Seven of the original TacklingPovertyNZ participants came together at the New Zealand Treasury in Wellington on Thursday, 3 March 2016. They shadowed officials from the Treasury and then presented the TacklingPovertyNZ booklet that the 36 participants had produced as a result of the December 2015 workshop. You can watch the video of their presentation on the McGuinness Institute’s YouTube channel, or you can view it below.
The seven participants introduced the framework of the booklet and went on to discuss what the group of 36 considered to be the roles of the community, employment, education and social services in tackling poverty, as outlined in the booklet.
- Community – by starting with families, we are prioritising communities.
- Employment – enables choice, assists people in escaping the cycle of poverty.
- Education – creates a solid foundation to prepare for the future.
- Social services – many of those that need social services are not getting help, they are slipping through the cracks.
The participants agreed that it quickly became clear that the group of 36 were never going to come up with one definition to describe the complexities of poverty; it was a challenge to agree on a definition that did not exclude people, did not disempower people, and encouraged a collective responsibility to help.
Quotes from the presentation:
‘I really love this place but it hurts right now, that there are innocent lives being disadvantaged from the word go.’ – Lydia Hollister- Jones
Participant… ‘We are only just starting us here – this platform is so important but it is just the beginning. We invite people to partner with us, we need resources and access to bring change. We want to see this through to the end.’
Participant… ‘We have to see these people as our siblings and not our statistics.’