Aranui celebrates two exciting milestones

21 February 2007

The Aranui community is celebrating two major milestones on Friday, 2 March, when it opens Aranui Heartlands and unveils “Unification” - a new community art work.

Aranui Heartlands, at 43 Hampshire Street, is a one-stop-shop for family services run by the Aranui Community Trust Incorporated Society (ACTIS) as part of a contract with the Ministry of Social Development.

ACTIS community coordinator, Rachael Fonotia, says it will be a base for various community services and is a win-win situation for provider services and families. Heartlands will enable agencies to work as one to meet a family’s needs - leaving less chance for cases to fall through the cracks.

“Service providers will have each others’ support to help resolve a family’s issues, and the family doesn’t have to visit two or three different providers for two or three different answers.
“With Heartlands, the services will be tailor-made to suit specific family needs – making the safety net more secure for Aranui families,” Ms Fonotia says.

Heartlands will give Aranui families access to everything from health services to the Christchurch City Council, Housing New Zealand, Police, and Work and Income New Zealand. It will also provide a base for health services from Aranui nurse specialist, Jackie Cooper, in collaboration with Nurse Maude, Community Alcohol and Drug Services, and Unichem Chemist.

Out-of-school and life-long learning programmes will also be provided by budgeting services, Super Grans, Workbridge, Career Services, CPIT, Canterbury University, and Aranui Community Learning Centre – to name a few.

Also being unveiled and blessed on 2 March, are two pou carvings by Aranui artist and resident, Raphael Stowers, which were commissioned as part of the City Council’s Artwork in Public Places programme.  Unification stems from Stowers’s interpretation of all cultures united in Aranui and his experiences since childhood of the diverse cultures  that played such a big part in his life.

Ms Fonotia says the pou would become an important landmark for the area, having been created by one of its own sons to mark a very exciting day in the life of Aranui.

The celebrations, which begin at 10am on Friday 2 March at Wainoni Park in Hampshire Street with the unveiling and blessing of the pou, followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside Aranui Heartlands, is open to the public.

Guests include the Honourable Lianne Dalziel, Marti Eller from the Ministry of Social Development, City Councillor Anna Crighton, ACTIS chair, Rob Davidson, elder Samuga Vili, and kaumatua Sandy Kaa.

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