benefit (instead of overseas labourers). Redirecting government benefits towards subsidising a long term solution will allow workers to enter the workforce to gain skills, confidence and ability to support their families.
39. Encouraging socially responsible businesses (good corporate citizens): Employment/training opportunities; commitment to employing local people; and businesses adopting a local community centre.
40. Changing the way contracts are done.
41. Getting rid of all liquor and lotto shops in poor areas.

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* 12. F: Looking at ways government could better contribute to tackling poverty in Rotorua, here are some of the ideas raised at the workshop. We would like to know which you recommend we highlight in the discussion paper. Please rank the 'Government Initiatives hows' below.

  Not a great idea Kind of interesting Interesting A really interesting idea
42. Creating a Central Government Strategy targeting poverty – 2025 NZ poverty free – where implementation and information is fed at the local and regional level.
43. Establishing Te Kopai Tuatahi – The first footsteps: A think tank to continue the work and ideas that have been discussed. This would get funding for research, with the findings accessible to all.
44. Creating government policies that value and support kin care.

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* 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.

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* 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.

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