The YWCA of Hamilton has been empowering young women in the Waikato since 1946.

The theme of this Kumara Vine edition is ‘Empowering Women’. Women make up a significant proportion of leaders and workers in the community and social service sector and women are often the recipients of much of the work we do. This Kumara Vine edition celebrates some of the extraordinary work being done in our sector that empowers women.

Insight Endometriosis is a Charitable Trust supporting those affected by endometriosis since 1999

NCWNZ as an umbrella organisation has been working towards true gender equality in Aotearoa New Zealand for more than 125 years.

How can those working in the social service sector hold conversations about the COVID-19 vaccination with clients or service users, and people they work with?

Vaccination has been identified as one of our country’s key public health tools to offer some protection in our fight against COVID-19.

Community Waikato supports the professional development of the sector with the provision of a range of relevant subsidised workshops. The type of workshops we provide are based on requests and feedback on needs identified by people working in the sector.

Cancer inequities between indigenous Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders are unfair, intolerable, and entirely preventable. Significant inequities exist across the entire cancer control continuum, resulting in poorer survival and increased mortality for Māori.

Right now, we must come together to get wellbeing in our lives and in our workplaces.

Wellbeing, it is not only a loaded word, but currently it’s a buzzword that is getting thrown around everywhere, but not getting the infrastructure put around it that it needs to thrive. An undeniable thread that runs through all our kōrero with people is that workplace wellness isn’t working, and our resilience is depleted more than ever before.

The Ngahutoitoi Marae Trustees want to enable Ngahutoitoi to be a place where the health and wellbeing of their people and Pā are paramount.

The theme of this Kumara Vine edition is ‘Wellbeing’, and that certainly feels like the theme of the last 18 months. We have seen our community organisations work incredibly hard to meet a growing community need. We have seen teams change the way they work with those they support.

The NZ Navigator Trust exists to create free or low cost, accessible, digital tools to assist community organisations in New Zealand to grow and thrive. They have gathered together their growing portfolio of online tools, all of which are designed specifically for community groups and organisations to use to enhance and support the work they do.

As gateways to knowledge and culture, libraries play an important role in society, helping to build healthy communities. Today’s libraries offer books, activities, community spaces, and much more. Digital inclusion and community recovery initiatives are happening in some of the libraries around the region. Develop your computer skills through one of these digital initiatives.

During last year’s lockdown, a huge collaborative effort from several Hamilton-based community service providers, volunteers and funders means that Hamilton residents can now access social service support during COVID-19 at their fingertips thanks to a pioneering community response website ‘heretohelpu.nz‘.

Go Eco Food Rescue (Kaivolution) has been stepping it up a notch since we went into Level 4 lockdown. This includes coordinating new driver teams, managing restriction protocols, and meeting the expected increase in demand during a stressful time.

This year marks Community Waikato’s 20th anniversary.

In 2000 Trust Waikato CE and trustees understanding the need for capacity strengthening, set up a trust designed specifically to support and strengthen the social services, health and welfare sector in the Waikato region. This independent, legal entity was known as the Social Service Waikato Trust.

In 2017, Community Waikato provided a conference for the Waikato social service sector called ‘Thriving in the 21st Century.’ At this conference Community Waikato were able to offer a corporate prize by partnering with professional services firm Beca. This prize gave an organisation from our sector the opportunity to win advisory assistance for their project from the Beca Hamilton team.

The Waikato Breast Cancer Research Trust is celebrating a hat-trick of milestones. The Trust marks its 21st birthday with a gala celebration next month, is about to have a name change, and welcomes its inaugural patron.

Whaanau often experience legal problems but do not know where to go for help. Community Law Waikato provide free legal help to whaanau living in the Waikato region.

There is a huge need for literacy assistance in New Zealand, however, many New Zealanders are unaware there is such a need.