Community Volunteers

Mana (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 4, 18 August 1977, Page 8

Community Volunteers

Have you met an energetic and bright-eyed person working in your community who calls themselves a Community Volunteer? If you have, it’s not surprising — Auckland has 25 full-time Community Volunteer workers involved in a multitude of community development activities. They work attached to an agency like a school, city council or community centre, and receive a subsistence allowance. Quite a few CV workers are in central Auckland, like . . . . .. Wiki, who is working with Ponsonby Intermediate School to set up an unusual programme on Wednesday afternoons. The children will take part in activities that don’t usually occur in schools, such as renovating old furniture, learning bushcraft, and Maori carving. Wiki hopes that this will start involving the community in the school, as well as giving the children a chance to learn and enjoy practical skills. Wiki is also responsible for co-ordinating school holiday programmes for Ponsonby and Herne Bay, and is looking into the possibility of a communal play area. . . . . . Sue and Janet work with the Volunteer Bureau in Queen Street. People wanting to do part-time voluntary work can contact the Bureau

to find themselves a placement that will interest them and use their particular skills. The Volunteer Bureau has been going since February and is being used increasingly all the time. Part-time volunteers can get involved in anything from helping with children’s art to befriending psychiatric patients. . . . . . John is soon to start as a CV worker at Arohanui in Ponsonby. Arohanui is a house where recently released prisoners, or people on probation, can live, find employment, and be helped in their personal growth. John will live at Arohanui and try to encourage people back to living a full life in the community. . . . . . Beginning on Monday, August Bth, Sue, will be working in Ponsonby from the Freeman’s Bay Child Care Centre. Sue is Samoan, and hopes to be able to help other Samoans who have language difficulties. In all, Community Volunteers are working to discover the real needs of people; and by creating alternatives to the present system, hope to provide for those needs using the power and the resources hidden in the people themselves. Phone: 73-177