Greetings

A very thought provoking speaker at our meeting 12th July.  I think I am right in saying it was a bit of an eye opener to many who attended the meeting.  Looking around there were more than a few heads shaking in disbelief at what Peter Coles was telling us.  Food for thought. It was a pleasure to be able to present, on behalf of the Trust, $500 to help in anyway he thinks appropriate.

As members will appreciate in an endeavour to keep to time I missed out a few messages and requests for help.

These have been added to the bulletin.  Anyone who can help with any of the items please contact me  as soon as possible.  It helps these organisations to forward plan.  If circumstances change and at a later date you cannot help that is understood.

Remember our theme for this year is:

I also announced the Board and other Directors for the coming year.   Thank you to those who Serve to Change Lives.

Board for 2021/22: Theme for 2021/22 is 

President: Sally Morch

President-Elect: Jan Dempsey with responsibility for Club Administration:  Club Programme, Club Communications, Social Events

Immediate Past President: David Lusk with responsibilty for Members welfare.

Secretary: Michael Archer

Treasurer: David Gibson

Director Services: Wally Garrett. This includes International, Community, Vocational, Youth, Fundraising

 Other directors outside of the board

Public Image: Murray Gillespie. Media relations, Advertising and marketing, Web and Social Media

Membership: Stephen Bovett and Dennis Eales. Attraction, engagement, new member orientation, Diversity 

 Chamber of Commerce

Next meeting: Tuesday 3rd August 5.15-7pm  Mr Ralph, 62 Devon Street. Lighting showroom. NZ owned and operated.  We like to have two members attending together.

 Cancer Society: Daffodil Day is creeping up on us again. They are now in the process of filling our volunteer schedule's and are needing some more volunteers please

Below is a list of the jobs they need people for………

• Street Collection on Friday August 27th or Saturday 28^th 
• Shop Assistants From Aug 9th for 3 weeks - 1/2 day each week
• Emergency Flower sellers
• If any of these roles sound like you, please contact me and I will relay your interest.
• 
  Multiple Sclerosis: 

The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Taranaki are running a street appeal to raise awareness across Taranaki and to raise funds to support the organisation with providing support services to those dealing with MS in our region. MS Awareness week 2021 runs from the 13th to 19th of September with the Street Appeal being on Friday 17th September and Saturday 18th September. They are in search of volunteers to help make this appeal a success and were hoping you might be able to assist. We would really appreciate the Club’s support with this year’s street appeal as well. 

Report on “Bellyful”, New Plymouth
On Monday 5th July I attended the initial meeting of Bellyful, New Plymouth.
There were 20 – 25 people there and there was a lot of interest.  Everyone there signed up to be part of it at the end of a professional, informative presentation.
Bellyful, NZ has been around since 2009 when it was first started in Pukekohe.  Thhey have connections with several other organisations to assist. New Plymouth is one of the last areas in NZ to start a branch as they have waited for someone interested in driving it to approach them.
It makes and delivers meals to families/whanau who have a new baby and are struggling.  Meals are cooked by volunteers at a cookathon where they cook 30-60 meals, initially, building up to the need in the area. The area to be served is wider NP and Waitara and maybe Inglewood depending on the support from the community.
There are many forms of referral for this service. Mid-wives, plunket nurses family and self-referral among others. 
The New Plymouth branch needs $3500 to get to the point when they can do their first cookathon, provisionally set for end of August.  They have applied to NPDC and another fund providor for $2500 and need to fundraise for the balance.
This is where we may be able to assist.
Besides funds they need vounteers to cook, deliver and run the fundraising, cookathon, social media etc.  You can go to www.bellyful.org.nz for more information.
They are already planning a movie night to raise funds so they are not afraid of doing the hard yards.

 

Guest Speaker: Peter Coles(Mens Emergency Shelter)

 

 

Introduced by Mike Makein, Peter is a former member of our club. English born but came to New Zealand to work in the Oil Industry with Shell. He met and married a Stratford girl. He is dedicated to helping other people.

 

He  became involved with Emergency Shelters on return from Brisbane, 4 years ago. This was through attending a national conference on the subject and getting elected as Chariman to the New Plymouth Mens Emergency Shelter.

The New Plymouth Shelter was in dire straits with poor on site management and a run down Housing Corporation house that had been badly maintained.

He was made redundant when in Australia 10 years ago but managed to get another job even though he found this a stressful time.

To experience what it was like in house he spent 4 weeks 24x7 living there. Scariest time of his life. Stuff going on at night in particular: snoring/arguments, confiscated 5 lethal weapons, fingers broken, windows broken, doors smashed in, neighbours to deal with!!

He shut the facility down for 3 months to:

Clean it out, provide new flooring, beds, first aid, cabinets, 

computers ,laundry, tv room, reroofing, painting internal and external, 

No rules just notices indicating who is on duty, great staff on minimum wage but 3 have been homeless themselves and great communicators.

(they now only have 2 calls/year to the Police)

 

He explained why people become homeless, we are all 3 steps away.

 

Step 1: 

A one off event you find yourself homeless. That can be losing a job, mental health issues caused by the event, many have personal demons they can't contend with leading to speech and literacy difficulties.

 

Step 2

No income, no savings, leaving prison nowhere to go.

 

Step 3

"Down and Out"

No physical address hard to get anything to rent, Skint, Marganalised and vulnerable. Really sad cycle goes on.

 

To qualify fir housing through MSD need proof of unavailability, non compliance can be because of mental health markers on file, vicious circle.

 

There are 14,000 people in transitional housing in Taranaki.

Kiwi build is now balloted out and realistically unaffordable for many.

 

The shelter operates 365 days/year 4.00pm -9.00am

9 beds in 3 rooms. Foodbank provides breakfast  items.

Various agencies like City Life Church, St Josephs provide meals on some days of the week.

 

In the future they'll be rebranding as Taranaki Shelter Trust with a social media presence Website/Facebook to achieve funding targets the've successfully used "Give a little", 

and recognised that the best source of funding is to go to the community to create a sustainable funding model.

 

Not hard to have the utmost admiration for Peter and his team with their determination to provide a place where men can get back on their feet with dignity and move away from dependency.

 

Wally Garrett thanked Peter on behalf of the club for such an informative inspirational  talk and wished his organisation every success in the future.