From the Missioner

Auckland City Missioner, Diane Robertson, is often in the news. Advocacy on behalf of those who are vulnerable or may be marginalised is a key function of the Auckland City Mission, and this page will keep you up to date on the Missioner's thinking around important social issues.

Missioner's Comment, June 25 2010

After an unusually mild autumn, winter has made a dramatic entrance. Storms have swept over the entire country closing roads and flooding communities. Farmers have been relocating and rescuing stock and emergency services have been called on to clear roads, secure buildings and evacuate residents.

In our own homes, many of us will already have had to deal with flooded gutters or call plumbers to unblock over-flowing drains. Heaters have been turned on and winter coats, rain jackets and umbrellas have become an everyday accessory.

We all find winter harder - it's harder to keep warm; harder to dry clothes and bedding; harder to get outside and do things; harder to keep healthy; and harder to keep expenses down.

For families on low incomes, winter is even more difficult. Families who come to the Mission for emergency food parcels are already struggling to pay the power bill - turning on more heaters to warm a cold room is not an option.

When a family is struggling the most vulnerable are children. Statistics released this year show that 28% of New Zealand children live in families with incomes less than 60% of the median wage. This amounts to approximately 300,000 people aged under 15 years - nearly a third of the children in New Zealand. The effects can be profound and may last well into adulthood, influencing health, educational attainment, addiction rates, and criminal activity.

With the help of our supportive community the Mission will provide emergency food, warm clothing, bedding, wet weather gear and shoes to children and adults to help them get through the coming months - but the Mission does more than that.

Auckland City Mission is committed to helping families, as a unit, create long-term positive change. A simple hand-out that has people coming back time and time again is merely a band-aid. Instead of  just 'patching' the problem, Auckland City Mission works with families and individuals to try and achieve ongoing improvements in their lifestyle, health, wellbeing and independence.

Thanks to the generous help of this community we are able to keep our warehouse stocked with food, clothing and household items. Then the Mission is able to use those precious financial donations to provide the professional expertise and support that so many are looking for. This is where 75% of the Mission's income is used. 

It costs a lot for us to stay true to our organisational vision, but we all know it's money well spent. Auckland City Mission is, and will remain, committed to providing help when it's needed most while at the same time striving to help families and individuals achieve positive long-term change. It's what we believe is truly important.   

March Newsletter 2010

Over 60,000 people were made redundant in the past twelve months. Paul was one of those. His wife Jo was eight months pregnant at the time.

Jo and Paul are ordinary New Zealanders. Paul worked in construction and Jo was working in an early childhood centre. They lived in a middle class suburb close to their children's school and kindergarten.

In July 2009 Jo was pregnant with their third child, when Paul was made redundant.

Initially they lived off their savings and Paul applied for any jobs that were available. Jo stayed at work up until the time the baby was born. Struggling to meet their rental costs they decided to move to a less expensive house. By the time they had paid their bond and moving costs their savings had disappeared.

Jo arrived at the City Mission at Christmas time with the children's birth certificates, her bank statements and their rental details. Her request was simple - couid she please have some presents for her children. When asked if we could help with a food parcel to get them through Christmas, Jo broke down in tears. She didn't want to be greedy, she said. She worried that others were in more need than she was.

Statistics don't tell the real story of how families struggle - of the despair and the embarrassment of asking for charity to feed your children. People don't come to the Mission because it's an easy option, but there aren't  many of us that could survive for long on savings alone.

Christmas is over, but Paul and Jo are still fighting to re-build their lives. There are school fees, books, uniforms and shoes to be paid for. The Mission will continue to support Paul and Jo until they are on their feet again. Sliding into a hole is easy, climbing back out is hard.

 Missioners Comment - 25th January 2010

Another Christmas is over. Compared to 2008, nearly twice as many people made their way through the Missions doors seeking assistance over this Christmas period. Staff distributed thousands of gifts, hundreds of food parcels and hosted the country's largest community Christmas Dinner.

At the Mission, things are a little quieter now and the initial clean up is nearly complete. The aprons and table cloths have been washed and put away again ready for next year and the Christmas Appeal is over.

As the stress and excitement of Christmas winds down, it is possible to forget that throughout this 'crazy' time the Mission has continued to provide a full range of support services - services that are provided 365 days of every year; supports that cost in excess of $3.2million annually to provide.

While the Missions Christmas Appeal was successful, it will only go part of the way to cover these costs. As staff constantly review services offered, we also try to address one of the more challenging aspects faced by not-for-profits as we attempt to balance the needs of our community with the limited resources available. With so much of our income sourced from fundraising it can be hard to commit to service development, expansion, or even continuation, when the income streams are not guaranteed.

The Government's new legislation to facilitate Payroll Giving is a positive light in this challenging environment. The commitment to regular giving, of any value, helps to provide a not-for-profit with income it can predict - a key element in managing budgets.

As we take the time now to review, re-assess and plan our services for the next 12 months, we hope that our generous supporters may do similarly. We urge you to make the effort to look at the options provided by Payroll Giving. Mission staff would welcome the opportunity to talk to your team about why this initiative is so important and how their contribution can help make Auckland a more caring place to live - every day.

Read more about Payroll Giving, or email the Fundraising Team.

Missioner's Dialogue, Wednesday 16th December 2009

It’s coming on Christmas

It’s that time of year when all conversations begin with ‘are you organised for Christmas yet?”.

Everyone seems to be thinking about who to buy gifts for, how much to spend, and where the dinner will be held .  The debates are starting about who gets to put the star on the Christmas tree.  How to split the day between his family, and hers.  The planning about where to put the cousins coming up from Wellington, and which child has to share a bedroom for three whole days.  Finding the family member who will be the sober driver and pick up and deliver other members of the whanau to and from dinner.  The development of a new strategy to make sure that the favourite uncle gets enough wine to remain merry but not so much that he falls asleep during dinner and upsets the favourite aunt.  The discussions about who will host the grumpy family member who lives alone but welcomes the opportunity to come to Christmas dinner and find the chicken too dry and the pudding too sweet. It happens every year, and every year, somehow, hopefully, we make it through with relationships intact, and maybe even some special new family memories. 

Christmas for our team at the Mission has the same challenges, but on a larger scale. Our ‘house’ for Christmas Dinner has been the Town Hall for many years, which comfortably held the 1500 members of our Mission family.  But our family is growing.  This year we expect to host around 2000 people so our Christmas Dinner will be held at a bigger ‘house’, the Vector Arena.

We’re dusting off all our Christmas trees and our table decorations so the Arena will look beautiful.  We’re wrapping presents for children for whom the present they get at our Christmas dinner might be the only present they get all year.  We’re planning how to make sure the older members of our Mission family get to dinner, those elderly Aucklanders whose families live far away, who might otherwise spend the day alone.  We’re worrying about how many chickens are needed to feed 2,000 people, and how many tins of fruit salad.  We want to give our family, all the people we work with during the year, a day which brings the best spirit of Christmas to life. It’s always a big day, and with the help of my team and hundreds of volunteers we get through it. 

It is a great joy to see a child, who might have woken up in a house in which ordinary life consists of too little food, too little attention, and too much exposure to violence and alcohol and drugs, have a special day with plenty of food and fun and even a present or two. To sit with an elderly person sharing a meal with others for the first time in a year is a humbling experience  and to watch homeless people join with families to celebrate Christmas reminds me of the meaning of Christmas.  That’s what keeps us all coming back to our family dinner, year after year. These are still uncertain times.  What is certain, is that it is worth putting the effort we put in each year to make Christmas happen.  Christmas reminds us that as long as we have people in our lives that we care about, we are rich.  It’s time to celebrate

"We are now a robust and financially accountable organisation with wide-ranging programmes responding to the needs of those who are disadvantaged. The larger our city grows the more people we will see marginalised and disenfranchised. The Auckland City Mission is committed to continuing to advocate on their behalf and provide essential social services. We are especially concerned that all New Zealand children have the opportunity to reach their full potential. This means dealing with the social issues stemming from poverty and lack of housing. Our innovative inner city housing and community intiiative is a step towards addressing these issues."

Diane Robertson, Auckland City Missioner