Welcome to our November Newsletter. It’s hard to believe how quickly this year is marching along and we are now on the countdown until Christmas!

I’m sure many of you will be waiting with baited breath to see what the Government stance is with regard to fully vaccinated Kiwis living in Australia wanting to come home for Christmas. In our household we are still holding out hope that our loved one will be able to join us in sunny Central Otago this Christmas but the time is fast approaching when we may need to face reality and send those Xmas presents across the ditch instead. This situation has certainly tested the region’s resolve and our gratitude and admiration goes out to those on the front line holding this situation together. To those providing services to those most vulnerable, to those working at our testing stations and vaccinations clinics and on the front line in our health and wellbeing services we applaud you for all you do – your commitment is very much appreciated and has not gone unnoticed.

COVID-19 Vaccination Status

Otago Community Trust firmly believes that getting vaccinated is still the most important thing we can do to keep our community and whānau safe. Vaccination is the only way that Aotearoa will be able to return to some form of normality, and without critical mass vaccination numbers our health system will become overrun, people requiring medical treatment may be unable to access the interventions they require and the lives of many people, including our tamarki and immunocompromised residents will be put at unnecessary risk. 

Therefore from 1 December 2021 Otago Community Trust Staff will only connect in person with people who are fully vaccinated. This means that if you want to meet with us either at our place or yours then we will require you to be fully vaccinated. 

If you are unable to meet these requirements then you may still continue to connect with us via telephone, email or on Zoom.  

New Strategic Plan 

As we look forward to 2022, we are pleased to advise that we will be moving to our new strategic plan with the introduction of four new funding pillars. We anticipate that all grants that come to the Trust will be more easily categorised into these new funding pillars are:

• Empowered communities,
• Improved health and wellbeing,
• Increased access to opportunities and
• Thriving children (tamariki) & and young people (rangatahi). 

You are welcome to view our new strategic plan on our refreshed website HERE. 

New Strategy for Otago’s Tamariki and Rangatahi

Our new Community Engagement Advisor, Liz Harburg has been hard at work engaging with organisations who support and uplift our tamariki, rangatahi and whānau so the Trust could better understand the sector’s needs.  

We are very pleased to have finalised our new Tamariki and Rangatahi Strategy. Liz has provided a great update on this new strategy in a separate article and I encourage you to read her update to learn more. 

Otago Community Trust will be launching new funding streams in 2022 to support and elevate our Tamariki and Rangatahi Strategy and you are welcome to get in touch with either myself or Liz in the meantime to discuss potential projects. 

You are welcome to view our new Tamariki and Rangatahi Strategy HERE.

Office Close Down

Over the Christmas period our staff will be taking a well earned break. The office will be closed from the 23rd of December to the 10th of January 2022. 

The Trust does not meet to approve grants in January. Our first Board meeting to consider grants for 2022 is the 22nd of February 2022. 

Online applications received up to the last day in December are likely to be considered at the February Board meeting. If you have not completed an online application before then you need to register first and it is good to do this as soon as you are thinking about applying to us. Please note that applications received in January 2022 will be considered at the March Board meeting. 

Should you have any questions regarding funding please feel free to contact me or any member of the Trust team, we are always happy to help.

Ngā mihi

Take care, stay safe

Barbara Bridger, CE