Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Wins The Public Vote In NZ Post’s Community Programme – Delivering For Good

An organisation that supports grandparents who are caring for their grandchildren has just received a boost in support thanks to Kiwis who gave it the most votes in NZ Post’s Delivering for Good community programme.

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren is one of 12 social enterprises and charities selected for NZ Post’s programme – now in its third year.

Delivering for Good is NZ Post’s community support programme which provides a year of free courier services to selected charities and social enterprises.This allows organisations to channel precious funds otherwise spent on couriers into expanding their services for the communities they support and increasing their social impact.

As winner of the just-announced People’s Choice public vote, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, gains an additional year of free courier services.

NZ Post Community and Social Impact manager CarolynnGubb says this year’s public voted attracted more than 7000 online votes.

“We’re delighted to announce Grandparents Raising Grandchildren as the winner of the People’s Choice vote. The work they do is vital in supporting grandparents provide a safe, caring, secure base for grandchildren they are taking care of, often in challenging circumstances.”

Kate Bundle, the Chief Executive for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, says; “We are so thrilled to win two years’ worth of free courier services from NZ Post as this fantastic initiative supporting charities like us will have a huge impact on our ability to deliver our services and reach our member families right across the country!”

The charity supports over 6,200 client families raising around 19,700 tamariki and rangatahi nationwide.

“We’re supporting more families than ever before in our history,” says Kate.

“In circumstances where it’s not possible for a child to be in the care of their parents, it is common for grandparents to step up and agree to take on their full-time care. Often, however, they can arrive with no clothes or the essentials that they need. It can take some time to get income support entitlements sorted out and this is where we can help by sending out care packs of clothing and other essentials.”

“Our core services are focused on providing vital information resources, advice, advocacy support and trauma informed caregiver education programmes, but over the past few years and especially during and since the COVID pandemic, our support has increasingly needed to extend to the delivery of care packs of practical essentials for children going into care.”

Diverse charities chosen for Delivering for Good 2023

From a record number of community organisations whoappliedthis year,here arethe remaining 11 charities and social enterprise organisations NZ Post will be supporting with free courier services in FY24:

Arthritis NZ

Asthma New Zealand

Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand

Heart Kids NZ

The Little Miracles Trust

The Lucy Foundation

Kilmarnock

Ripple

Neighbours Aotearoa

Digital Inclusion Alliance

Able

NZ Post launched the Delivering for Good programme to make a difference in the day-to-day running of the country’s charities and social enterprises. To date, a total of61,597 parcels have been sent from the start in 2021 to end of April 2023.

“We know how vital the work of charities and social enterprises is in supporting our communities,” Carolynn says. “As part of our social contribution, we wanted to help support that work in an authentic way.”

Kate adds: “With the rising cost of living, we are finding more and more grandparents are really struggling and needing our help. The support from the community with donations for families is fantastic. We only receive 10% of our funding from the Government for contracted services and for the rest we rely on philanthropic grants and donations from the public. Every year over 500 new member families join GRG for support and the demand for our services is greater than ever before. This support from NZ Post will go a long way to ensuring these families get the help they desperately need.”

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