Community Connect
Welcome to the seventh edition of Family and Community Services' e-newsletter.
ISSUE 7 • JULY 2009
E-news from Family and Community Services
Building Stronger Communities
The recently published Hutt Valley Community Profile is more a springboard than a printed report.
The profile, which covers Hutt City and Upper Hutt City districts, reflects a joint Local Services Mapping (LSM) community planning process that is used to identify ways to improve the effectiveness of social services in the Hutt Valley.
The LSM process sets out two desired social outcomes for communities in the Hutt: children and young people are safe and healthy; and people with disabilities and their families or their whānau carer have an ordinary life.
The report also identifies initial action plans for each community priority, and local groups are already moving the plans from talk to action.
"One of the immediate positive outcomes of the project," says Raewyn Hailes, spokesperson for the Hutt Valley LSM Executive Group, "is that it has brought agencies around the table to work together and it has strengthened our professional relationships and co-operation."
LSM is an example of communities helping themselves. It is carried out in partnership with local district councils, with an expectation that it will also feed into the social wellbeing component of each district's Long Term Council Community Plan.
Currently, more than 45 districts throughout New Zealand are engaged in the LSM process to achieve the desired outcomes for their communities.
LSM is facilitated by the Ministry of Social Development's Family and Community Services.
