News in Community Programmes Northern Region | Spring 2017
Springing into Spring with 50 Shades of White Recently, 4,700 nationally and 329 of you within Northern Region Community Programmes responded to the St John Taking the Pulse survey, and I thank you for your openness and honesty. Our regional Community Programmes results were humbling and, reassuringly, show the majority of you are happy and engaged. There are areas for improvement and we are committed to doing better. Your leaders will be working with you to develop action plans to address those areas, so watch this space. With spring on our doorstep, we are springing into the future, which for me means having fresh thoughts as we move deeper into new strategies for success. We have plenty happening across all our programmes, so we must support each other to ensure we’re sustainable in both our working and personal lives. Mindfulness and buoyancy (resilience) are always important and the more we do in these spaces the better. Never be afraid to speak to someone you trust if you need help of any kind. We have amazing support services inside and outside our organisation, so please use them. This spring and beyond, I am committed to being more visible across the region, as is my leadership team. We want to stay in touch with what’s happening, hear what’s going well and what support you need, so please contact us to arrange a visit when it suits you (we’ll bring the yummies). We love getting out there and seeing the amazing work you’re doing. I’m also genuinely interested in how we can communicate better, smarter and more efficiently with you, so please share any ideas! No one size fits all, but we do need to cater to all, so our communication might take many forms. One idea my wife Elisha and I had for spring was painting the inside of our house, which is proving a mammoth task. We are painting it white, well St Clair Quarter to be precise, but can anyone actually tell the difference between the 50 shades of white? I certainly can’t. If you have any painting tips to make life easier, please feel free to send them through. I hope you enjoy our newsletter and I’d love to hear back from you. Keep safe and I look forward to meeting more of you over the coming months. Take Care,
Peter Hoskin Community Programmes Manager Northern Region News in Community Programmes, Northern Region | Spring 2017
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Caring Caller Call for Team Leaders
Area Committee involvement with Caring Caller
This year, we’ve been busy responding to your feedback about the Caring Caller programme, which included the need for Team Leaders to assist our District Managers to create a consistent leadership structure throughout the region.
We recently attended the Area Committee (AC) Conference, where we ran several workshops dedicated to our valuable community services. At our Community Care workshop we spoke to AC members about the Caring Caller service in Northern Region and the amazing benefits it provides to the community.
A Team Leader’s main role is to keep in touch with around 5-10 Caring Callers each month and provide support. They may occasionally be required to help their District Manager with training, recruitment and promotion of the programme. Our District Managers are identifying volunteers to step into these crucial Team Leader roles and are always looking for more willing people. If you are interested in being a Team Leader, please email John.Pritchett@stjohn.org.nz or contact your District Manager.
Historically, ACs haven’t been familiar with Caring Caller or had the opportunity to support the programme locally. Now that more AC members are aware of the programme, we are confident we will see increased support for Caring Caller at a local level. This will hopefully mean we can soon hold more events for our callers to recognise their valuable work, which has been requested by our volunteers. Below is a photo from the conference.
West Auckland Caring Caller Meet-Up
Caring Caller Update Packs
In July, Community Programmes Administrators Nyl Escoto and John Pritchett attended a meeting with West Auckland Caring Caller volunteers where they spoke about the future of the programme in their district and answered many questions. It was a very positive experience for all and we look forward to working more closely with these volunteers in the future.
Last month we made sure all our current Caring Callers were sent an update pack containing information on emergency procedures, contact details and training information for the programme. We included a form to help us stay up-to-date on your preferences and really appreciate the overwhelming response rate to this form, and the great positive feedback many of you provided. If you haven’t received your pack, please drop us a call or an email and we’ll happily send one to you.
Above is a group photo from the meeting.
Caring Caller soon to be offered in Chinese We are making fantastic progress in our initiative to offer Caring Caller in more languages, starting with Cantonese and Mandarin. We aim to have our first Chinese Caring Caller pairing established by November. Our District Manager for this area, Kenneth Sham, is recruiting four new Team Leaders and getting ready to build a team of Chinese speaking Caring Callers. If you are fluent in either Cantonese or Mandarin and would like to be part of our team, contact Kenneth at Kenneth.Sham@stjohn.org.nz.
News in Community Programmes, Northern Region | Spring 2017
“My daughter recommended I get a Caring Caller over 12 years ago. I have had the same caller ever since and she has become a wonderful friend. She calls me every night. It’s not as lonely having my Caring Caller, we have so much in common. Sometimes it’s just nice to know someone is there” - Caring Caller client
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ASB St John in Schools Introducing our new Team Member We are delighted to welcome a new educator, Kelly Krivan (left and above), who will be covering the Hauraki/Coromandel District 20 hours a week. Kelly is a qualified primary school teacher and also has experience working in preschools. Having lived in Whitianga for the past 20 years, she has established networks and already has some understanding of our involvement in the area. If you see Kelly around please make her feel welcome. Kelly is keen to make a difference for children in this area who wouldn’t otherwise experience what our programme has to offer. If you have contacts with any schools or preschools throughout the peninsular, pass on their details to Kelly.Krivan@stjohn.org.nz.
Joyce Fisher Charitable Trust Volkswagen Caddy Donation ASB St John in Schools Northern Region would like to thank the Joyce Fisher Charitable Trust for their very kind donation of a second Volkswagen Caddy for our fleet. The General Manager of the Joyce Fisher Charitable Trust, Geoff Burgess, and trustees Chris Paykle and Robert Lerner joined us alongside Father Michael Bancroft for the blessing of the vehicle on 25 August. The ceremony was followed by a morning tea and a presentation from our Community Education Team Leader, Sue Lowry. Sue spoke about the school holiday programme that is funded by the trust and also discussed the teaching modules and equipment used by her team.
Updates •
Our Kids First Aid Workshops in Whangarei were a success with some great feedback. The school holiday workshops in Mt Wellington saw almost twice as many children as initially expected.
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We have distributed over 6,600 ASB St John in Schools first aid kits since October 2016 to Year 5-8 students within Northern Region.
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Nationally, ASB St John in Schools launched our new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system on 1 July. This is exciting for our team as the system will make us more mobile, meaning we are less dependent on the office and more able to make bookings on the spot. The new system begins at the booking process, through to confirmation, predicted numbers, delivery, sending information to the school/ preschool and even tells us when we need to contact them again. Not only has this made our systems nationally consistent, it has simplified our processes. As with any new process it takes time to get it 100% right but we are very pleased with the changeover and how well the system is working already.
All we ask of our schools is for a gold coin donation from each child where possible.
News in Community Programmes, Northern Region | Spring 2017
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Health Shuttles South Auckland Health Shuttle – coming soon! We are looking forward to welcoming the 14th Health Shuttle to Northern Region and providing our much-needed service in the South Auckland community. We have now recruited five drivers, who are going through their training and induction, and they will be behind the wheel of our shiny new vehicle (pictured left) as soon as possible. Over the past three months, our Health Shuttles have made 2,139 client trips, and travelled 101,531km across Northern Region – helping more people get essential medical care. Thank you to everyone who went the distance and made a difference!
Volunteer of the Month Our volunteers are a huge part of our workforce and an incredible group of dedicated people who give their personal time and energy to deliver our services. Each month we recognise and celebrate our volunteers who have made a difference to our success in their community. During winter, two Health Shuttle volunteers from Northern Region were awarded Volunteer of the Month!
June Volunteer of the Month Ross O’Reilly Ross O’Reilly is not only an extremely dedicated and reliable Caring Caller District Manager but he also does an incredible amount of work for his local community in Waihi. He is also a St John Health Shuttle driver who covers many shifts for his team and spends much of his time assisting St John Waihi Therapy Pets and St John Op Shop volunteers (even though he is not directly involved in these programmes). He can often be found at the Waihi ambulance station and is highly regarded by all staff in both Operations and Community Programmes. Over his 12 years with St John he has been involved in so many ways, from the Area Committee to Community Programmes. John Pritchett, Community Programmes Administrator, says Ross is simply an amazing person. “I have seen few people who are more dedicated to helping St John than himself. He truly embodies what St John stands for.”
July Volunteer of the Month Natalie James Waihi Health Shuttle Team Leader Natalie James not only drives the shuttle but also takes care of Waihi’s three vehicles. With her husband’s help, she regularly cleans the vehicles and schedules their use to make sure that the wheels are checked by the local tyre dealer. On weekends, they make time to wash and vacuum the vehicles. They also keep all the records, vehicle paperwork and First Aid kits up to date. Natalie helps train new recruits and is always willing to go the extra mile for everyone in the team. “She is invaluable to the success of our team and upholds all the values of St John in her fantastic efforts,” her colleagues say.
To nominate a volunteer, please complete the online nomination form, which is located at www.stjohn.org.nz/volunteerofthemonth/ and send it to volunteerofthemonth@stjohn.org.nz
News in Community Programmes, Northern Region | Spring 2017
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Youth Festival for the Future A delegation of 50 St John cadets and leaders attended Festival for the Future at the Aotea Centre from 4-6 August, alongside 1,300 other young people. The festival was an action-packed weekend featuring a diverse range of inspiring speakers, hands-on workshops, performances, and entertainment. Attendees came away feeling optimistic about the future, having connected with all kinds of amazing people and developed their ideas and skills for a better world. Our members who formed the delegation to represent St John Youth did so to operate a St John stall (bottom left of page) and recruit new leaders and Gold cadets (whilst of course enjoying everything the festival had to offer!). The delegation was led by Quinn Moffat and Mikayla Bourne, who did a fabulous job motivating and informing everyone about our mission. We are happy to say all our goals were achieved! Names of 50 potential leaders and Gold cadets were collected. Our delegation did a wonderful job of representing St John Youth enthusiastically and made many new friends. Some speakers and facilitators were interested in bringing their messages and workshops to the St John Youth whanau, particularly those who ran innovative mental health and wellbeing workshops. More on this in our next newsletter!
Introducing Nic Telford Contingent Manager for 2018 National Festival Congratulations to Nic Telford, who has been appointed as our Northern Region Contingent Manager for Nationals 2018 for the second year running. Nic loves the experience of seeing young people grow and be challenged. He led our contingent to a very successful outcome at National Youth Festival (NYF) this year, and is excited about the challenge of taking it to a whole new level. The first step of the epic NYF 2018 journey is selecting our next group of Squad Managers. From there, Nic will work with them to select the group of young people who will represent us proudly in Nelson in 2018. Nic Telford is pictured above, with his son Michael Telford.
District Journalism Project This is Neha Concisom (right), one of our cadets, and daughter of Nissy Concisom, our Northern Region Community Care Manager.
Below right is a photo of our Regional Youth Manager, Will Watterson, with his wife and daughter in one of the Mindfulness workshops that were run at the Festival.
Recently our leaders have been asking for a way to collect good news stories (of which there are many!) from around the Region so they can be published internally and externally. The idea was floated that a young (under 24yrs) journalist be recruited and trained from each youth district to find, collect, write and distribute stories. Since Neha is a proficient young journalist herself (having been part of a delegation trained to cover youth stories from Rio Olympics), she was invited to lead the project from the ground up. Neha designed an application process and training curriculum, and has secured at least three workshop facilitators from National HQ and the University of Auckland Media department. The training day is planned for 9 September, and we anticipate the young journalists will be operational by end-September... so watch this space!
News in Community Programmes, Northern Region | Spring 2017
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Friends of the Emergency Department (FEDs) FEDs Anniversaries During Winter, two special FEDs anniversaries were celebrated. Waitakere FEDs celebrated their 12-year anniversary on 23 June, with a morning tea and speech from our Community Care Manager, Nissy Concisom. The team at Waitakere Hospital provide a fantastic service to patients at the hospital, which is hugely appreciated by the clinical team. It was great to see many FEDs turn up to celebrate 12-years of this service. Below left is a group photo from the day. Middlemore FEDs celebrated their nine-year anniversary on 22 July. A morning tea was put on and well attended by members of the team. The Middlemore hospital team is thankful to have the FEDs in the ED, especially with the increase in number of patients coming in due to winter illnesses. Eddie Caroll, one of our FEDs at Middlemore, was presented with a St John 50-year service award at the celebration. Eddie has served in various volunteer and paid capacities within St John. Thank you Eddie, from the bottom of our hearts, for your amazing contribution to the FEDs team and other services that you have provided. Below right is a team photo from the day, with Eddie holding his certificate.
“Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless” Sherry Anderson PwC Volunteer Award Congratulations Congratulations to one of our Auckland FEDs, Jo Yee Kok (pictured right), who has been awarded the PwC Volunteer Award for promoting PwC’s core value of teamwork in her role as a FED. This award includes a donation to our FEDs programme, which will benefit and assist in growing the FEDs volunteer base and support the purchase of more resources, such as uniforms and marketing material. Jo Yee has been a FED for 2.5 years and during this time has provided assistance in the high stress environment of the Emergency Department (ED), where doctors and nurses are constantly busy and preoccupied. Patients often enter the ED stressed, disoriented or hurt and often wait long hours and sometimes days before being discharged. FEDs provide support and reassurance to these patients by being a point of contact to sit and talk to, read with or cry on. Furthermore, Jo Yee has also assisted with meal shifts, aiding in initiating conversation with patients, and also alleviating the workload from healthcare assistants and nurses. Thank you, Jo Yee.
News in Community Programmes, Northern Region | Spring 2017
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Outreach Therapy Pets OTP Teams: Rodney Team The Rodney Outreach Therapy Pets (OTP) team is an awesome group of volunteers led by Nicky Gumbrell, Team Leader. Nicky began volunteering for OTP in 2008 and became a Team Leader in 2009. Her former OTP dog Golly has retired and Nicky now visits schools and attends events with her dog Mr Bingley (pictured with Nicky). Nicky has worked as a Speech Therapist, Music Therapist and Pastoral Care Worker and has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to animal health, welfare and training. Nicky was recently a finalist in the 2017 Purina Volunteer of the Year Awards! Outreach Administrator, Hannah Stark, had the pleasure of meeting with the Rodney OTP team during a recent team catch-up. Hannah really enjoyed meeting the team and their lovely dogs. The Rodney OTP team members visit a range of establishments in the Rodney area (including Gulf Harbour Primary, Evelyn Page, Silverdale School) and attend various OTP events.
OTP Mid-Winter Party Message to OTP volunteers from Karina Ledwos, Outreach Coordinator, and Hannah Stark, Outreach Administrator: It was lovely to see many of you at the Mid-Winter Party in June. Thanks to everyone for coming, to Pets and Pats for the use of their amazing facilities and St John for attending and presenting their long service awards. It was so nice to be able to catch up with you and your animals to celebrate the amazing work you do. Photos below.
OTP Programme - Contacts If you are ever around, please drop in and see us at the Animal Welfare Science and Education office at SPCA Auckland Village, 50 Westney Road, Mangere. We would love to catch up and say hello. Email is a great way to stay in touch and we are also just a phone call away. You are welcome to drop by with your animal but it must be leashed at all times when visiting SPCA Auckland. For all general or admin enquiries (including stats), email outreach@spca.org.nz. Both Karina and Hannah have access to this email. For enquiries about volunteering, establishments, events, contact Karina and for enquiries about the animal assessments, advice on canine obedience or feedback from the SAFER assessments, contact Hannah. Karina Ledwos (Outreach Coordinator) Hannah Stark (Outreach Administrator) P: 09 256 7300 Ext 8861, E: karina.ledwos@spca.org.nz P: 09 256 7300 Ext 8853, E: Hannah.stark@spca.org.nz If you have any queries about your volunteer role for St John, please email our administrator John.Pritchett@stjohn.org.nz News in Community Programmes, Northern Region | Spring 2017
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General Information
Taking the Pulse 2017
St John Member ID Cards
The Taking the Pulse survey is the most comprehensive tool we have to get feedback from people across the organisation. It enables us to hear what is working and where we need to do things better.
ID cards are available to all St John adult members, but we are aware many members have never received one. An ID card in your wallet gives you quick access to your member number and discounts at over 100 businesses.
If you have any questions about the survey or want to know more about the results, please contact Peter.Hoskin@stjohn.org.nz.
St John Bequest Programme It’s Include a Charity Week from 16 to 22 October and we want to spread awareness about how leaving a gift to St John in a will can make a huge difference. It is an easy way to support the work we do, after of course taking care of your family and loved ones. It allows ordinary people to make an extra-ordinary gift and help generations to come. This foresight will enable St John to continue to step forward – saving lives and working towards better health and wellbeing for everyone. Auckland resident and retired teacher, Kay McCarthy, has been a supporter of St John for many years. Not only is she a member of the St John Supporter Scheme, she also gives a monthly donation and has decided to leave a gift in her will to the organisation. You can read more about Kay’s story here: http://www.stjohn.org.nz/ News--Info/St-John-Local/Northern-Region/northern-regionnews/leaving-a-lasting-legacy-to-st-john/ This Include a Charity Week, will you consider leaving a gift in your will? For more information, contact Suzana Noth on 09 579 1015 ext 8472 or email Suzana.Noth@stjohn.org.nz
Email your name, member number and a head and shoulders photo of yourself to hrsupport@stjohn.org.nz.
Your Stories We would love to hear from you! Volunteering in the community exposes us to some interesting stories and situations that can be heartwarming. We often hear these stories through our conversations at a much later date or not at all. Often the volunteer will say something like, “I didn’t think it was much” or “it’s just something I do”. So remember, what you do does matter, it is important and it is worth sharing. We share these stories through our newsletters and other publications; anonymity is respected unless approved by all parties. What you do makes an important difference in someone else’s life. If you have a story you would like to share you can either email CommunityProgrammes@stjohn.org.nz or call Anna on 0800 ST JOHN x 8930 or get in touch with your Team Leader.
Need ICT Help? Call the ICT Service Desk on 0800 428 8326 (0800 ICT TEAM). There will be someone there to help at any time of the day or night, seven days a week - 24/7.
General Queries Please email CommunityProgrammes@stjohn.org.nz or phone 0800 ST JOHN.
Kay McCarthy, St John supporter, with Hannah Davies, Regional Fundraising and Marketing Manager (right). News in Community Programmes, Northern Region | Spring 2017
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