Well, wasn't that a year! It feels like it went quickly with so many things going on,
Where do I start about 2022...how about with the 1-year anniversary of our website! It was so exciting being able to launch this site. It gave us an opportunity to show case what we offer on a more permanent platform, as well as a resource for the community and service partners. Going forward I would like to keep this blog up to date, and eventually have the option for clients to book appointments through our website.
We had a busy year being political activists for our sector and our clients, to make sure that we have adequate ongoing funding to sustainably keep running in the future. Carmel sent requests for letters of support to all the political parties, which in turn gave us positive support from all of them, whether it was a promise to speak to Minister Sepuloni on our behalf or organising a meeting face to face to discuss it further. Between our work in the background and the mahi of FINCAP, it was announced in the 2022 Budget that we would get increased funding for a further 2 years, which was excellent news.
As we all know the cost of living has been steadily increasing over the last year. Carmel was part of a One News interview to discuss how we have noticed the change for the general community and the pressure it is putting on Budget Services. Also, Cara was part of Radio New Zealand interview discussing the effects of it and how we feel changes could be made to ease the pressure.
Speaking of Carmel, she was awarded a Community Service award at last year's Civic
Awards, for the over 30 years of dedication and service to CHB working and running CHB Budget services. It was well deserved, and we can only hope she carries on this work for a long time to come.
This year the Retirement Commission/Te Ara Ahunga Ora held their first bi-annual National Strategy Partners Conference in Wellington, and the team was fortunate to attend. It involved 2 days of guest speakers and speaking panels, which included a panel of the 4 major banks, a panel from MSD, FINCAP and CAP, guest speakers of Simran Kaur from Girls that Invest and Hon Dr David Clark. It was also a great opportunity to network with other Financial Mentors, key staff at government services like, MSD, Retirement commission, Banking ombudsman and so many more. It gave us the mid-year refresh that we needed and gave us amazing ideas and information to bring back to the community and our clients. We can't wait till the next one in 2024!
Central Hawkes Bay is a dedicated and tight-knit community, and we are so proud to be a part of it, which is why we work so hard to make it the best possible. We are only capable of this through the relationships and partnerships we form with other services. In 2022 these relationships boomed. We worked with so many as part of many community network committees facilitated by CHBDC, including Food Secure, Older Persons, Disabilities and Skills, Training and Employment Network. These committees bring voices from multiple different services together, to see how we can help each other improve their service and the community. Within this we were part of the first two Community Roadshows, which travelled to Takapau and Porangahau. It was great to bring all the council and community services in one place for the townships to access in one hit. We can't wait to do more.
We started monthly workshops with Age Concern in their Waipukurau office, we attended Kaumatua groups with Te Tai Whenua o Heretaunga. Worked with Mayors Taskforce for Jobs to run sessions in their Work Ready program.
Let's not forget our Money Mates workshops that were run weekly starting at the old TTOH offices and later moved to EIT. These were 8-week courses to teach money skills. We are excited to start these back in February, with a new refreshed course.
We are so grateful for the Central Hawkes Bay community and can't wait to see what 2023 brings us. Hopefully it will be as eventful as 2022!
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