Greytown groups scoop half wellbeing grants – August 2024

Two Greytown groups have been handed half of the $160,000 first tranche of central government funding earmarked for promoting community wellbeing.

A total of $500,000 of central government funding is available for dispersal from the council’s new Community Wellbeing Fund. The cash was left over from Te Tari Taiwhenua, the Department of Internal Affairs, out of its Better Off support packages that were provided to local authorities under the Three Waters Reform programme.

The successful groups: Kohunui Marae ($49,000), Cobblestones Museum Trust ($45,000), Greytown Little Theatre Trust ($36,000), Ngahuia Wild Bird Rescue ($20,000) and Courage Dear Heart Events ($10,000).

Successful recipients of the funds were able to demonstrate wellbeing outcomes that tick social, cultural, economic and environmental boxes, said Councillor Rebecca Gray. All four are key tenets of the Community Wellbeing Fund criteria.

The funds mean the Kohunui Marae Enhancement Project will enable the marae to better manaaki

the community through hosting community events, wānanga, noho, and by offering shelter to the

wider community in the event of an emergency. To do that effectively, the marae sought funding to upgrade mattresses, bedding, cooking, food storage equipment and equipment storage.

Ngahuia Wild Bird Rescue is committed to the welfare of wild birds. 

“These funds will enable Ngahuia to enhance environmental wellbeing by building the first avian rehabilitation and rescue structure in the Wairarapa, which helps to build resilience and optimism in the community as people watch birds recovering and thriving,” Gray noted.

Danielle Hill of Ngahuia Wild Bird Rescue said her “ultimate long-term goal is for our paddocks to be planted out in natives around large aviaries as a bird sanctuary that could be visited by small groups as an education place in the Wairarapa..”

Two more rounds of applications are scheduled for the remaining $340,000 in the Community

Wellbeing Fund available for the district.

Applications are open and will be assessed on 4 September and 27 November 2024 by a subcommittee of councillors, the council Chief Executive, representatives from Community Boards and the Māori Standing Committee.

The deadline for applications to be received is 31 October 2024.

Details on the council website: https://swdc.govt.nz/

Caption: The wax-eye/tauhou (“new arrival”) self-introduced to New Zealand in the 1800s _ a possible Ngahuia Wild Bird Rescue visitor.