Central Regional Plan 2006/2007
Foreword from the Regional Commissioner for Social Development
I’m pleased to welcome you to the first Ministry-wide Plan for our region. We’ve been finding ways to work more effectively across the broad range of areas we are involved in. We have a lot of people doing great work in their particular areas, whether that is supporting students while they study, finding people jobs, managing our clients’ income support or working with community organisations.
We believe that by working together across the whole Ministry, we will achieve much more for our clients, their families and our communities.
The Ministry has a ‘whole of government’ and ‘whole of life’ approach to social development. We aim to help New Zealanders - this includes older people, families with children, young people and working-age people. We also want to continue to work with communities, hapu and iwi.
We recognise that we are only one piece of the puzzle. To make real, lasting differences, we will continue to work with other parts of the community including local and central government agencies.
Social development can seem like a big, theoretical concept but our people are good at finding practical ways to make social development a reality. It’s about asking the extra questions when someone is having difficulty such as why are people in this position, how can we support them to change their lives for the better and what could be done to avoid this happening to others? It’s this sort of thinking that sees our staff helping our clients make well-informed decisions about their study and training choices. It’s these types of conversations that lead to new job opportunities through industry partnerships and job
creation initiatives.
It takes a ‘can do’ approach, plenty of communication to find ways to help and lots of determination to hang in there when things don’t progress quickly or easily.
There’ll be plenty of highlights and challenges ahead of us in the coming year. We have a great region with many strengths in terms of a diverse economy, natural assets and talented people. This is an opportunity for us to make real and lasting differences in our communities.
Penny Rounthwaite
Regional Commissioner for Social Development
