Turia: Fit 4 Funding

‘Fit 4 Funding’
Thursday 11 March 2010; 9:20am
Lower Hutt Town Hall, Laings Road, Lower Hutt
Hon Tariana Turia;
Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, Te Ati Awa, tēnā koutou katoa.

Ko tenei te mihi ki a koutou nga kaimahi, nga whanau o nga hau e wha. Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

I want to acknowledge the Mayor of Hutt City, David Ogden, and the Mayor of Upper Hutt City, Wayne Guppy, for your act of collaboration in coming together with the Department of Internal Affairs to host this fit for funding expo.

I think the last time I was here in this Town Hall, I was also praising your efforts in demonstrating collaboration and cooperation in the best interests of the community.

On that occasion we were gathered at the Hutt Valley Disability Networking forum.

So it’s good to see your commitment to working together extends across sectors and remains an important priority for you across all areas of interest within Te Awakairangi – the Hutt Valley.

The focus of this forum is to be Fit for Funding.

I have taken this two ways –

One is to represent the qualities of what we might think of as a Warrant of Funding Fitness;

The other being along the lines of the right fit, the ways in which communities come together; the relationship between funders and fundees.

Warrant of Fitness

So what are the tools and knowledge that you require, as community organisations, if you are to be successful in securing funding?

In order to get the green light, I think it is vital that we develop a shared understanding of the outcomes, expectations, responsibilities, pressures, and opportunities inherent in the economic climate that we are in right now.

One of the important learnings we gained over the last eighteen months is the challenge of doing more with less, and I know that this doesn't always sit well for those of you that are already doing more with less.

And in meeting that challenge we have realised the benefits of working smarter in the community.

This is where the warrant of fitness concept comes in.

Being fit for funding in 2010 brings resilience into the conversation. It’s that readiness to manage change, to be open to local solutions which build stronger, more capable communities, and can I add into that mix, stronger, more capable families.

Collaboration requires community organisations and funders to work together and have open and honest conversations. It’s about being prepared to share good ideas, and make them even greater. It’s about pooling resources if need be.

And importantly, it’s seen in the desire to facilitate good communication and nurture positive relationships.

Relationship is a word you’ll hear me frequently return to.

My vision for the community-government relationship is ultimately about having empowered families and empowered communities alongside trusting community-government relations.

And how do we build that trust?

Any solid relationship is based on an appreciation and an understanding of what we each bring to the table.

Government has come to realise the huge wealth available to them in accessing community sector knowledge, insight and wisdom on issues that affect communities. This knowledge helps inform the policies that in the end impact on us all.

But it is not just about tapping into the rich resource of the community. It is also about acknowledging that a strong community and voluntary sector can foster social cohesion and social capital – the glue that holds our communities together.

Within this I am particularly committed to ensuring better engagement with kaupapa Māori organisations, Pacific communities and all of the other cultural communities that call this area home. It is the combination of all of these strengths that makes each community distinctive.

Another element to a healthy community-government relationship is in the service delivery relationship.

This Government is keen to support communities to work with families and communities to take ownership of the issues that affect them and find their own solutions.

A lot of people are asking what does this mean?

For a long time you will have been funded on activities - the number of workshops you deliver or the number of people you work with.

Government is turning this on its head and looking at how to fund families and groups to be more self determining with a focus on outcomes that make a real difference for our families.

The Right Fit
The other theme that I want to touch on, is what I call the right fit.

In the Expo that took place last year there were some 270 participants from 153 different organisations throughout the Wellington region.

That’s a massive logistical exercise in itself – but add to that the varying criteria of over thirty unique funding projects from ten different funding organisations, and you will get some idea about the complex jigsaw that describes community funding.

Multiple providers; multiple funders; multiple contracts, all crossing over each other with competing reporting lines, monitoring and evaluation expectations or audit and compliance requirements.

It begins to look less like a jigsaw and more like a major traffic jam!

How do we all fit together? How do we work together, in ways which are meaningful to the community?

I think the government has to take responsibility for that traffic jam.

Providers shouldn't need to have to deal with so many lines and layers of accountability.

Government has to work out how it can help organisations to report to only one funder and have one line of accountability. This will help organisations to save on compliance costs, both in terms of time and money.

I believe that the key lies in ensuring that our funding efforts are focused on achieving positive and measurable outcomes for communities.
I know that many of you will already be participating in conversations with funders about what it means to measure outcomes. I want us all to be able to demonstrate a real difference in the lives of our whanau, rather than simply doing a whole lot of activity to no end.

Some strategies and frameworks will be presented and discussed here today, to assist your organisations to become more sustainable and effective with stronger networks; and I am encouraging you all to look at these with one aim in mind – how will it make a difference to the outcomes we seek, for the people whome we serve?

If we are to be truly outcome focused, Government needs to come to the party. I do not want community groups to be burdened with unnecessary compliance reporting or having to negotiate with a complex myriad of government agencies all working at cross purposes with each other and not collaborating. It’s all very well asking you to collaborate, but government needs to as well.

I have therefore requested that government departments make an effort to reduce the compliance burden for the community. This request will be reflected in the Code of Funding Practice and the Community-Government Relationship Agreement currently being developed by the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector.
It is also fundamental to the success of the Whanau Ora policy approach that we are currently developing.
Many of you will have heard the term 'Whanau Ora' bandied about. Essentially it is about outcomes, it is about families being able to take control of their lives.

Finally, while our efforts are being focused on ensuring stronger collaboration between communities, and an emphasis on outcomes, I do just want to take a short commercial break – and that is to mention the voluntary payroll giving scheme.

This is a great system and it might be something you can talk to others about. Payroll giving makes it easier for employees to donate to community organisations such as schools, charities, and churches directly from their pay and receive a tax credit.
I have already asked the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector to lead the way by encouraging the uptake of payroll giving by government employers.
Why am I doing this? Because if we truly believe in the power of the collective, we need to show the difference we desire by investing in our community.

I want to thank you all for the wonderful work you do within and across our communities; to wish you a successful forum today and to wish you all continued motivation in keeping your sights firmly fixed on outcomes that you believe your organisation can achieve which are owned, and endorsed by the people, for the people.

Tena tatou katoa.

ENDS