Perinatal Support Nelson Inc
Supervision and Training of Volunteer Counsellors and Clinical Manager.
Thanks to the grant we received from the Trust we were able to provide supervision to our team of volunteer counsellors and Clinical Manager.
It is vital as a counselling service to provide our team and manager with monthly clinical supervision, within these sessions the counsellors can talk freely about issues that may have risen with the client. The supervisor can then provide the counsellor with strategies on how best the counsellor can support the client with said issue. The counsellor can also use the clinical supervision as a place to debrief when dealing with complex issues.
The most important outcome will be evident by the women being healthier; physically, mentally and emotionally. This healthy wellbeing spreads over into her relationships with her baby, other children, partner and extended family, ultimately into her community.
We nurture these vulnerable mothers by focusing on their mental health and providing support for her to navigate her way through her distress. By working with the mother to help strengthen their attachment with their baby, is in line with research which is addressing the early intervention of the ‘First 1000 days’ and how important this is for the ongoing mental health of the mother and child.
Perinatal Support Nelson has been supporting our community for 35 years and is doing a great job of capturing the majority of women with Perinatal Depression and/or Anxiety (PND/A) in our region. On average we work with 150 families per annum and ask them to complete a survey at the end of their sessions, below is a small example of recent comments that we have received.
“I thought I was going crazy thinking it was only me that thought these thoughts, I feel so normal.”
“Thank you, no one has ever heard my story and It feels good to share my pain.”
“I thought having a healthy baby would outweigh the trauma of birth, This has been a wonderful place to share my grief and feel validated.”
“I feel so empowered through the counselling I have received.”
Thank you again for your support to our organisation.
The Family Space Charitable Trust
To pay for our Coordinator at The Family Space with the purpose of supporting and strengthening local families.
The grant helped our organisation with our Coordinator costs so that we could provide a range of programmes and activities that supported and strengthened families within our community to achieve a positive level of wellness.
Our Coordinator provided a safe, open and enriching environment where young families could drop in, make friends, gain parenting skills and take part in meaningful activities which supported their wellbeing.
Rape Prevention Education
Delivery of BodySafe programme to secondary schools.
Funds were used to pay for educator time and mileage costs to travel to school and deliver bodysafe programme.
We were able to deliver BodySafe programme 112 young people in schools
Parentline Manawatu
Group Coordinator/Facilitator Wages
Group Coordinator/Facilitator Wages
We are thankful for your contribution towards our Group Coordinator/Facilitator's wages, which helps us to continue to supply parenting programmes that promote positive parenting and effect positive change in the Manawatu Communities. 246 parents/caregivers attended our parenting programmes in 2023-2024. We estimate that over 645 children have benefited from our services. 87% of our clients completed our post programme evaluation. The results of these evaluations showed 87% of clients were satisfied with our services. 94% felt more connected and supported to make positive parenting decisions and 94% experienced improved communication and relationship with their child/whanau. We believe that positive changes to parenting practices also effect communities positively. Thank you again for your kind support.
Zonta Club of Wellington
The Zonta Club of Wellington Science Award is designed to assist an early career woman scientist with funding to lead a research project that has wide spread benefits for her community. The Award recipient receives $20,000, this year generously assisted by the John Ilott Trust to spend on advancing her science research, a bespoke commemorative medal (previously funded by the John Ilott Trust in 2022) and a certificate of achievement.
The Zonta Club of Wellington Science Award 2024 was presented to Dr Hadee Thompson Morrison, a land scientist on May 14. The sum of $5000.00 was used as part of the $20,000 Award for Hadee to visit Rothamsted Research in London to access relevant field trial data which will assist with her research. She is seeking to advance our understanding of the complex biogeochemical processes in the soil-plant system through further development of a model, first developed during her PhD.
The Zonta Science Award relies solely on sponsorship funding. This year's award winner was able to immediately use some of her funding to travel to Rothamsted Research, London to advance her research model. Early career women scientists often find it difficult to gain funding and this award provides a pathway for their career advancement. This lack of funding opportunities to early career women scientists is backed up anecdotally by a number of Award applicants and by overseas research.
Winning the award raises the profile of the winner and provides them with the ability to advance their research. In the case of this winner her research is likely to lead to improved agricultural practices and ecosystem health.
The Nest Collective NZ Charitable Trust
The purpose of the grant was to support our organisations national operational costs.
We spent the grant on our online accounts (Xero, Google Workspace, Surveymonkey, Adobe) we need to run the organisation. We purchased a membership to Volunteering NZ to support our branches with training and resources. We paid for couriers of packs to areas we are supporting that don't have branches. We also paid for some of our fliers for community outreach.
This grant was essential to continuing our work as an organisation. These funds are the hardest to acquire through grants but are necessary to support our work as the national team, which enables our branches to do the mahi they do to help communities across Aotearoa.
Birthright Canterbury Trust
The grant purpose was for the funding of salary for one of our Social Workers and for the cost of mileage for the travel required by our Social Worker team across Canterbury. In total we support 139 families and employ a team of six employees.
We spent this funding on mileage for the travel of our team to support our clients and also for the payment of salary for one of our Social Workers.
This grant was able to allow our team to continue to support clients across the Canterbury region by providing face to face visits, organising practical donations and working with the family to create a plan to create financial and emotional independence and to create a nurturing and loving home for their children. We really appreciate your support to assist in making such a positive impact on our community.
New Foundations trust
To cover overhead and cost of running programs of the trust runs.
Audit Cost for the trust
If we do not get how accounts audit we are unable to apply to other charitable trust to cover the cost of running our program in the local community
Upside Youth Mentoring Aotearoa
The grant has contributed to the Koha Project which is paid each month to the mentors who need financial assistance to cover mentoring session expenses.
The Koha was spent by the mentors on transport or petrol costs, activity costs or entrance fees, and food and beverage costs during the weekly mentoring sessions with their young person.
We are extremely grateful to the John Ilot Charitable Trust as one of the few organisations who support our Koha Project. It is important that mentors feel supported during their mentoring journey and providing financial support can be a critical factor in deciding to go ahead with mentoring for some people. It creates an equality within our mentor group and also generates more options for the mentoring sessions.
The grant has improved the mentoring journey for our mentors and removed pressure and concern about having sufficient funds for the sessions. This is appreciated by mentors and flows through to our young people and their whānau, most who are struggling financially with the cost-of-living crisis. It has also supported our youth development as it is an important life skill to make decisions, and we encourage youth-led activities and having a budget sets a decision-making framework. Overall, the grant contributes very positively to our Mentoring Programme and the Koha Project.
Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust
Funding of wages was sought for the purpose of retaining our current mentor / support worker – a trained counsellor and teacher – for the purpose of working alongside the families and young people who are continuing to leave the Gloriavale Christian Community.
Leavers face various challenges when leaving the community, such as social isolation, lack of education, limited job skills, and emotional trauma. His assistance has proven to be invaluable for assisting with resettlement and integration of leavers into the “outside world”.
This grant has enabled our mentor/ support worker to focus on initial work with Gloriavale leavers, (particularly young adults when they leave without the immediate support of their families), and ongoing work with them and families as they resettle into new communities after leaving the restrictive religious community of Gloriavale. The Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust offers a unique wrap-around service for a group of disadvantaged people impacted by a community dominated by coercive control.
The pastoral support we have been able to offer helps to mitigate and navigate many roadblocks to the successful integration of Gloriavale leavers into mainstream New Zealand society. Connection has been mainly face-to-face for those in our local area, but also by phone calls and the occasional visit to those located further afield. This involvement has been invaluable for creating initial friendship and providing support as well as encouraging connection with other agencies and support to help expand support networks for leavers.
Funding was spent on contracted hours by our trained counsellor / teacher / support worker / mentor. During the period covered by the grant, he worked with 14 separate individuals and family groups. The individuals connected with were mainly young single adults who left Gloriavale and their families there. He has helped them and continues to support them to navigate the often difficult path to independence and integration into mainstream society.
This pastoral support we have been able to offer helps to resettle individuals and families more quickly than otherwise may have been the case, and this has led to much better outcomes as they move towards eventually becoming contributing members of society settled in the community, showing independence and progressing forwards with their lives. This funding enabled over 50 hours specifically for our mentor to provide pastoral visits, care and support.
The support worker role is an ongoing one within the Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust. There have been approximately 25 people leave Gloriavale since the beginning of 2024 and we know there are more to come. We have assisted many more who have benefited from the Trust's support services and pastoral visits over the past year in various ways. The role of support worker is a much needed and continuing position within our Trust. Many thanks for your support for this important project. If you require any further information or clarification, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Wellington Volunteer Centre
We received $2000 to be used to contribute to the cost of our youth engagement pilot project - Meaningful Mahi Aroha: The Impact of Connected.
We spent the funding as a contribute to one month’s salary (in August 2024) for our Youth Impact Programme Coordinator.
Meaningful Mahi Aroha: The Impact of Connected Youth increased youth engagement by empowering young people, age 14 – 20, to actively participate in shaping their community through volunteering. We addressed the current lack of youth volunteer opportunities by collaborating with 6 local community and voluntary organisations and involving youth in decision making. Our focus on improving the quality and quantity of youth volunteer opportunities empowered local youth with leadership and life skills to make positively impactful societal change.
We have tested this project in the last 6 months by running it as a successful pilot. We have 25 roles co-designed by youth for youth that are available on our Youth Impact website (https://www.volunteerwellington.nz/youthimpact). We have placed 41 local youth volunteers in roles, and 18 young people were involved in the development and ongoing delivery of the project. The feedback we have received thus far has been overwhelmingly positive and demonstrates the need for this programme:
“We want to increase our youth volunteers and gain a good understanding of what it takes to engage youth in an on-going way, as it is always changing. We see participating in the Volunteer Wellington Youth Impact project as a training and learning experience of how to do that better. We rely on the occasional young person coming through and then we panic as we don’t really know what to do with them. We really want to know “How do we harness the passion of youth in a way that is meaningful for them and helpful for us? There is not a lot in the sector that directly deals with youth and we have always wanted to do better in this area” (Moana Uerata-Jennings: Manager Volunteering, Cancer Society - Pilot Project organisation)
“Being involved in the Youth Impact project has really opened my eyes to the unlimited opportunities for how to engage an age bracket (14-20 year olds) who we haven’t engaged with so far.” (Zoey Shepherd, Volunteer Manager at Bhakti Lounge)
“I decided to volunteer for the youth project to force myself to step out of my comfort zone, but to also increase my experience and skills. I get a sense of fulfilment from volunteering that I don't get elsewhere. I've previously volunteered at an op shop and soup kitchen.” (Jasmine Chung, 20, student volunteer of the Pilot Project Youth Advisory board)
“My experience with Youth Impact is very welcoming, very kind, easy to work with, they were very helpful with sharing ideas and easy to communicate with” (Mason – Aotea College)
We also delivered a workshop to 10X community organisations called ‘How to Attract, Engage and Empower Youth Volunteers’. This workshop was highly regarded by the participants.
“Thanks so much Liv, I loved this workshop and your gentle and calm delivery style. So many new ideas – social media/website changes to be more appealing to youth’.
‘I enjoyed the reflection and discussion and will think about group volunteering for youth, and develop a youth strategy, policy and procedures’.
‘Enjoyed information sharing, validating discussions. I’ll take away how to engage with youth, and creating a space for youth to hav a voice and share ideas’.
We are grateful to the John Illot Trust for supporting this project.
Kenzie's Gift Charitable Trust
The grant was provided to pay the cost of one-on-one therapy with mental health professionals for children and young people experiencing emotional trauma after the diagnosis of a serious, usually life-limiting, illness or death within their immediate family (e.g. parent, brother or sister).
The grant was spent on 12 therapy sessions provided by four therapists contracted by Kenzie’s Gift to provide services. The practitioners were: Jo Doyle (Christchurch), Malanie Gilbert De Rios (Tauranga), Grant Gunning (Napier) and Dr Bernice Gabriel (Napier)
One-on-one therapy can help reduce incidences of anxiety, depression, isolation, anger and other psychosocial issues associated with childhood trauma, and equip young Kiwis with useful tools to help them cope at the time and in the future.
Many of the families helped faced considerable financial hardship. If a parent was affected, there was a loss of income, and if a child was diagnosed, keeping up with family routines and professional occupations was difficult, adding to their already unimaginable circumstances. The provision of free professional therapy, such as that offered by Kenzie's Gift, is invaluable.
Providing early intervention mental health support for young Kiwis and their families affected by serious illness or bereavement not only reduces the misery, loneliness and trauma associated with such family challenges but saves millions in future health and social costs.
Investing in children's early years also sets a strong foundation for their future success and contributions to society.
Manchester House Social Services Society Inc
The purpose of the grant was to provide funding (overheads) for our Social Work service which is only partially funded by the government.
The grant was spent on overheads (including wages) for our Social Work service.
The grant contributed to providing Social Work services to vulnerable families and children in the Feilding and surrounding districts.
Life to the Max Trust
LTTM is a highly respected social service that supports families of children who are causing issues in the community. LTTM provides intensive, wrap around services for children and their families who are achieving poor life outcomes whether through familial neglect, limited familial resources or skills, familial dysfunction or harmful associations with others. LTTM targets all facets of their lives, concentrating on the cornerstones of whānau, education, recreation and community. LTTM runs in-house specialised programs for service participants centred around values, resilience and positive outcomes. LTTM has been in Whanganui for over 23 years now and continues to help these families help themselves so they can make right choices and be positive members of our community.
As part of LTTM's intensive social work with families over the 12 month period, many hours are spent working along side clients, their siblings and their families/whanau. This involves spending time developing family plans that include relationship building, role modelling, organising family activities/outings, running specialised group programs, transporting clients to clinical appointments and various activities including school holiday activities and many other interventions.
LTTM works with over 20 families at a time for a year, including all members of the family, up to 150 family members at any one time, all having daily/weekly contact with LTTM staff. The positive changes in these families has far reaching benefits for the community such as positive neighbourhood interactions, compliant & reduced contact with police & improved education & health outcomes. Families become positive contributors to the local community.
LTTM also continues to see whanau experience positive outcomes as they work with us over the course of the year. With continued funding and support from funders such as JIT, we can continue to remain an effective and valued social service in the Whanganui community. LTTM has 23 years of strong organisational structure and a strong history of success.
Birthright Hawke's Bay Child & Family Care Trust
Support with printing costs
Printing Costs
This was to support our social services providing free services to our clients. It enabled us to have the resources and capacity needed for printing of reports and evaluations etc in addition to supplying our clients with needed material and resources. By reducing this operational cost it meant increased support in all areas of our services where clients were able to depend on us for targeted holistic strategies to address trauma, anxiety and other difficulties they face daily. The wellbeing of our clients has increased with developed resilience and their ability to make positive informed choices.