News

H E A LT H PROMOTION

E S U L T S F R O M

a survey late last year indicated there was a need to provide greater education to our members, their whanau, colleagues, and the hospitality industry. To achieve this, a dedicated professional health promotion role will be appointed to create positive and sustainable change for people with coeliac disease, their families and whanau, schools, workplaces, and the community at large.

As a charitable organisation we run a tight ship keeping expenses at a minimum, however, to do more of the work that is needed, we need to grow. It is our intention to increase our team of paid staff from three part time staff to four to support our 30+ volunteers. Towards this end we are developing a detailed 5-year Health Promotion Implementation Plan which we will be able to share details of, later in the year.

WHEN IT COMES to volunteering, passion and positivity are the only requirements – get involved today!

Our three-year strategic plan identified the need to develop clear roles and responsibilities for our volunteers to enable them to deliver local support to our members. As a result, we divided the country into 15 regions overseeing 39 districts. It is our intention to appoint a District Coordinator (DC) for each of these districts who will be responsible for direct contact with members in their area. We will also appoint 15 Regional Coordinators (RC) who will liaise between the head office and the DCs in their region, as well as assisting us in assigning new DCs when required. We also intend to have at least one Kids Club coordinator for each region and in

CONNECTING OUR VOLUNTEER NETWORK

some cases, RCs will be DCs too.

We are grateful for the time and dedication that our existing volunteer network has provided our organisation to support our members, raise awareness and run events and activities – but now it’s time that we extend our support to cover more neighbourhoods across the country. Volunteering is a great way to make new friends that share common interests, expand your network, and boost your social skills – by having a good dose of fun along the way!

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If you are interested in being one of our volunteer coordinators please get in touch via email admin@coeliac.org.nz or call the office between 9:30-3pm Monday to Friday and we can provide you with more information.

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If you would like to support this initiative please make a donation to Coeliac New Zealand via the store dropdown menu on our website, or contact Wendy Bremner by emailing manager@coeliac.org.nz for more information.