Q & A With Lani Evens – Nominated To Win Morgan Foundation Award for Kiwis Who Make a Positive Difference
Who are you?
Kia ora! I’m Lani Evans – I’m a Dunedin based activist, volunteer and non-profit worker. At present I work as the manager of Volunteer Otago, a referral, promotion and advocacy agency supporting 120 non-profit organisations and around 1000 individuals a year. We run a volunteer referral service, mental health recovery programmes, research projects, youth volunteering, free holiday programmes and various support services for local NGO’s – plus we’ve just kicked off a wicked youth music mentoring project, running weekly, free, for youth, by youth gigs.
I’m also lucky enough to be a tuakana for ReGeneration, a national network of young change-makers, community workers and awesome people from all over Aotearoa! Our aim is to connect people with people, with place, and with purpose. We want to see a new generation of young New Zealanders who are passionate about creating a positive future for themselves, for this land, and for all it’s citizens and communities. ReGeneration supports young peeps through social networks and a regular programme of events, learning opportunities and action projects.
Can you explain the award you’ve been nominated for?
The Morgan Foundation and the New Zealand Police have joined forces to celebrate the awesome work being done all around the country by kiwis who “go the extra mile” to create positive goodness in their communities and I was lucky enough to be nominated for the Otago region. The Morgan Foundation will donate $10,000 to each regional winners favourite charity and $1000 to the winner themselves. It’s a great initiative – both because of the positive impacts that the money will have on really worthwhile charity organisations and also because of the opportunity to promote the wicked things going on out there!
Can you explain the work you’ve been involved in that has inspired people to nominate you for this award.
I’ve been involved in volunteering for most of my life and it’s given me an amazing number of incredible opportunities. I’ve worked alongside amazing organisations and had some wonderful adventures, like traversing a mountain range to promote the Rape Crisis education programmes, having amazing, challenging conversations as a Youthline listener and tracking Andean Spectacled Bears in the Ecuadorian Cloud Forests.
Right now, as well as my work with Volunteer Otago and ReGeneration, I have the privilege of being involved in a number of great groups, including the Generosity Hub, the Port Chalmers Patch (community gardens), RAVE (Respect And Value Everyone), the Malcam Charitable Trust and a few other bits and pieces.
What will you do with the money if you win this award?
In 2011 ReGeneration is embarking on a national tour, with a youth leadership crew spending 15 weeks learning from local change-makers, visiting schools, participating in local action projects and hosting inter generational dialogues. If we are lucky enough to receive support from the Morgan Foundation through their awesome Kiwibattler initiative we will be putting the $10,000 towards the costs of supporting our amazing youth leadership group as they embark on this great adventure to support and celebrate young New Zealanders who are working to regenerate their country. For me personally – I’d be pretty keen to spend the extra $1000 on some natives plants and some delicious fruit trees for the Port Chalmers community gardens.
How can we vote for you online?
Head to… http://kiwibattler.com/nominations.php?mode=search®ionID=14 and vote for Lani!
It’s seems a little crazy to be asking people to vote for me as an individual because the work that I’m involved in is not about the ideas or actions of a single person – our kaupapa is all about collective action, communal decision making and inter-generational learning – so don’t vote for me, vote for the idea of a ReGenerative Aotearoa!
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Tags: Youth
Voices of our community