Building a strong community
In West Auckland’s McLaren Park they’re building a community, one brick at a time.
McLaren Park and Henderson South (MPHS) Community Initiative manager Rochana Sheward says the area is home to thousands of people, but has no community hall, no church, little framework on which to build a sense of community and belonging.
What it does have is a busy row of shops on Bruce McLaren Rd. So that’s where MPHS has based itself: near the dairy and the bakery – the places that residents visit most days. It’s a first step toward a community.
“This area has been identified by Waitakere City Council as an area of need, with no physical resources,” says Rochana. “But the problem we faced was how to get to the people who need us? How do we set up a consultative process when there’s nowhere to meet?”
Operating since 2003, MPHS’ flagship is the Young Believers youth group which meets once a week in Bruce McLaren Intermediate School hall. The group builds leadership skills through events such as talent quests and hip-hop shows. Last year it hosted Auckland’s version of television’s The Amazing Race – with teams using buses, trains and ferries to find clues scattered around the city.
“It included things like going into the Art Museum and counting the number of Goldie paintings on display,” Rochana says. “They had to busk to get enough money for a photo-booth photo, then take a ferry to Devonport and make a human pyramid.”
Along the way the entrants learned about using public transport, visited new areas and put their leadership skills to work making sure other team members were kept safe.
This year the youth group – with the thought-provoking moniker the YBs - will form the nucleus of a project to stamp McLaren Park’s personality on its environment. MPHS has permission from Vector Energy and funding from Waitakere City Council to create artworks on giant transformers in the area.
“Vector will help with materials and we will work closely with Public Affairs – art dept at council, so we can paint six of the transformers, with help from a professional artist” says Rochana.
“It’s an opportunity to lift the area’s profile and involve the whole community.” Residents will be encouraged to workshop ideas: should they include the area’s history and heritage? Motifs? Futuristic designs, or digital images? An artist will then take their ideas and create concept plans for the final composition.
“With funding from Creative New Zealand we’re starting a documentary photography project, People, Pride and Place recording our area and building pride in where we come from,” Rochana says. “At the end of the project there will be an exhibition and we hope that some of the images will end up as part of the artwork on the power boxes.”
Other projects for 2007 include a street festival, an environmental project to improve the wellbeing of the area through restoring local stream under the council’s Twin Streams project banner, awards for businesses’ community spirit and a good neighbour award for those who make their streets a better place to live.
“That could be people who look out for others, keep an eye on their street or make a special effort to decorate outside their houses for Christmas. It’s about acknowledging that there is a community,” she says. Waitakere City Council funding helps pay MPHS’s operating costs.
Funding from the Ministry of Social Development has seen the school holiday programme grow from six children in 2005 to 17 regulars this summer and the Tindall Foundation has funded an analysis of MPHS’s organisational structure. But it is still physical amenities that the area needs most.
The council is funding a feasibility study this year and MPHS continues to lobby for a community centre which will be at the heart of McLaren Park. And the momentum is building, one brick at a time.
- In August 2006 ASB Community Trust granted MPCP $30,000 for running costs and equipment.