ANNUAL REPORT 2017
Mission To create high quality environments where people have experiences that enrich them as human beings, enable them to grow stronger together and inspire them to live life to the full.
CONTENTS Directors Report
Page 3
Financial Reports
Page 11
Our People
Page 5
Grants and Fundraising Page 25
Our Place
Page 7
Vision To become a leader in the camp, conference and leisure industry and to play a vital role in the restoration of the city of Christchurch.
Trustees: David Down, Eddi Down, John Down, Jo Down, Ken Lord, Anne Morrow, Paul Morrow, Roger Roxburgh, Val Roxburgh
Board Members: John Down (Chair), Tessa Dodge, John Smart
Management: Denis Aldridge - CEO
Solicitors: Parry Field & Co.
Auditors: Nexia New Zealand
Bankers: B.N.Z.
Accountants: Astute Mode
Directors Report Mauri Ora is a vision of well-being from a Maori perspective where Ora speaks of health and Mauri speaks of a life force that binds and animates all things in the physical world. It is a perspective that is much needed in our city and our current society today where reports of growing inequity and concerns about the mental and social health of sectors of our people abound. Its easy to become stuck in a negative cycle where feelings of hopelessness have a cumulative effect on our well-being and these can be the catalyst that erodes our spark and our essence of life As Living Springs moves into its 45th year of operation it is worth reflecting on our own history and vision of well-being. The name Living Springs has become iconic in its own right and is tied to a new testament story of Jesus of Nazerus meeting a woman at a well. He speaks to her of a living water that could become in her a source of life and it captures the essence of what the founders were trying to establish – a place of healing and a place where the life force of those who came here could be reactivated.
Dublin Street Trust and also a number of corporate and individual donors the four decile one schools of Christchurch all took up residence at Living Springs in this last year. The On Track programme working with senior high school students from these same areas also continues to flourish and our vision of a long term integrated engagement with the children of these schools is becoming a reality. The Founders Field development has been a thirty year dream that was completed in this year and opened on the 20th April 2017. It was biggest earthworks project in the history of Living Springs and now gives us the ability to host festivals and concerts, sporting events and celebrations of life in ways that would never have been possible in the past. It supports our mission of “Creating high quality environments where people have experiences that enrich them as human beings, enabling them to grow stronger together and inspiring them to live life to the full.“
The Mauri Ora of Living Springs
The 2016/17 year builds on that legacy with over 11,000 people from a diverse range of backgrounds, ages, nationalities and beliefs coming to take up residence for a while on this hill overlooking the sea. They have included over 5500 school children, multiple health groups, music groups, churches and spiritual retreats as well as sports orientated groups to name but a few. As well the school holiday camps have continued to grow and provide a welcome respite for the parents of over 550 children not to mention building life long memories for the children and young people who attend as campers and leaders. 2016 saw the launch of the Aorangi Foundation which is a Living Springs inspired initiative to find ways to fund the children of disadvantaged communities into this restorative environment. With support from the
The move towards an eco sanctuary in this unique setting at the head of the harbour continues. Our progressively developing native bush areas were spared the devastation inflicted on much of the Port Hills by the fires in February 2017 though the new fencing and planting planned for February March of this year has been deferred until the coming summer. The vision of Mauri Ora is very much alive in this place today and is carried by an amazing and dedicated community of people who this year hosted over 1l,000 guests, served with love around 70,000 meals and ran hundreds of outdoor and adventure based learning programmes. These are the people who made the beds and mowed the lawns and who carry with joy the vision for today of a sacred restorative place. This is the Mauri Ora of Living Springs.
Denis Aldridge
Director
Page 3 - Directors Report
Our Values
INSPIRED COMMUNICATION • COMPASSIONATE FAITH • RESULTS ORIENTATED • COMMITMENT • INNOVATION • INTEGRITY • RESPECT • HUMOUR • PASSION •
Our People Community is a buzz word that is bantered around far too frequently with little understanding of the importance of the positive impact a healthy community can have on a person. The experience of true community gives an individual a sense of belonging, a fundamental need in all of us. A measure of success for the year at Living Springs must include the growth of an interconnected community, that has continued to gain momentum and feeds life and energy back into the organisation. For those who work at Living Springs, the staff, the interns, the volunteers, there are some common traits. All are dedicated and committed to serving the guests they host and do so with determination and drive to give them the best experience of Living Springs. It is a team effort, requiring everyone to work in their strengths and cover all the bases. Versatility, flexibility and ability to multi-task are all qualities needed to be part of the small team with the underlying motivation to serve others. Denis Aldridge was away for the second half of the year on a well-earned sabbatical during which he went on an intrepid journey around the globe. He has come back to Living Springs with a renewed energy and direction in his work and personal life. Over the year, we have said goodbye to several staff. Jo Burkwood is sadly missed in the office where she dealt with the bookings and we wish her well for her new endeavours. We said farewell to Craig Turner who worked in the Programmes department and brought a wealth of experience in camping from America. In his place, Cindy Tapscott picked up the baton and assisted the Programme team in two busy school seasons and delivered two Kids Camp programmes before returning to England. We also said farewell to Nicola Liddell in housekeeping, who left Christchurch and moved to the North Island. We are very thankful for the contribution these staff have made to Living Springs during their time with us. A new addition to the team is Michelle ‘Shelley’ Sintes, who is now the person who deals with all the booking enquiries and is in full swing putting together the big jigsaw puzzle of making the bookings work together to meet everyone’s needs. Our inaugural Living Springs Camping intern started work at Living Springs in December 2016 for a 6-month period and this has started a new era of interns, including interns that will come to work at Living Springs from Haeata Community Campus. This is an exciting new development and one that has grown out of our partnership with Haeata and the Aorangi Sponsorship Programme.
Through serving, an investment is made into the lives of our campers. An pathway has developed that enables campers to be connected to Living Springs from an early age through to young adult and beyond. Every time this investment is made, it is returned with interest as these young campers grow into leaders and interns or volunteer at camp in other ways. They develop a sense of belonging and attachment to Living Springs and some degree of ownership. A strong sense of belonging becomes integrated into their lives and it is transferred back to local communities in the Canterbury area. Living Springs has become an iconic organisation, an irreplaceable treasure to be valued in the region. Our community is also growing with an ever-increasing number of partnerships. Partnerships with schools such as Haeata Community Campus and Linwood College as well as many primary schools due to the Aorangi Sponsorship Programme. The value of being at camp, learning at camp and facing personal challenges at camp is well documented. Benefits are across the board but unfortunately, not all students get this opportunity. The Aorangi Sponsorship Programme is a means to fund lower-decile schools to attend camp. This programme has funded many OnTrack Study camps during the year as well as camps for lower-decile primary schools such as Aranui Primary School, Rowley Avenue Primary School, St. James Primary School and Wainoni Primary School. Relationships between schools are developing as many higher-decile schools raise funds to enable lower-decile schools to attend camp. Schools that have supported lower-decile school camps include Clarkville School, Cashmere Primary School, Christchurch South Intermediate, Halswell School and West Melton School. The success of the Aorangi Sponsorship Programme has been due largely to the support of the Dublin Street Trust and thanks also goes to businesses who have supported the cause, specifically, Fahey Fence Hire, Foodstuffs South Is Community Trust, Ian Coombes, Trimble Navigation, Stockman Group, CB Haines, Joseph & Associates, Dame Adrienne Stewart and Casa Construction and Paul Young and Associates. The vision is to develop this relationship further and to be able to offer the Living Springs interns an opportunity for work experience and mentoring with some of the partnering businesses before they move out in to the working environment. Living Springs has increasingly become more inclusive and the ethos of the Living Springs Camping Programme
is to have a camp for every camper giving everyone an opportunity to belong at Living Springs. To continue along these lines there is a new vision for a senior’s camp for people 65 and older. As the programme develops there is hope that more intergenerational connections will begin to happen and the depth of the community links will grow stronger. Living Springs has the perfect qualities that appeals to community organisations and churches and thus, long term relationships continue to grow with many groups. Camp Quality continue to return and 2017 will mark the 31st year of hosting these camps at Living Springs. Canteen returned to Living Springs this year as did many other health related camps such as the Child Cancer Foundation and the Foundation for the Blind. The rich variety of groups hosted at Living Springs add to the vibrancy of the place, sewing groups, yoga groups and sports groups make the most of the peaceful and refreshing setting. Churches have been a traditional client and there has been renewed interest from many churches to run camps as well as from churches from a variety of cultural backgrounds such as the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Christchurch Chinese Church and Every Nation Church. Music has filled the buildings and surrounds with Christchurch School of Music holding several camps, high schools holding production rehearsal camps and choirs such as the Sweet Adelines Chorus returning for their usual weekend of singing. Plus, a new, Women Who Get Shit Done Conference that sparked the interest of many of the female staff at Springs. There are no two days the same at Living Springs and the ever-changing tapestry that is woven by a variety of people that stay in this place, make it a vibrant and exciting place to be. The staffing, facilities and natural beauty of the setting make Living Springs the perfect catalyst to bring communities together and have a positive impact on every camper that comes through the door.
Our Place Living Springs has always had a strong ‘sense of place’ and the founding vision was to find a special space, and within that context to create a place that would enrich the lives of all who came here. The outstanding natural environment with its stunning views over Lyttelton Harbour was always to be the foundation – to build with excellence was always the intention. Even today our stated mission is to ‘create high quality environments where people have experiences that enrich them as human beings, enable them to grow stronger together and inspire them to live life to the full’.
Ecological Vision
In this last year, we have strongly aligned ourselves with the 2050 Banks Peninsula Ecological vision “to create an environment in which the community values, protects and cares for the biodiversity, landscape and special character of Banks Peninsula”.
Page 7 - Our Place
In the past six years, we have embarked on a largescale project to protect the waterways of the Allandale catchment from the Crater to the Sea (Ki Uta Ki Tai) on this 400-hectare property. This has involved over four and a half kilometres of livestock fencing to date with another kilometre planed for the summer of 2017/18. As well we have planted over thirteen thousand trees, shrubs and native grasses in an attempt to enhance water quality in the Allandale stream and encourage the development of aquatic stream life. Our Totara planting programme continues at a minimum of one hundred Totaras a year and our predator control programme seems to be having effect with a noted increase in bird life. The Port hills fires which destroyed hundreds of hectares of native and exotic forests in February 2017 got to within a few hundred meters of our developing native bush areas but thankfully we were spared the devastation that was inflicted on much of the surrounding area.
Founders Field – A gift to the next generation.
The Founders Filed project was completed near the end of 2016 and officially opened on the 20th April 2017. It was the culmination of a more than thirty-year dream to develop a level sports, concert and festival site on this sloping hillside property. This was a major earthworks project involving 3500 cubic meters of earthworks, more than half a kilometre of retaining walls as well as extensive paving, drainage, roadworks, curbing, landscape and lighting. It has required the expertise and involvement of a wide range of consultants, planners, contractors and trades people. This is a site on which once stood great forests in all there splendour. It then saw the arrival of both Maori and colonial settlers who shaped it in their own way. For the last 45 years, it has been occupied by Living Springs and has been a platform for the activities it holds here. We have named it Founders Field in honour of those who have gone before but in reality, it is now a
‘platform for greatness’ and a gift to the next generation. The sight of large numbers of young people already involved in a wide range of sporting and recreational activities signals to us that a new day has arrived for the use of this special space.
Towards the Future
The completion of Founders Field has freed both the head space and planning and fundraising capabilities of the board and key staff to look towards the future and our next steps. A strategic planning process has begun to look towards the needs of our clients and stakeholders in the days and years that lie ahead. In the short term this will involve upgrading water and sewerage systems to take us into the next fifty years but new levels of accommodation, hospitality and recreational facilities are now all coming into the mix.
Financial Reports The 2016/17 Annual Report is the second under the new reporting standards for Charitable Organisations. As such it will contain a Statement of Service Performance as well as a Statement of Financial Performance. As a charitable organisation there is a constant tension that needs to be
managed which involves the need for ongoing operational improvement balanced by the ability of schools and community groups to pay for them. As well we endeavour to maintain accessibility to those most in need and sometimes this is a fine balancing act as shown in this year’s accounts.
Financial Position 2016-2017 (Actual) This chart illustrates the actual financial position of Living Springs. The Audited accounts show capital fundraising and funds that were made
available for the Founders Field Construction. Operationally Living Springs ran at a -$128,723 loss for the financial year. 2017
Surplus for the year
$ 789,277
2016
$ 1,176,107
Remove capital fundraising for Founders Field
-$ 400,000
-$ 1,336,000
The Operational Surplus/Deficit
-$ 128,723
-$ 159,893
Remove funds raised for Founders Field by selling property
-$ 518,000
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Grants and Fundraising Existing in this economic climate as a Charitable trust is not an easy task. However, due to a very supportive network of donors and substantial support from grants and trusts, Living Springs is able to continue to grow from strength to strength and ensure that future generations will be able to be part of this iconic place in the Canterbury landscape. The vision that was initiated over 40 years ago, continues today and has grown bigger and brighter as people become inspired to make this a better place. A big thank you goes out to all our partners and donors who have invested in the vision and have contributed to the sustainability of the organisation. We would like to acknowledge the following people, organisations and businesses for their support:
The Christchurch City Council – pool heat pump; Environment Canterbury, Banks Peninsula Water Management Zone committee – fencing and planting grant;, Dublin Street Trust – Aorangi Sponsorship Programme including OnTrack; Air Rescue Services – mowing attachment for tractor; Ministry of Social Development – OSCAR funding for Kids Camps; The Southern Trust – heat pumps; Pub Charity – heat pumps; Lion Foundation – commercial dishwasher; Rata Foundation – staff wages; Ken Lord and Sarah Barrer OnTrack student sponsorship; The Mainland Foundation – click share device; Fulton Hogan – planting and maintenance on property; plus many more individual donors who have generously supported Living Springs in many ways.
Opportunities for Partnership Please help support Living Springs. There is a wide range of options to choose from to specifically help Living Springs. There is specific need to help in the following areas: •
Sponsor low-decile school children to attend camp through Aorangi Sponsorship Programme
•
Sponsor campers to attend Kids Camp, Trailblazers, Springboard Leadership Training Camp
Invest in the environment, help us buy trees, contribute to the cost of labour to help with maintenance of planted areas
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Help cover costs of camp interns and volunteers such as food and power
Invest in the buildings, paint, timber, nails, curtains etc
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Help cover Kids Camp costs, Team Directors, equipment costs, prizes, transport
Invest your time by volunteering as a leader, working in the outdoors, maintenance, or housekeeping
We are happy to discuss any other ways you would like partner with us. Contact Wendy at wendy@livingsprings.co.nz or Denis at denis@livingsprings.co.nz. Living Springs is a registered Charitable Trust and donations may quality for a 33% tax rebate.
Dublin Street Trust
graphic design
AORANGI F O U N D AT I O N
Casa Construction
Paul Young and Associates Dame Adrienne Stewart
Page 23 - Grants and Fundraising
218 Bamfords Road, RD1 Lyttelton, New Zealand. Telephone: +64 3 3299 788 Email: info@livingsprings.co.nz Web: www.livingsprings.co.nz