Hui E! Kaiwhakahaere Matua, Rochelle Stewart-Allen is a member of a group that regularly meets with the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector to provide feedback on the sector’s needs, successes, and challenges. Here we have a summary from the online hui that took place November 2022.
The Community Sector Engagement Group met with Hon Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, on 10 November 2022 via Zoom.
At the hui, the Minister acknowledged that the sector has had another hard year as we continue to respond to the impacts of COVID-19. She thanked participants for their hard and on-going work.
The Minister noted the social cohesion work being led out by The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and the sector’s connection to this work and framework. She asked the group to put forward what would be useful for the community sector and how the government can support their work in social cohesion.
As an outcome of the Strengthening our Approach to Volunteering Report, a cross government group on volunteering is now meeting regularly. Michelle Kitney from Volunteering NZ has been invited to join the cross-government group. They have collectively agreed to focus on two top priorities:
i) Reducing the compliance burden for volunteer organisations
ii) Investment in volunteering infrastructure and diversity.
All participants shared resources on how they incorporate Kaupapa Māori frameworks into their organisations. You can read about Hui E! Community Aotearoa’s commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi here. Hui attendees agreed that, while COVID-19 had been the catalyst for the establishment of the Minister’s Community Sector Engagement Group, there was value in continuing to meet in 2023.
