oneCOMMUNITY S.H.E.D in Mangere is set to open

The Cook Island community in South Auckland eagerly wait to celebrate some good news as the oneCOMMUNITY S.H.E.D opens this Saturday bringing more opportunities for families.

Cook Islands Ta’okotai’anga Charitable Trust trading as Cook Islands Development Agency New Zealand [CIDANZ] in association with Pasifika Futures is proud to open the oneCOMMUNITY S.H.E.D (Social Human Economic Development) Facility as a support service offered by CIDANZ to empower Cook Islands families to take control of their own futures through creating and leading Cook Islands made enterprises.

CIDANZ chief executive Ina Michael said he wants people in the community to feel at home in the centre and make the most of the facilities.

“This is a special place for all Cook Island families in the South Auckland area to access and make good use of the facilities. Whilst the facility is for the Cook Islands Community it is a facility for all of community, hence the oneCOMMUNITY S.H.E.D name and vision.”

“Thanks to the money from the government’s Whānau Ora Pacific Innovation fund administered by Pasifika Futures we are able to do this work and develop the facilities for our community.”

“We want our people to feel the oneCOMMUNITY S.H.E.D is theirs, make use of it and help us provide what the S.H.E.D needs - maybe work readiness or parenting courses, cooking, budgeting - there are endless possibilities,” Michael says.

Pasifika Futures chief executive Debbie Sorensen says she is excited to finally see the development of these great new facilities as a quality venue for the Cook Island community.

“We are pleased to fund this project out of the Whānau Ora Innovation programme as a collaborative model of development, production, knowledge sharing and financing. Having developed the oneCOMMUNITY S.H.E.D Cook Islands families will be supported to test and grow various co-operative enterprises and projects that will help them achieve lifelong learning and live financially free.”

The opening ceremony of the oneCOMMUNITY S.H.E.D will be this Saturday 31 October 2015 at CIDANZ Headquarters, 283-289 Kirkbride Road, Mangere. The official blessing and opening of oneCOMMUNITY S.H.E.D is scheduled at 8:00am. The oneBASKET Pop-up Café will also be launched within the oneCOMMUNITY S.H.E.D to demonstrate the mixed range of co-operative enterprises coming through.

ENDS

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