Funding obtained for community consultation project

December 11th, 2014

Vision Motueka has received a $7000 grant from Canterbury Community Trust to carry on work begun at the recent Economic Summit and gather ideas on how to make Motueka a stronger community long term.

The grant will be used to hire a part-time researcher and project co-ordinator next year when the information gathering programme begins, probably in March.

The goal of the programme is to engage and talk with as many Motueka people as possible to find out what they think will make Motueka a better place to live in 2030. The programme was endorsed by the Community Board at its May meeting (see our story here).

Details of how this will be done are still being finalised by a Vision Motueka project team, and will be announced at the group's Annual General Meeting on January 29th.

They are likely to include street surveys, online questionnaires, meetings with a broad range of community groups, interviews with individuals involved in community activities, some public meetings, a follow-up seminar for businesses to the successful August Economic Summit, and some quirky information-finding events.

"Vision Motueka has already become active in several long-term projects such as the murals and the Volunteer Awards, to help make Motueka a more vibrant, proud and caring community," says chairman David Armstrong.

"With the help of Canterbury Community Trust we are now in the position to begin one of our core goals - to find out what the Motueka people themselves feel would make this the place successful and strong well into the future.

We're picking 2030 as a target date for long-term community planning because a 15-year horizon is neither too short to get things done in, nor too far in the distance for it to have meaning to many people. It's good to have a date that you can relate to."

David says the goal - and the biggest challenge - of Vision's 2015 information gathering programme is to engage as many people as possible so that the results reflect not just particular Council or political views but the real wishes and needs of citizens.

"Such a broad consultation process would be very hard for just a team of us volunteers to carry out, but being able to have a paid co-ordinator to organise meetings and surveys, and record and collate results means that we can do it properly and thoroughly.

"We're very grateful to Canterbury Community Trust for their faith that we can work professionally and produce meaningful and useful results."

He says that all the information gathered will eventually be available for public viewing, and for use by any person or group in future planning. It should also allow the Community Board and Council to understand more clearly what average Motueka residents really want.

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