News and Some Blogs

The latest news and information from the social sector.

Knowing your Worth

Do you know how much it really costs you to deliver a service or programme? If you don’t know the costs of delivering the service, how can you communicate it to others, including funders? Often...

Key Update from Minister Nicola Willis about Social Investment

By Liz Davies, Chief Executive, SociaLink/Tūhono Pāpori You may have attended a webinar, along with about 800 others, in late November hosted by Hui E!, to which Minister Nicola Willis presented...

Strategies to Improve Financial Sustainability

By Liz Davies, Chief Executive, SociaLink/Tūhono Pāpori   SociaLink held a workshop in late November for organisations interested in effectively positioning their organisation to navigate...

A volunteering challenge for election candidates

SociaLink’s Volunteering Services is throwing down a challenge for election candidates in the Western Bay of Plenty - volunteer a couple of hours for social agencies and see what’s really going on in the city.Volunteering Services manager Angela Wallace says it’s an...

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Social Sector Commissioning

Action Plan and Reform Work is underway across government agencies (jointly led by the Ministry of Social Development and Oranga Tamariki) to improve the commissioning of social services in New Zealand. Keri Huurdeman presented to a crowd of around 40 people at the...

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SociaLink cooking kai for those in need

Staff at SociaLink and Volunteering Services turned into chefs for a couple of days last week to provide meals for Kura Kai as their contribution to National Volunteer Week.In four teams they cooked up a tuna bake, pork ragu, spaghetti carbonara and butter chicken,...

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Legal Help for Not for Profits

While Community Law Centres are often able to help charities/not-for-profits with legal advice, if they do not have the capacity or expertise to assist,  then they can refer these organisations to Te Ara Ture: an online portal that was launched in 2021 to connect...

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Government moving away from addressing child poverty

The Government’s Budget showed it was moving away from addressing the consequences of child poverty, a discussion in Tauranga heard this week.Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and SociaLink, which supports the Western Bay of Plenty social and community sector, held an...

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Youth volunteers get busy around the city

Students from Aquinas College have ditched the school books for the day and are out in the community volunteering this week. It’s Youth Volunteering Week, and the students are spending the day doing service for others. Four of them are at The Kollective getting messy...

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Kathy Webb – Learning & Development

What’s your background? Owning and working on a milk round, second hand dealer, running a hospital sterilising department to working in community development in local government where I made HEAPS of contacts, which has given me a reputation as someone who knows...

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Mentoring takes people further

SociaLink, the umbrella organisation for the western Bay’s social agencies and charities, offers mentoring opportunities for not-for-profit organisations to help them grow their staff.SociaLink Mentoring Coordinator Jo Weise says she’d love to hear from anyone with...

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