What we do and how we can help

As part of our BAU (business as usual) work you will find our team taking the lead on council projects that require community feedback.

Projects we've been a part of include:

• 1600km - community driven road safety
• Cheviot Bike Stand Location
• Positively Rotherham
• Amberley Absolutely
• Annual Plan / Long Term Plan Consultation
• MainPower Amberley Swimming Pool
• Mayor's Business Advisory Group
• Scargill Hall Site Consultation
• Hurunui Foodbank Liaison
• Food Secure North Canterbury Liaison
• Updating Waikari Camping Ground Facilities
• Coppard Reserve (Leithfield) Upgrades

The Hurunui District Council has the responsibility of:

Preparing the Hurunui community to respond as individuals and as a community to disasters by making detailed plans, conducting awareness programmes, training and exercising volunteers, and providing support coordination training for those community groups that will have roles in the event of a major disaster.

Contact:

Allan Grigg
Emergency Management Officer
Phone: 027 586 1733

The Hurunui District Council is committed to the economic growth of our region and welcomes new business initiatives and commercial developments. We work closely with Enterprise North Canterbury to support our business community, whether it’s a new or established business.

Further Information: check out our Business Support Page

While we don't specifically write applications for groups we can provide the following:

• guidance on what makes an ideal application
• provide feedback on your application before you submit it
• suggest external agencies that might be able to help your group

The Council also looks after a number of award and grant schemes that recognise special achievement or sponsor sporting and artistic endeavors, these are available at different times during the year. You should continue to keep coming back to our awards and funds page to see what is currently open.

Contact:

Vanessa Nelmes
Community Development Facilitator
Phone: 027 500 2562

The Community Partnerships Team enjoys strong relationships with a range external support agencies such as Department of Internal Affairs, Rātā Foundation, Ministry of Social Development and Enterprise North Canterbury (to name just a few). Regular meetings occur throughout the year which helps to put the Hurunui in front of these national organisations. From this we've been supported by them with additional funding for projects, professional advice & support for our communities and event opportunities.

To find out what older people are feeling about aging in Hurunui – both the good and the bad, a research project titled Hurunui Age-Friendly Communities was completed in 2019 to provide Council and other organisations with a direct link to the lived experience of older people in the district. The findings may assist Council in its planning and policy development and advocacy role to further enhance the Hurunui district being age-friendly.

Want to know more about what is happening in this space? Feel free to get in touch.

Contact:

Vanessa Nelmes
Community Development Facilitator
Phone: 027 500 2562

Together Hurunui is a non-statutory network of social services operating in the Hurunui District and includes community groups, schools and health centres, NGO agencies, local council and central government.

Together Hurunui endeavours to identify gaps in service provision and advocate for the right services to fill these through regular network events and targeted projects.

Contact:

Natalie Paterson
Together Hurunui Facilitator
Phone: 027 1800 2773
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A community garden is land gardened collectively by a group of people for the benefit of the community.

A community garden is often a small scale, low cost garden in a neighbourhood setting managed by a group of people who primarily grow fruit or vegetables, for personal use of the garden volunteers or for the benefit of their community. A community garden may be on private or public land and have a charitable trust and management group overseeing the running of the garden.

Not sure where to start? Give us a call on 03 314 8816.

Food Secure North Canterbury has a joint focus on community gardens and a more permaculture focus of food forests. They linked Brent Cairns of Kaiapoi Food Forest with the Hanmer Springs community to create a food forest there.

Sharing Sheds are popping up over the district. The concept behind these sheds is to have a place where people can take their excess fruit and veges (and other produce) to leave for others. Currently we know of ones in Amberley, Leithfield, Hawarden and Waikari.

Communities know what they need most and are capable of identifying, planning and delivering their own projects. Such projects can become a source of local identity and pride.

Developing a community plan is a collaborative process to improve social, economic and environmental well-being of a local area. Led by residents and other interest groups but supported by Council staff, agreement is reached on objectives, actions, delivery responsibility and time frames.

A community plan has a vision, actions and implementation plan. Although not formally adopted by the Council, community-led and owned plans can still guide decision-making by the Council and other agencies.

Hurunui District Council has been successful in securing up to $150,000 of funding for a ‘Mayoral Taskforce For Jobs’ (MTFJ) in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Development. This Programme places NEETS (young people not in education, employment, or training), people living with disabilities and other disadvantaged people into work.