Success Stories

Winner of 2009 Community Research Award Jane Bruning explains the difference Community Research has made

The inaugural Community Researcher Awards for New and Emerging Researchers took place in November 2009, with the intention that the awards would become an annual event. Here’s how they impacted on one individual and her research.

It was October 2009 when Jane Bruning submitted her application for a New Zealand Community Researcher Award to us.   Read the Full Story Here

Why people who matter think we matter

Here’s what some of our peers say about Community Research

“We have supported the development of the Centre because it represents an important initiative to build the independent research capacity of the Tangata Whenua, Community and Voluntary Sector overall. The Centre has built relationship across the sector and between the sector and tertiary institutions. The Centre is an important resource for our students and for our ongoing research activities and has the potential to contribute significantly to the ongoing development of the sector.”

Rachel Selby
Programme Coordinator
Massey University, Colleges of Humanities and Social Sciences, Social Work and Social Policy Programme

“Research conducted for and by the Sector is an essential component of the Tangata Whenua, Community & Voluntary Sector’s ability to respond to the needs of the people. The Research Centre, has been tasked with the responsibility of leading the Sector in the field of Research in a manner defined in its Code of Practice which ensures that the integrity of the Sector and the people research is retained and the data and the findings is available to the Sector at large.”

Tony Spelman
Co-Chair Sam Sefuiva
Co-Chair
Community Sector Taskforce Community Sector Taskforce

“This organisation provides an important hub for the Sector to publish and store research and information that is undertaken by and for the sector. It stands as an example of true collaboration, not only with the Community and Voluntary Sector Research Centre but also with Tangata Whenua. This example of work within the spirit of the Treaty is to be treasured.”

Ros Rice
Executive Officer
New Zealand Council of Social Services / Te Kaunihera Ratonga Tauwhiro O Aotearoa

“We know from our work over the last 3 years, that people working in community and kaupapa Maori organisations want to know the latest evidence and information, but usually do not have the time and resources to search for it. A centre that promotes, collates, distributes and supports community research is immensely beneficial. Having the Tangata Whenua, Community and Voluntary Sector Research Centre as a focal point for information and research about the sector, and research by and for Tangata Whenua, is an excellent way to encourage research that both reflects the needs of the sector, and is of use to the sector.”

Sheryl Hann
Outreach Coordinator
Family Violence Clearinghouse

“We are keenly interested in this project, and have supported it since its initial application. We consider research is essential for improvement of services and development of capacity in Tangata Whenua, community and voluntary organisations. It is a challenge to communicate with the wide breadth and range of organisations across the sector, and organisations are necessarily focused on achieving their immediate goals. At the same time, there is often considerable research available which would assist them in their service planning and organisational development, and providing access to this is a key part of the clearing house role.

As well as providing a focus for finding relevant research information, the Clearing House provides a place to share ideas for research, find researchers and generally develop the research community within the Tangata Whenua Community and Voluntary sector. This assists in building a stronger and better connected sector – an important aspect of strengthening and building strong organisations.”

Tina Reid
Executive Director
NZFVWO

“The Rimutaka MWWL considers the work of the Research Centre essential in assisting the
Tangata Whenua, Community & Voluntary Sector (the Sector) in determining its own
Rangatiratanga by leading the Sector in commissioning, distributing and sharing Research
findings done by the Sector and for the Sector.”

Iris Pahau
President
Rimutaka MWWL

“Te Waka Wahine Wa-Hangarau is a ‘virtual based’ society for Maori women who work in professional information technology fields. It has an online membership of around 60 wahine and administratively is run from Auckland. It supports Maori women who work in IT or who wish to become IT professionals.

The Board would like to enthusiastically support the work of the Tangata Whenua, Community & Voluntary Sector Research Centre for the following reasons:

1. The Centre enables us to get important online access to information to understand the digital environment in which we operate, and gives us access to thinking on issues that concern our members, whanau, hapu and iwi (e.g. intellectual property, hapu development, security, education, health and more)
2. The Centre enables free access to information without burdensome conditions which is refreshing and enabling (i.e. government or academic information often incurs access costs or is hard to locate)
3. The Centre enables us to find skilled people to collaborate with
4. The Centre allows us to offer our information back to share (which our members have done)
We are also excited to see the Maori Metadata project and the regular Sector survey in their strategy. These will be a huge resource to all of us.

We fully support the Centre’s strategy. We understand how critical it is to be supported with administrative and project support, and the difficulties if the organisation is purely voluntary. In that light, we urge you to fund the Centre and enable it to fulfill its commitments to the Sector.”

Janette Hamilton-Pearce (Te Whanau a Apanui, Ngati Kahungunu)
Te Waka Wahine Wa-Hangarau | Society for Professional Maori Women in Information Technology

“Homelessness has been researched to a degree in New Zealand but we lack a co-ordinated approach and are yet to understand homelessness from a perspective of Tangata Whenua. The Research Centre brings an opportunity to address this issue, which disproportionately impacts on Maori, from a Maori world view – and to promote the increase in numbers of indigenous researchers and methodologies both inside and outside of New Zealand.”

Clare Aspinall
Chair of the New Zealand Coalition to End Homelessness

“SCPI was one of the first organisations to promote the need for such a centre and in 2004 SCPI prepared a report for a working group which described the range of models of community research centres around the world. We are therefore very pleased that the centre, as it has developed, represents a unique and innovative approach which permits participation and collaboration among all interested organisations from marae based to tertiary sector to engage at all levels. The establishment of the Clearing House as the first project of the Research Centre demonstrates the capacity of the Research Centre to build relationships across the sector and between the sector and tertiary institutions. It has begun to build a “community of practice” among those with an interest and experience in community based research which has never existed before. The establishment of a Code of Practice is also an extremely important contribution to enhancing the quality of research by and for the community sector.”

David Robinson
Director
SCPI

“Unitec sees the benefits of this Research Centre initiative in breaking down barriers between ‘researchers’ and the ‘researched’, enabling and supporting community-driven research agendas to be developed, implemented and disseminated more widely. The benefits for our students and staff will be improved links with local communities, through being better able to find previous research, share their own research and build links with other researchers interested in similar research agendas.

As researchers and teachers, we know that much valuable analysis, evaluation and research is shared in conferences, reports, student assignments and never published in an accessible place for others to learn from. The Clearing House is one way that an accessible Aotearoa-specific base of knowledge can be built about this sector, and shared widely to inform other research, policy development, service improvement and ongoing organisational and community development. One of the unique features of this Clearing House initiative is that it is building a Maori metadata approach. The tools this will provide will raise the exposure of Maori researchers, their work, and their audiences who want research and resources in te Reo.

A key challenge for the next phase of this new initiative is to bring together stronger networks that can add value for people already very busy working in diverse fields – both within the tangata whenua, community and voluntary sector and within the research/tertiary sector. We are particularly keen to see other tertiary institutions more actively involved.

The Research Centre does not need to be a large – it is a virtual organisation supporting existing organisations, communities and researchers to do better:

• at working within a defined code of practice with communities
• at linking people who want to do research with those in communities who want research done
• at working respectfully and effectively between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti
• at disseminating and sharing research that is currently only accessed by a few

Unitec NZ is pleased to have been one of the first tertiary institutions to support this important initiative – not just in words but with very significant staff time commitment to see the clearing house underway, a strong governance group established and as fund holder for the initial funds committed by the government and philanthropic sector. We are proud to see the Research Centre now established as an incorporated society in its own right.”

Yvonne Hawke
Vice President Waitakere and Community
Unitec

“Volunteering NZ has been a long standing supporter of the need for such a centre. We are therefore very pleased that the centre, as it has developed, represents an innovative approach which permits participation and collaboration among all interested organisations from marae based to tertiary sector to engage at all levels of the organisation.

The establishment of the Clearing House as the first project of the Research Centre has provided a most important and needed resource. Through it the Centre has built relationships across the sector and between the sector and tertiary institutions. The establishment of a Code of Practice is also an important contribution to enhancing the quality of research by and for the community sector. We look forward to working with the Research Centre as its capacity continues to grow.”

Tim Burns
Executive Director

“The Research Centre has a pivotal part to play in the tangata whenua, community and voluntary sectors ability to provide and respond to its growing and increasingly changing needs. The well being of any society can be defined by the health and vibrancy of its communities. Key to supporting this is ensuring it has a strong knowledge management / information base that the Research Centre will provide.

We look forward to seeing the positive development of the Research Centre and the critical role it will have in advancing and supporting our communities.”

Odele Stehlin
General Manager
Waihopai Runaka

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