Funding insecurity for charitable groups and the need to work together on larger projects were among issues highlighted by a council facilitated networking group on Thursday.

Five members of the more than 40 participating organisations joined Whakatāne District Council senior community development adviser Karen Summerhays as she presented a report to the council’s projects and services committee on the Community Wellbeing Project.

The report provided an overview of a recent review of the project, started in 2022 to improve social outcomes in the district.

The council’s aim was to support and connect organisations already working in the community rather than provide services itself.

A night shelter for people sleeping rough and detox beds for people needing help with drug and alcohol recovery were just two of the gaps that needed filling for Whakatane district highlighted by Summerhays in her presentation.

She said collective action was needed to achieve some of these larger projects.

“Making sure that we’re all singing from the same song sheet and using that as a baseline for our decision-making,” she said.

“Getting the governance of those trusts together and asking what are the commonalities that we have, that we want to achieve in this district for our people.”

Working collaboratively was a challenge for trusts relying on Government funding that could chop and change from one group to another.

“The funding churn from Government, where they flip and flop and they choose this trust (to fund) and then they choose this one and then there’s three months in the middle where there’s no funding so that trust has to let go all their specialist staff for the other trust to pick them up three months later.

“It’s a mess out there, so somehow, there may be a way that we can get all of those governance bodies together and actually have a bit of an accord, to pick three big ideas that we can go to central Government and say, as a sector we’ve all agreed we need a night shelter.”

Mayor Nandor Tanczos said “patch protection” was always an issue when groups were in competition for funding.

“It’s got to be incredibly difficult to collaborate at the same time as you are competing.”

Summerhays said feedback from the oganisations was strongly in support of the council continuing to play a co-ordinating, facilitating and enabling role, allowing the groups themselves free to get on with the work.

Council hosting of regular social sector hui had proved particularly valuable.

It provided a mutual and safe territory for organisations to share their stories.

Disabilities Resource Centre information services co-ordinator Naomi Daniels told the committee the centre saw first-hand, how difficult systems could be to navigate for people needing help across multiple sectors including housing, transport, income, caring responsibilities and social isolation.

“Someone walks through our door and they don’t know where to start. They may have recently acquired a disability, their health has changed or their circumstances have changed. They don’t know what they are eligible for, what’s available or who to contact.

“There’s much more effectiveness when we know the other providers, understand what they do and have relationships with the people working there.

“Knowing each other’s mahi means that we can put in a warm referral and connect someone with the right person rather than just giving them a number and sending them on their way.

“That’s where these networks make a real difference.