Christchurch Community Boards celebrate national success

15 March 2005

The Shirley-Papanui Community Board in Christchurch will tomorrow (16 March) hold a small celebration to mark its recent successes at the New Zealand Community Boards conference in Dunedin.

The Christchurch City Council board won praise from the national organisation for three projects judged to be examples of best practice, while the Spreydon-Heathcote board picked up one award.

The Shirley-Papanui board won:

• The Unicef award for Child and Youth-Friendly Communities for its annual Childrens Day at the Groynes outing
• The Facilitation best-practice award for the way the board worked on the development and extension of Northlands Mall
• The Working with Maori best-practice award for its annual heritage awards in partnership with Rehua Marae

Judges said the heritage awards, held in 2002 and 2004, have fostered a good working relationship between the marae and the board, with the Board now committed to learning more about Maori protocol and language. “This project provides an excellent example of forming a partnership by working together on something, instead of just talking about it,” they said.

The Spreydon-Heathcote board won the Partnership best-practice award for its Addington.net community project, which provides affordable access to computers and information for local people.

The judges said it was a successful business-community partnership. They were impressed by its potential and said other local bodies could emulate it.

Tomorrow (Wed, 16 March) the Shirley-Papanui Community Board and support staff are holding a celebration at 5pm in the Papanui Service Centre boardroom.

● The Shirley-Papanui Community Board is based at the Council Service Centre and Library in Papanui, on the corner of Langdons Rd and Restell St
● The NZ Community Boards Conference was held in Dunedin from 3-6 March, with 240 attendees. Yvonne Palmer, chair of the Shirley-Papanui Community Board, is also chair of the New Zealand Community Board executive committee.

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