A message from the organisers:

The community session on 9th December went well, it was fantastic to see so many people from Newtown and Berhampore get together to learn, share and generate ideas. Everyone’s contributions to the key questions are amazing, you can see the final results in the photos here.

We are currently working on integrating all of the input from the four sessions into the draft plan document. This plan outlines how we as a community intend to respond to an emergency; how we intend to communicate and coordinate, who will take leadership, and what role organisations and businesses will play. It is still a work in progress, but can be read here. This is a living document, that we hope will be constantly revised, updated and added to. If you have further suggestions or amendments, please don’t hesitate to flick us an email.

We’re all going to take a bit of a break over the holiday period, so we’ll be back in touch next year to discuss further work on our plan. Please let us know if you have any ideas on the next steps we should take.

So, what comes next? 

We’ve come up with many great ideas for projects that we can work on together to improve our preparedness and resilience; tree planting, street parties, bumper stickers, Civil Defense Centre open days, letter box competitions, bike fixit days…the list goes on! While we will include these ideas in the plan, they will only become a reality if anyone is interested in putting them into action. If you’re keen to be involved, please reply to let us know, and if there’s something you’re particularly interested in being a part of or leading, mention that too.

Want to learn more?

Civil Defense has a free Emergency Preparedness Training Programme that teaches you how to prepare for an emergency, and how to help your community and assist at a Civil Defense Centre after one. To see the course dates and register, click here.

Did you hear about the Timebank?

The Wellington Timebank came up a lot in discussions as being a fantastic way to get involved in your community, and as a great way to coordinate help following a disaster. Members of the Timebank use time as currency; helping others with your skills and knowledge are swapped for credits, which you can then swap for the services of others. For more information and to sign up, have a look here. The Timebank office will be closed until January 20th, so you will hear back from them then.

Thanks again

We hope that you enjoyed this process, and learnt something new, talked to someone you didn’t know, and thought about something in a different way. We’re looking forward to working together to keep making Newtown and Berhampore resilient, connected and fun-filled places to live, work and play!

Anna, Renee, Claire and Jason.

Want to get in touch? You can reach us on:

Anna & Renee – newtown.community.centre@paradise.net.nz and 04 389 4786

Claire – newtownwellington@gmail.com

Jason – jason.paul@gw.govt.nz and 04 830 2132