2022 Mahi Highlights - Community Networks Aotearoa.

Communications Officer • December 19, 2022

It’s been an exciting year for us at CNA!

With the support of our passionate members and backing organisations, we’ve been immersed in many rewarding projects, connecting with countless community good-sorts throughout Aotearoa. As we all wind our way towards well earnt relaxing days on the beach, we’d like to take a minute to reflect (and recap our own memories) on what a whirlwind of a year 2022 has been! 
 

Let’s recap on our hero projects: 

 

Better Banking 

In our latest project, we're investigating how banks and changes to banking systems are affecting the work of community organisations. Thanks to JR McKenzie Trust and the Todd Foundation, we’ve been able to engage Head Researcher and Economic Anthropologist Dr Jane Horan. 

Since launching the project we’ve celebrated a number of wins! 


  • Collected over 100 survey responses from community organisations, telling us about the difficulties they’ve experienced with banks. A huge thank you to everyone who has submitted a response – this research wouldn’t be possible without you. 
     
  • Raising continuous awareness by having ongoing conversations with government departments, the Banking Ombudsman, MPs, and banks about the issues our sector is facing. 
     
  • Held the successful Better Banking webinar in collaboration with Steven Moe. We had over 50 organisations tune in live! You can watch the recording here. 

 
Tick For Governance 

2022 was the year we launched our online governance course, Tick for Governance! This course is fun, easy, engaging and has been developed to help community organisations learn and be recognised for good governance skills and practices. We’ve been thrilled to see such a positive uptake of courses, hearing all your feedback and seeing it make such a positive difference across our sector. 


We’d like to acknowledge and thank our friends at the Ministry of Social Development for helping us provide funding for those in need. 


Learn more about Tick For Governance here.  

 
Charities Amendment Bill Submission 

Another huge win for us this year was the submission we made to the Select Committee, on the Charities Amendment Bill.   

We’re in the midst of a very crucial time for charities in Aotearoa, and the final months of 2022 were important for us to make sure our voices were heard. Our submission highlights some crucial changes we’d like to see made to the bill. 


You can read about some of them here in our latest blog post, or read the full submission here. 

We were grateful for all the organisations that stood with us and supported our submission and look forward to seeing how our points are addressed by the committee. 

 

Our team has expanded! 

 
A huge thank you to Ciara and to Lauren who have stood in and done an awesome job at our communications this year, we’re so grateful for your support and epic mahi. 


We’re pleased to announce that we’ve expanded our team, making way for a permanent communications role! 

Say kia ora to the new CNA comms team! 👋 Dan & Lydia, a brother & sister duo with expertise in communications and digital marketing. 


Other wins and highlights? 

 

  • Our Bramble Conference! A fond highlight of 2022 was hosting and connecting with our members virtually through Bramble. The open and friendly discussions, networking opportunities and immersive experience that Bramble provided added an element of fun that left our members talking about the conference for weeks! 
     
  • Attending the ComVoices meetings. The get togethers have been a fantastic space for sharing and learning from peers in the sector. 
     
  • Between navigating the pandemic, it’s a pleasure to have been fortunate to connect with people face-to-face. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to present and attend conferences, Hui’s and meet-ups throughout the country. 
     
  • We’ve met with multiple MP’s throughout the year, some on multiple occasions! While we have a long way to go, the walls of parliament are becoming familiar and it feels good to have our sector represented and heard. 


And with that, it’s time to kick our feet up, enjoy the sunshine and enjoy quality time with friends and whānau. We wish you a restful break, a Meri Kirihimete and Happy New Year. 


See you in 2023, there’s a lot in store that we look forward to sharing with you. 


The CNA team. 


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