West Auckland Together Collective – Supporting a Thriving West Auckland
West Auckland Together (WAT) is a collective of community organisations that is committed to working for Māori and Pasifika. It is founded on a history of strong collaboration and whakapapa of innovation and aims to contribute to "a thriving West Auckland".
WAT is purposely set to “hold the space” for organisations to participate and be involved in collective mahi as appropriate. By building on the cultural capability of partners and growing the capacity of Māori and Pacific leadership, WAT’s goal is to support community-led approaches that enhance wellbeing in a way that is culturally responsive and appropriate. The key elements of value that WAT looks to prioritise as it creates, supports and enables the conditions for transformational change are Relationships; Capacity Building; and Collaboration.
WAT understands that authentic collaboration is best achieved through building and maintaining trusted relationships. A reciprocal relationship of trust, support and sharing is developing between WAT, the West Auckland Māori Thought Leadership Collective and the Waitākere Pasifika Collective.
Like many community organisations throughout the motu, WAT members found themselves having to pivot their focus during the COVID-19 response. Working collaboratively on mahi that responded directly to the urgent needs of the community became the priority.
“It has been such a challenging year and the network we have developed really came to the fore and worked extremely hard for our community,” says Lynette Adams, CEO of Sport Waitākere, one of the core strategy members for WAT.
Sport Waitākere and Community Waitākere team members supported VisionWest and Kai Avondale by delivering emergency food parcels created for larger households with multiple families and generations. Other examples of the collective response to COVID-19 were around securing funding to supply hāngi to whānau in need and play packs to approximately 250 families.
WAT also shared information on the Ministry of Social Development Community Connection Service Providers so people knew where they could access help in West Auckland.
“Members of the collective undertook weekly check-ins to support each other with conversations around vaccination policies, ways to look after our essential workers, and techniques to protect the mental wellbeing of our teams and the community,” says Lynette.
The wins haven’t just been COVID-19-related, and WAT has a lengthy list of achievements. In recent times, it has:
developed a Māori cultural capability locator tool that eight organisations are using to develop their own cultural capability.
supported the community in accessing resources dedicated to improving health and wellbeing during self-isolation, through the West Auckland Together digital hub.
worked to develop a weekly fresh food market run by locals, for locals in the heart of Henderson. Te Puna Market is an opportunity for locals to access affordable kai, connect with neighbours and support local makers and artists.
distributed more than 6,000 Easy Choice Family Kai booklets to whānau.
distributed 5,000 copies of the Homelessness, Housing and Community Resources in West Auckland Directory to Citizen Advice Bureaus, community hubs, and social service providers.
supported the development of Kai West, a collective made up of people working on community-based initiatives that focus on the local food system.
created and distributed activity-based NCEA study packs.
supported vaccination drives.
WAT has big plans for the future and wants to reset and revisit initiatives that have been on hold due to the COVID-19 response, and potentially develop new priority areas e.g. digital equity. The collective aims to maintain its focus on supporting Māori and Pasifika wellbeing outcomes, including enabling more Māori and Pasifika to step into leadership and governance roles.
Over the course of the past two years, WAT has witnessed an increase in connectedness both between members, and in the community, and wants to maintain this momentum. Through building collaboration and respectful relationships, the collective has served the people of West Auckland effectively while maintaining the mana of those most in need. It aims to continue to build and develop without losing its ability to be flexible, something that has proven invaluable in recent times.