Waikato and Tauranga/Western Bay of Plenty - Settling In

Waikato

Settling In supports a range of work in Hamilton and the wider Waikato region. Current priorities include:

• Supporting migrant and refugee women – with a focus on bringing together refugee and migrant women who are isolated within their community in order to encourage participation and offer better access to services.
• International Women’s Day forum – as part of the support for migrant and refugee women, a very successful International Women’s Day forum was organised in collaboration with the Department of Internal Affairs, Waikato Migrant Centre and the Waikato District Health Board. The forum was held at the Waikato Migrant Resource Centre. Refugee and migrant women and representatives from various central government agencies, local government, NGOs and community groups attended the event. Given the success of the forum and the identification of follow up action points, a working group has been formed to progress this work and plan another event for 2011.
• Newcomers Network – a Newcomers Network was launched in July 2010 with support from Settling In. Visit www.newcomers.co.nz
• Support for diverse communities – Settling In continues to support a number of refugee, migrant and Muslim communities in the Waikato region. More recently, this work has involved working with Refugee Services, Refugee Waikato Forum and members of the local Colombian community to scope out a programme for ‘Positive Parenting in the New Zealand Context’.

Tauranga / Western Bay of Plenty

The Tauranga / Western Bay of Plenty sub-region has experienced significant population growth in recent years with migrants making an increasing contribution to these changes. In 2009 Settling In became involved and worked closely with local agencies to take stock of emerging issues, to coordinate services and to plan for the ongoing needs of the expanding local migrant communities.

A range of issues were raised in focus groups with local migrants particularly in relation to better access to information, more English language support, safety and security concerns, intergenerational tensions and the need for more information about older migrants in the area. Work is underway to address many of these issues with a significant amount already achieved, including:

• New coordinator – appointed for the Tauranga Multicultural Council with support from Settling In. Visit www.ethnictauranga.org
• Newcomers Network – is up and running through the local Multicultural Council. Visit www.newcomers.co.nz
• New English classes established – a new class for older Sikh women was established by English Language Partners in response to focus group discussions; the Multicultural Council has initiated a range of classes for specific groups of learners.
• Closer links between local services – Local agencies and organisations continue to meet to progress issues and closer links have been forged between local services (eg between community police and local services to address safety and security issues for local migrants).