The Pride Project Charitable Trust - Covid-19 appeal

We would appreciate your support to continue our mahi so that our whanau and community have a safe and reliable source of support.

“MSD advises that The Pride Project Charitable Trust has been added to the list of an essential social services in response to the COVID-19 Alert System level 4”

The Pride Project is a Charitable Trust operating in the suburb of Manurewa, South Auckland. We have been working intensively in the community for the last four years and evolved what we know is a unique kaupapa and approach to community empowerment, pride and holistic development.

Our current focus is on providing the support needed to reduce the toxic stress factors in homes and ensure our community have a safe and reliable source of support during this challenging time we are experiencing with the Covid-19 pandemic and the current Level 4 lockdown.

Clendon/Manurewa is a community that suffers from high levels of deprivation, intergenerational poverty, over-crowding in homes particularly among its majority of Māori and Pacific households. Our understanding of our community comes from our local knowledge. We deal with the failings and silo-effects of the dominant socio-economic and political system and what we do is not about filling gaps but building an alternative healing system of wellbeing around Manurewa people as individuals, whanau, hapu and as a kainga. We are immersed in Kaupapa Māori; it is a deeply held foundation, as well as an expression of what we do and why.

We have a total of 9 staff. Our 3 Frontline staff are assembling and delivering Kai & Covid education care Packs under strict hygiene standards. We then have 3 Hope Navigators that are home based making calls to our community and checking on their status and general well-being checks. The other 3 staff members are our Finance lead, Administrator and Design Lead and our Hope Navigator Manager.

We have continued communications with our most vulnerable, checking in with them via phone or video call every second day to do well being checks and identify any urgent needs. We are then working with our other community partners and businesses to access supports needed for our most vulnerable in our community to alleviate any toxic stress factors possible and mitigate some of the unintended consequences due to this isolation lock down period. We are also taking on referrals from external sources within Manurewa to support those that are being identified as vulnerable and needing some extra support at this time.

Our process is to get a contact phone number and name for the person needing support. This goes to the Hope Navigator Manager who in turn delegates the person to a Hope Navigator. The Navigator contacts the person and builds a relationship with them to identify what supports they may need and how they are coping.

We ask to see if they need support with food, what other organisations they may be involved with such as Oranga Tamariki or other NGOS. We check and see how their status is with MSD and if they are accessing all of their entitlements. We also check how they are coping with their power and water bills and if they have internet accessibility. We also do a general well-being check, how are they coping, how are the kids, are there any other issues right now that are adding to their stress levels.

We are working to identity what other organisations are mobilised and still delivering support in Manurewa and if we can’t assist with Kai we will navigate them to the range of food parcel providers, access into drug and alcohol support or make contact and do whatever advocacy work we can to alleviate the levels of pressure and stress in the home at the time.