Draft Community Development Strategy 2025-2035 - Whakawhānake Hapori o Waimakariri

The Draft Community Development Strategy sets out a clear and thoughtful direction for how community development will take shape in our district over the next ten years. It highlights the important role Waimakariri District Council plays in supporting the priorities that matter most to our communities. Built on a collaborative, community-led approach, this strategy draws on proven ways to strengthen the wellbeing of everyone who calls our district home. Before Council adopts this strategy we want to hear from you. Tell us your thoughts by completing the survey below before consultation closes Sunday 22 June.

Vision

Communities that are safe, caring, inclusive and empower all to thrive

Strategic Direction

The strategic direction of the Community Development Strategy encompass all aspects of the Council’s Community Outcomes, with the aim to facilitate activity that ensures that the Waimakariri is a District where people are:

• Safe and healthy; and able to access the determinants of good health and wellbeing
• Welcome and included, as part of our local communities – geographic and ‘of interest’
• Informed and empowered to contribute to local decision making and achieve their aspirations
• Engaged and connected into the District’s activities.

Each aspect is intertwined. The achievement of one, generate increased likelihood of the achievement of the others. For example, safe, healthy people are more open to social inclusion, more likely to receive and be empowered by information and are more likely to be engaged and connected into the like of the District.

Community Priorities

Through the engagement that informed this strategy, the community has identified a number of priority activities. These include facilitative support for:

• Strong, connected social, health and community sectors that support the safety, health and wellbeing of local residents and the priorities that address those.
• Support for migrants and new residents, so that they can easily integrate into the community and access its services, supports and opportunities
• Youth development and opportunity; particularly in relation to education, work-readiness and employment.
• An inclusive, accessible and age-friendly District.
• A strong and connected local arts sector, in line with its role in District attraction and economic development.
• Food security and education, both to ensure a more sustainable local food chain and to address food poverty for vulnerable residents.
• Community resilience to respond adapt and recover from the impact of climate change and Civil Defence emergencies.

Strategic Actions

Strategic Direction 1 - Safe and Healthy

1.1: Facilitate collaborative responses to address the determinants of health and wellbeing.

1.2: Facilitate collaboration for a strong local Health and Social Service Sector.

1.3: Facilitate a collaborative response to addressing key issues affecting the personal safety of local residents.

1.4: Facilitate effective welfare responses to local crisis.

Strategic Direction 2 - Welcome and included

2.1: Facilitate collaboration for a ‘Welcoming Community’.

2.3: Facilitate local initiatives that address unconscious bias.

2.4: Facilitate the activities of collaborations that remove barriers to community participation.

Strategic Direction 3 - Informed and empowered

3.1: Support community groups and organisations to be well resourced and sustainable.

3.2: Ensure a community voice in local, regional and national decision making.

3.3: Encourage, facilitate and support local skill development and skill sharing initiatives.

3.4: Facilitate the provision of up to date, easily accessible local information

Strategic Direction 4 - Engaged and connected

4.1: Facilitate a strategic approach to local Arts.

4.2: Facilitate the provision of local activities that engage and connect people.

4.3: Facilitate the development of geographic community-based plans

Implementation – Making it happen

The Council does not do this work alone. Waimakariri District Council maintains an extensive network of relationships, with hundreds of local, regional and national representatives from across the community, NGO and central government sectors, alongside enduring partnerships with local iwi, business and education.

Implementation of the Community Development Strategy is guided by four key principles for ‘Best Practice’ community development:

1. A solid base of information
2. Broad spectrum
3. Collaborative and community-led
4. Well-evaluated

The Draft Community Development Strategy includes an Implementation Plan as a road map that identifies how the actions will be achieved, what key communities will be impacted, what aspects of Council will be involved and who the key stakeholder networks are.

Progress on the Implementation Plan will be reviewed, reported and updated on annual basis.