Project Co-ordinator Jean Ashby
The Work Co-op has been operating out of a villa in Wharf Road in Coromandel Town for over 15 years and is run like a big whanau where everyone supports each other to set and achieve goals. The programme supports people within the township and remote outlying areas who have a mental health issue and or intellectual and physical disability as well as probation clients to complete their community service hours and safely reintegrate into the community and youth transitioning from school into employment and training.
The Work Co-op villa is always a hive of activity with participants cooking and eating lunch together daily, learning new computer skills, creating art, gardening and preparing catering for events.
Nicola spending time on the Work Co-op computers
The Work Co-op are very involved with and valued by the community. Participants provide catering for events at local marae and within the township, particularly funerals; mow the lawns at a local urupa; and help kuia and kaumatua with household and gardening chores. Local events supported include a special breakfast and morning tea at the local RSA for ANZAC Day and RSA Commemorations every year, Barry Brickell’s Memorial Service in February 2016 and in October they supported kaumatua with catering for the Kaumatua Special Olympics for Hauraki held at the RSA Hall in Coromandel. The group thoroughly enjoyed the day and are now even more widely known for their delicious baking and decadent cakes!
Catering for RSA functions
Every week art and craft classes are held with the participants in a variety of different mediums, the results of which are exhibited regularly in a local café and sell well at other sites around the township. Table place mats, cards and cushions are the most popular items purchased. People can bring in their own projects from home to work on or start something new. Wheat bags were made and donated to Phoenix House and fabric books and soft toys were made and donated to the community pre-school. Presents are also made for family and friends.
In September 2016 the group went to the Hamilton Craft and Quilt Fair held at the Claudelands Event Centre in Hamilton and came back with fantastic ideas for future projects. Watch this space!
Art work in progress with tutor Jo McNeil
Amazing Work Co-op creations
Work Co-op participants are supported to achieve goals set in their individual plans. Many members have issues with housing and have identified this as an important goal. One participant, Russell, who has a visual impairment wished to renovate his home so that he could live independently safely and have a good home environment to share with his partner and new baby on the way. He was supported to connect with the Habitat for Humanity Brush with Kindness programme, for a complete house renovation.
This was the second such project, occurring mainly over one weekend and was an impressive community effort. Members from the Work Co-op provided enthusiastic labour, a builder came up from Hamilton to help out for free, other whanau and friends joined in and local businesses James Drainage, Coromandel Glass and tradesman Sid Waara donated time and materials. Russell and his new family have settled in well to their transformed home.
The crew helping out with Russell’s magical house makeover.
Other goals set and achieved include: completing the 14-week Incredible Years Parenting Programme, attending workshops on positive whanau relationships, attending craft fairs in Hamilton, overcoming social phobias, completing soap-making workshops, learning new gardening and house maintenance skills, developing life skills, learning how to cook and deepening whanau and whakapapa connections.
The Work Co-op has a good solid working relationship with the Department of Corrections and the people that are sent to do their community service are greatly appreciated. They help with various voluntary community tasks such as lawn care, gardening, care-giving, domestic cleaning and maintenance of the Harray Track and also if they have a particular skill that can be utilised to assist the community or the work co-op, this is encouraged.
The voluntary work hours done in the wider community has increased. Some of the people that have done their community service at the Work Co-op have returned to volunteer some of their time, to give food or goods or have just dropped in for a visit, this is very heart warming. A koha is sometimes given after voluntary work, this is paid into a social fund account which goes towards our Christmas holiday trip. If a koha comes in the form of kai, this is shared with our kaumatua and kuia in the community and outlying areas.
It’s fantastic how generous people in our community are, we often are given buckets of fruit – peaches, grapes, apples, freshly caught fish and other kaimoana, veges, clothes, appliances and all sorts of things someone no longer needs but could be of use to someone else. Everything given in this way is shared around and put to good use and all is very much appreciated.
Regular outings are common and every year the Work Co-op take a special holiday together to explore known and new parts of the country. In 2016 the group went to Cambridge and the wider Waikato.
Also in 2016, the Work Co-op farewelled Fiona Joyce, a Coromandel icon with a colourful personality.
In 2015 the group went on an amazing trip to Northland in December. They camped in Ruakaka, visited the giant kauri in Waipoa forest, saw waterfalls near Whangarei, discovered beautiful beaches and went fishing. It was a fantastic way to celebrate a great year.
Tane Mahuta in Waipoa Forest
In the last twelve months loved members of the Work Co-op passed away and are very much missed by the group.