How the Maraenui community has reinvented itself

This is the story of the transformation of a Napier suburb, Maraenui, made possible by collaboration between the local council, central government agencies and the community.

	“Look out the window – what do you see? A row of neat Housing New Zealand houses freshly painted and a couple of teenagers chatting. Well, five years ago it looked like a war zone!”

Redeveloped Housing New Zealand housing in Maraenui, Napier

Maraenui is diverse and culturally rich with a young population that faces significant challenges. There are many single parent families, over half of the households have low incomes, and few people have formal qualifications. Nearly half the population is Māori, just over 40% Pakeha, and almost 10% Pacific people. Maraenui is rated 10 (i.e. poorest) on the New Zealand deprivation index.

Priorities

The Napier City Council has been working with this community since 1996. Early on the community identified that they wanted:

to focus on local residents first
to develop a shopping centre as the core of community interaction
a community centre and marae
community events.

The community wanted to be supported through a “strengths-based approach” which looks at the positives, rather than focusing on deficits. This included using a collaborative, team approach to creating a safe and secure environment. They wanted tangible outcomes and physical changes to be obvious so progress could be seen.

Maraenui Urban Renewal Plan

When work began, crime was prevalent in Maraenui and the local residents felt increasingly unsafe. In August 2004, the Crime Prevention Unit held a meeting with the Napier City Council and a number of central government agencies which provide services to the community. This key meeting lead to the development of the Maraenui Urban Renewal Plan.

The plan highlighted two key issues:

That a credible Non-Government Organisation (NGO) was needed to represent the community and provide leadership.

Prior to the plan, over 40 different trusts delivered social services in Maraenui. Only a handful of these were effective. Although there was a lot of passion, there were few people with the right skills, and services were fragmented. As a result, little was accomplished. The solution was to develop one trust to represent the entire community. This role was taken by a new organisation, the Maraenui Urban Renewal Trust, which was established to provide leadership and to take a governance and management role linking the community and government agencies.
Unless agencies (central government and councils) worked in collaboration, change would be limited for the people living in Maraenui.

As we have seen elsewhere, significant services and funding are often poured into a community but nothing seems to change. The solution for Maraenui was to develop a team approach to making things happen. The action began when the government agencies working in Maraenui got together and created a strategic plan.

Achievements

Although it is a work in progress, putting the strategic plan for Maraenui into practice has achieved considerable success.

The revitalised shopping centre

Instead of boarded up shops and a venue for criminal activity, especially violent offending, the shopping centre has been revitalised.

In 2005 Housing New Zealand opened an Information Centre in what used to be the local pub. After 12 months of operation, Housing New Zealand reported a 70 per cent decrease in tenant debt in the area. This was due to staff from Housing New Zealand being available and able to respond personally to enquiries. Also, two of the volunteers who worked with Housing New Zealand became permanent employees.

In September 2007, the Napier City Council purchased five shops in Maraenui. It has onsold three (two to the Eastern Institute of Technology), has leased a fourth to Learning Innovations, and is currently refitting the fifth for either sale or lease.

Maraenui shopping centre before redvelopment

The Maraenui shopping centre before revitalisation...

...and after.

Youth programme

A youth programme, Ka Hao Te Rangatahi, has been running for the past four years. The programme supports Māori youth that have a history of violent offending. Participants develop self-discipline and self-respect, and are encouraged to look to the future and map out their careers. Focusing on long-term goals may help reduce their motivation to commit violent offences.

Health programmes

The area’s health providers talked with the community to find out what they wanted. Consequently a number of programmes were set up, including alcohol and drug counselling (with an onsite counsellor), exercise and healthy eating, and cooking programmes.

Urban safety

Improved environmental design, such as better street lighting, has contributed to a safer suburb. Additional community constables in the area and an iwi liaison officer have also improved people’s perception that the community is safer.

Maraenui was previously identified as a high risk suburb by the New Zealand Fire Service, due to the number of house fires. A partnership between the Fire Service and Work and Income has changed this. They employed and trained local residents to go door-to-door to improve fire safety awareness. Over 2,000 smoke alarms have been installed, existing smoke alarms have been checked, and a fire exit plan has been developed for each house.

Enhancement

Housing New Zealand, the biggest landlord in Maraenui, has refurbished over 140 homes including improving insulation and building graffiti resistant fencing.

A community garden has also been established by the Trust with the help from the Primary Health Organisation and the Department of Corrections.

Other agencies involved included the Department of Internal Affairs, Crime Prevention Unit (Ministry of Justice), and Child, Youth and Family

Key success factors

Following the development of Maraenui Urban Renewal Plan, several key people from the Napier City Council and the Maraenui Urban Renewal Trust were interviewed about their experiences, including highlights and barriers, and what they might do differently. The following comments capture the interviewees’ reflections about good practice and factors influencing success.

Common goals

A common vision helped to link central government and the Napier City Council and ensured they were united in their desired achievements.

This vision needed to reflect what the community identified as its vision.

The community’s vision

The Council worked with the Maraenui community to help identify a vision and, subsequently, the Maraenui Urban Renewal Trust was set up to represent the community’s views.

Leadership

	“It takes time to work with the community and time to identify the leaders who have the community mandate.”

Prior to the Trust’s establishment, a number of people put themselves forward as community leaders and as one of the interviewees commented “some of these so-called leaders are now in jail.” This demonstrates that understanding the community takes time and there is much to learn along the way.

Communication

The community frequently asked “Who have you consulted and are they the right people?” Two way feedback from, and to, the community has been critical to the success of the plan, and this includes both formal and informal means.

A clear focus

Consultation revealed that the community wanted action that would result in tangible outcomes. They wanted something that was visual, such as improvements made to the local environment.

A detailed practical plan was developed, based on what the community identified as important. It included key milestones. Projects were specific and individual organisations could see what their contribution achieved. Every organisation had a role to play and was accountable to the others for achieving milestones.

The need for the plan to be flexible was seen as critical to its success. The plan was a living document with clear actions.

	“Change at the family level is not seen immediately and often takes generations. It is important to have visible outcomes so every one can see progress.”

The people interviewed highlighted the need to have outcomes people could see, and relate to.

What central government agencies and the Council learned

Commitment

Although there was a memorandum of commitment signed by the agencies it was critical that senior managers became actively involved. It was important for them to understand their organisation’s role and how it contributed to the bigger picture. Senior management involvement gave the projects credibility and ensured that even if people left the organisation, others would step in.

	“It was not until the senior manager’s were comfortable with the project that they delegated others to attend meetings on their behalf. And they wanted to be kept informed as their organisation was now accountable for delivering.”

Group dynamics

It took at least two years to get the plan underway, for everyone to get to know each other and to take ownership of the process.

	“Conflict is inevitable; you just need to ride through it. For example, central government agencies wanted to dominate the process. It was agreed that a new way of working was needed if anything was to be achieved.”

Another person noted

	“[We had to] try different ways to manage the dynamics. For example workshops facilitated by an independent facilitator were effective at some stages.”

Champions

Senior managers in the government agencies and the local council needed to be advocates for the project.

	“They hold the purse strings and can make things happen”. “Senior managers were used to telling others what to do and found it difficult to collaborate initially. Once they saw the common vision and their role, it became easier.”

“They hold the purse strings and can make things happen”.

“Senior managers were used to telling others what to do and found it difficult to collaborate initially. Once they saw the common vision and their role, it became easier.”

There were people who had the ideas and saw different ways of working – often these are people at the operational level, the workers at the coal face. These people needed support from their senior managers to put their ideas into action.

Others, including managers from the different government agencies saw the benefits, began networking across agencies and working together to get action.

Barriers

Silo-ed thinking

Initially government agencies that were working in silos acted as a barrier. Some organisations were only interested in the project in terms of how it related to them and did not see the opportunity to contribute to the bigger picture.

	“This thinking stopped some of the territorial government agencies, which were into patch protection, from participating.”

Government funding structures and payment processes

Funding structures that do not give any certainty of ongoing funding to non-government organisations can be a deterrent to progress.

	“[Lack of certainty about funding] makes it difficult to plan and keep staff. A lot of time is spent on administration applying for funding to keep us going. We recognise that there is a fine line between becoming dependent on government funding and being independent. Currently we are in a precarious position with no certainty of funding and where does that leave us and the community we represent? There has to be a better funding process giving more certainty so we can get on and do things.”

“[Lack of certainty about funding] makes it difficult to plan and keep staff. A lot of time is spent on administration applying for funding to keep us going. We recognise that there is a fine line between becoming dependent on government funding and being independent. Currently we are in a precarious position with no certainty of funding and where does that leave us and the community we represent? There has to be a better funding process giving more certainty so we can get on and do things.”

Central government payment processes can be frustrating for community organisations.

	“Community trusts often can’t sustain invoices when we don’t get paid for over two months.”

Lack of skills

There is a lack of people with the right skills in both the community and in government agencies. In particular, government agencies need to gain a better understanding of how communities work so they can be better at supporting community leaders and effectively communicating with communities rather than talking past each other.

Risk taking

	“Government agencies can be averse to trying out different ways of doing things. They prefer to do the same things the same way, that way they don’t make the headlines. They need to try different ways of working and, sure, there will be some things that don’t work out and others that do. They need to be aware of the risks and manage them, if things are going to change.”

The future

The people of Maraenui have a common vision of the future: to develop the next generation to inspire them to have something better for themselves.

There are challenges for central government agencies and councils when working together and with communities. The solution involves questioning fundamental assumptions and doing things differently to get better outcomes.

As Albert Einstein once said: “The kind of thinking that got us into this situation is not the kind that will get us out of it.”

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