Submitter
Submission id number: 964891
Submitter name:
Jen Rodgers
Organisation
The Valley Project
Do you want to speak to Councillors at the hearings?
Yes
Supporting information
Submission
How are we doing? Is there anything you would like to tell us?
We really appreciate Dunedin City Council (DCC) support of The Valley Project. This support has enabled us to keep paying some of our wonderful staff. It has further strengthened the Valley community with increased social inclusion, climate change and resilience initiatives and community led programs which have been successful as a result of the DCC grants.
We have also previously received a waste minimization grant to run a particular waste reduction project in spring. This was well supported and attended by our community and we aim to run this annually.
DCC staff are very approachable and supportive of our mahi and attempts to be successful in our funding applications. We were happy to have the opportunity to talk directly to the Zero Carbon team this year to discuss our views on positive change and what particular barriers face our community. We welcome further explorations into relationships with the DCC in any capacity- we would love to help you meet your strategic goals through connection with The Valley Project community.
What other ideas should we be thinking about to include in future plans for our city?
It would be wonderful for DCC to change the way Place Based Groups are funded- from a contestable model to a fund each year model, dependent on sufficient reporting. That would give Place based groups such as The Valley Project more stability/certainty and enable communities peace of mind that projects, connections and events could definitely continue. We urge the DCC to continue to enable communities to support themselves, and remove barriers to increase stability for Place Based community groups who are the hubs of activity in their particular patch.