SOLD: Beautiful Happyzine

An inspiring four week harvest of visionary people and projects achieving the seemingly impossible within 100 miles of my Coromandel home.

There’s something happening in Otorohanga……

This summer I was driving through Otorohanga when I was compelled to stop. I felt this energy buzzing through the town, but didn’t know if it was from the bright flowers blooming out of hanging baskets on the street sides or giant kiwana symbols of gumboots and pavlovas beaming
down from the lamp-posts, I just sensed that something seriously good was going on. It wasn’t until 3 weeks ago when I found myself in a hall in Paeroa with 80 curious others, that I finally discovered the secret behind what’s happening in Otorohanga.

In the last 5 and a half years this rural district and town of 9500 people, has managed to achieve a 100% employment rate of residents under 25, a 75% reduction in youth crime and a completely transformed relationship with its young people at no extra cost to the council or rate payers!

As we all sat in awe, Otorohanga’s refreshingly unpretentious Mayor, Dale Williams, lead us through his experiences of the towns dramatic changes, which provide the perfect how to recipe guide for community transformation.

Otorohanga’s special recipe for community transformation:

Essential ingredient 1: “The community owns its problems and its solutions” Dale Williams

From community disconnection to community empowerment Pre-transformed Otorohanga in 2004 was a completely different place from today. Like many kiwi towns its relationship with its youth, was an unhappy antagonistic one with young people leaving as soon as they finished high school, or staying behind without jobs and at times turning to crime for cash. But what was particularly ironic about the situation in 2004, was that the locally owned and run engineering, farm automotive and tourism businesses of the area, were all desperately in need of young skilled workers!

It was Dale’s first year as mayor and as a business owner himself he decided it was time to get proactive and figure out what was going on. Along with friend and fellow businessman Andrew Giltrap he went into the community hunting for answers and solutions.

It only took one visit to the local high school for everything to become clear. They discovered there was absolutely no connection between the local school and local businesses, which meant that none of the information students were given on career and work options was related to the town they lived in! It was a light bulb moment that opened up a transformative dialogue between the school, young people and local businesses leading to the establishment of the towns very own tertiary centre, the Otorohanga Trade Training Centre in partnership with Wintec (Waikato
Institute of Technology).

What is so special about this Wintec site is that all the courses were designed by the community to suit their needs and the local businesses not only helped pay for it, but in a NZ first, agreed to hire every graduate upon the completion of their course, which is still be honoured today despite the recession.

It’s pretty impressive what can come out of one visit to the local school!

A careers day where the under 30’s rule!

Another awesome outcome from that light bulb moment was the creation of what has to be the most fun and interactive school careers expo in all of Aotearoa. It’s held at Otorohanga College every May and in a complete 180, only local businesses are invited. They bring along motorbikes and engineering gear to play with and only employees and Wintec workers under 30 that the teenagers can actually relate to are allowed on the stands!

The church that decided to rock

The Harvest Youth Centre is yet another great example of how Otorohanga transformed itself with magic from within. In 2006 the increasingly empty Assembly of God’s Harvest Christ Fellowship decided to make a radical change. They sold their church and used the money along
with a whole lot more they raised and begged for, to buy the Youth Harvest Centre for $500 000 and then spent a further $150 000 kitting it out with a mock Waitomo indoor rock climbing wall, commercial kitchen with informal cooking lessons, musical instruments, mentoring programs, and on site public health nurses and pastor services, all for their young people to enjoy for free.  And on Sunday’s the centre becomes a church again, and the seats are no longer empty.

Ingredient 2: “You can’t take no for an answer, and you can’t give up” Dale Williams

When the square attacks….

Sometimes when you think outside of the square, the square bites back with some challenging obstacles. This is the perfect time to add ingredient number 2. Dale experienced this when he was trying to set up the Wintec, he was told his town was too small, didn’t have any adequate buildings, couldn’t afford it and it would be impossible to get any tutors.

But he didn’t take no for an answer and he didn’t give up. Again he and his team responded by turning to the community for support. The council found a perfect building and offered it rent free for a year, the local businesses contributed $40 000 which was raised in 2 weeks and the
perfect tutor Arthur Laws turned up and offered his services for free! Today the Otorohanga Trade Training Centre is so successful that many of the initiatives they pioneered have been rolled out to other Wintec campuses all over the Waikato.

Ingredient 3: Taking tips from the left field

Over the course of the night as I sat watching Dale in his very un-mayor like attire complete with denim jacket, beanie and sneakers, telling stories of how Otorohanga got its Wintec and youth centre (along with other tales like the late night conversation with some skaters that lead to them raising $12 000 to build their own skate park in 1996), I was constantly amazed at the power and effectiveness of his pro-active, unorthodox approach to his communities problems. He’s a doer not a talker and he’s not afraid to try something completely left fields if it works.

Otorohanga’s very own ‘Camp Mother’

Hence the creation of gems like Otorohanga’s resident ‘camp mother’. Nationwide on average only 20% of all apprenticeships succeed. This statistic simply wasn’t good enough for Otorohanga, so they created their own ‘camp mother’ for the trade centre apprentices and
students, Ray Hayley. Ray has an incredibly unique job description, he’s available 24 7 no matter what the need, whether its advice on life, help with a course or rescuing from a tight spot at 2 o’clock in the morning. And it works. Otorohanga’s success rate with apprentices is over 90%.

Otorohanga loves you!

While Ray is out rescuing over indulgent youth in the early hours of the morning, Carole Coventry is busy texting them.14 days after every student leaves the school, Carole texts to ask what their plans are for the future and let them know what support and options are available
in the town. She continues to contact school leavers every 14 days until they have decided their next direction, right up until they are 19. And again it works, young people get supported through that vulnerable transition from school to work and the clear message that “Otorohanga
loves you and cares about you”. How cool!

Ingredient 4: The Wildcard, Positivity breeds positivity

With the combination of community identified problems being solved from within, a never give up attitude and some antics from the left field, there was so much goodness in Otorohanga that long standing issues began solving themselves.

Youth crime rates alone dropped by a phenomenal 75% in the first 2 years after the trade centre was set up and ongoing problems with graffiti and vandalism began to disappear. Which shows when young people have access to passion, direction, support, an income and good self esteem, they choose positive options over negative ones and everyone benefits. In Otorohanga this has resulted in the continual investment in projects that create pride and character for the whole town, like the hanging baskets, since there is no longer fear of vandalism or damage. As Dale said, through this journey of transforming the town’s relationship with its youth, “the positive effect on our peoples pride, safety, attitude etc is the most incredible outcome!”

What’s cooking in your town? It’s time to get out the pots!

After two hours of dazzling statistics and continual stories of dramatic positive changes, the hall in Paeroa was buzzing with potentiality with everyone dreaming about their own community transformations. Amidst our excitement Dale wisely reminded us not to copy what was
happening in Otorohanga, but to look within our towns to identify our own unique issues and solutions.

And there are plenty of inspiring examples of communities doing just that throughout the country. Collingwood has gone plastic bag free, Porirua is supporting its youth out of gangs through the ‘Brothers not Colours’ program www.bebo.com/brothersnotcolours and Lyttelton has
created an alternative exchange to money in which everyone is equal by bartering with time www.lyttelton.net.nz/timebank.

There is no limit to what the human heart and mind can create. So get out there and enjoy making the impossible possible with Otorohanga’s recipe for success as a guide and don’t forget to add plenty of your own local spice!

Week 3 of the 100 Mile People Harvest:

Next week I get to harvest a gem right on my doorstep in beautiful Coromandel Town. I’m going to head up into the hills of Driving Creek Railway and Potteries to meet the one of Aotearoa’s wonderfully eccentric geniuses, Barry Brickell, who planted out an entire hillside in natives, built 2.6km of steel railway by hand to run through it and pioneered pottery techniques in his studios that have influencing the direction of NZ pottery and are attracting potters from all over the world.

For more details on the amazing achievements of this weeks harvest, check out the following website:

www.otorohanga.co.nz/youth-programmes.html

And a big thanks to Mayor Dale Williams for your time, photos and inspiration!

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