Youth and Family Centre

21/07/201019/05/2017

Tena ra koutou te whanau!

There are new and exciting changes at the Youth and Family Centre (The House) and it’s pleasing and encouraging to see the amount of positive, creative work our young and experienced staff provide to the young people, their families and the community. Every day about thirty people come in and out of our tiny whare and programmes are offered here most nights. The Amorangi Group meet on Wednesdays and Mondays and Youth Groups Tuesdays and Sundays. This is also the centre for mentoring,tutoring and whanau meetings so its busy….busy…busy.

The goals and planning for 2011 at Challenge 2000, reflect the needs of the community and the young people. The current financial climate has had a huge effect on families, this is a trend that concerns us greatly as so many simply struggle to survive. Our vege garden and food bank is under pressure and for some our little kitchen is the only place they may have something to eat and drink – local support from St Peter and Pauls Parish, Sr Cyprian and other members of the community makes a big difference to our mahi.

It is heartening to know that we, the community, are in this together, it’s not only Challenge 2000 that do the hard yards, but it is those community leaders and supporters who continue to assist where ever possible that help make our job a little bit easier. He mihi, he mihi, he mihi ki a tatou katoa!

Newlands Community Centre

07/07/201019/05/2017

After School Programme at Newlands Community Centre

Term 2 afternoon activities have been firmly established at Newlands Community Centre!

Monday – Drama Club

Tuesday – Chill Out

Wednesday – Sports

Friday – Art Day

The weather has not stopped the young people from coming in and participating in the activities we have on offer – although it has had an affect on the activities we can do on Sports Day!

The team and I are looking forward to building on what we have started at Newlands Community Centre in Term 3. Thank you to all the young people who come along and join in on the fun, and also thanks to Donna from Newlands Community Centre who handles the chaos we create well!

Bridget Masoe

Holiday Programme – Games Day

07/07/201019/05/2017

Holiday Programme at Newlands Community Centre

The Challenge 2000 holiday programmes at Newlands Community Centre began yesterday, Tuesday 06 July, with Games Day! There were 22 young people who ranged in age from 9 to 16 years old. We played games like: Balloon Stomp, A boat came into the Harbour (which tested everyone’s singing skills), Bang and Snakes and Ladders – to name but a few. In the afternoon we watched a movie to finish off a great day! Fun was had by all – couldn’t say who enjoyed it more, the staff or young people – but I do know that we are looking forward to Friday’s holiday programme, which incidentally is fully booked.

Bridget Masoe

Connie and Mitch’s Road Trip

02/07/201019/05/2017

On the 17^th June Sister Connie and Mitch went on a ‘road trip’ to Napier to speak to the Mission Sisters and their associates about Challenge 2000.

The trip started well, with blue skies in the Hawkes Bay saying goodbye to the Wellington rain. Both stayed at the convent where there was plenty of reminiscing about the sisters’ history in New Zealand, and the extremely harsh conditions the sisters had to face when they first arrived.

On Friday 18^th Connie spoke to a group of about 30 about Challenge 2000 and what we do. Connie’s talk was imbued with her passion for the work Challenge does, and her absolute conviction about the paramount importance of social justice, and the group was very receptive.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable two days, and Connie did a tremendous job in describing the true spirit of Challenge 2000 and the wonderful work we do.

Newlands Community Centre

02/07/201019/05/2017

FIRST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS!!

Collage of the Festivities!

The weather may have been cold and wet on Saturday 29^th May, but the spirit of Newlands Community was strong as many gathered together at the Newlands Community Centre to celebrate its 1^st Birthday!!

There was plenty on during the day, and celebrations were opened by the Ahi Kaa – Puhiwahine Tibble gave a karanga and sung a waiata before Hone Tibble delivered a mihi before welcoming Mayor Kerry Prendergast who spoke to the crowd before cutting the very yummy cake!

Opening ceremony over – cue further celebrations! Many had a blast with the entertainment in the hall – where the stage was being run by Challenge 2000 staff. The awesome Classic Hits Breakfast Team – Dave and Camille – started the party and were our MCs for the morning. They did a fantastic job and even put some of the photos on their facebook page! Many thanks to you both, Dave and Camille! J Our afternoon MC was our very own multi talented Jamie McCaskill, who kept the audience going. There were lots of great give away prizes for the day, and the MC’s thought up creative ways for people to win them!

As for the entertainment — it began with a great performance from Newlands Primary School Celebration Chorus, then there was the skilled Ikram Singh, Ola Pasifika from Bishop Viard College were a stand out awesome act, Soul Sisters who captivated the audience with their beautiful melodic voices, Bass Runners who wowed everyone with a video and performance, Kali Kopae who has an amazing voice and is a great songwriter, The Tangle who closed the show brilliantly, and even a performance from a few of the GAP year participants from Challenge 2000!

Well done to all who organised such a great day for the community, those who participated on the day, and the wonderful Newlands Community who came and celebrated!

Bridget, Michelle, Tui and Kirsty

July Holiday Programme

02/07/201019/05/2017

Challenge 2000 Newlands Community Centre

Holiday Programme!

Challenge 2000 are running 3 days of holiday programmes at Newlands Community Centre.

Your child will need to sign up before the day as the spaces are limited. The age range is 9—16 yrs old.

All programmes will be from 10am until 4pm. The cost will be $5 per child.

PROGRAMME

Tuesday 6 July—Games Day
Friday 9 July – Day Out and About
Tuesday 13 July— Wacky Olympics

If you would like more information regarding these holiday programmes, please contact Bridget Masoe either by email: challenge2000@xtra.co.nz OR phone: 477 6827

Newlands Community Centre

01/06/201019/05/2017

Opt In / Drop In

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Term One has been and gone in a flash, and in the blink of an eye we find ourselves at the start of Term Two, wondering where the months went. So, let’s take it back to the beginning of Term One, which is where this story begins… This is when we got an exciting new contract to provide youth services at the Newlands Community Centre!

We were set the task to provide a drop in centre three afternoons a week and at least one other afternoon where we were to offer a set activity to the awesome young people of Newlands community.

Towards the end of term one, we came up with a great concept of Opt in / Drop In. This meant that four days a week we would run the drop in centre, BUT also on those four days we would offer OPT In Activities. This meant that the young people chose whether they joined in on that particular activity by signing up on the activity sheet. We offered activities like Sports Day, Drama afternoon, Board games afternoon and even tried to set up a table tennis competition! It was slow to start, but we have had some great successes, like our Easter Egg Hunt on Wednesday March 31st! We even ran a couple of great school holiday programme days.

For the school holiday programmes we had an Amazing Race Day, where we had two teams guessing the rhyming riddles to get to different destinations around most of Wellington. The young people had a great time, with lots of different and creative photos to prove it. Our next holiday day programme was a sports day where we competed at Newlands Park and enjoyed a relaxing lunch at the Newlands Community Centre.

This term, we’re still offering the Opt in Activities with a few surprises thrown in. It’s a matter of growing what we have started and continuing to build on the activities we offer, showing the young people of Newlands our commitment to them.

We’ll keep you up to date with what is going on at the Newlands Community Centre – Youth Services.

Bridget, Michelle, Tui and Kirsty

Another busy start to the year

30/05/201019/05/2017

This year has been busy and is flying by so quickly. We at Challenge 2000 are kept busy with running Individual programmes, Challenge College, Newlands Community Centre, youth group and other youth programmes, overnight camps, staff training, farewells and welcome-parties! In between staff have snatched some time to continue planning and goal setting for the rest of 2010.
We have a wonderful team of passionate, experienced and qualified youth, and social and community work staff, who are geared up to provide a variety of innovative, and holistic programmes for the young people and families who access our services.

We now have a new manager for our Youth and Family Centre. Congratulations, and welcome to your new role Tina.

Along with this, Challenge has gone through some structural changes. Bridget Roche has responsibility for operational management of Challenge while Kitty remains Challenge 2000’s leader and will continue to supervise the GAP programme, special projects, ministry and development, build partnerships with corporates and government and mentor senior staff.

Challenge College

29/05/201019/05/2017

Challenge College –

Alternative Education Programme

Challenge College has started off really well. The students have
worked continuously hard with their correspondence work and are making real
progress. Our afternoon sessions have worked well with Sport, Drama, Girls
Group and our newest activity ‘Keeping Johnsonville Beautiful’, where we
go around Johnsonville parks and pick up rubbish. Giving back to the
community!

The last week of term saw us out and about in Wellington on our EOTC Week
(Education Outside The Classroom). A few activities we did were rock
climbing, lawn bowls, driving range, swimming, a big coastal walk (visiting
the Ataturk Memorial and Wahine site), watched Hurricanes training, a walk
through the Botanical Gardens and many more! It was a great week of team
building and new experiences for the students.

As money is tight at the moment (well always) we sent a letter out to various Marist Colleges in New Zealand asking if they could run some fundraising activities in their school and donate the funds to Challenge College. We were very lucky and grateful to have a few schools send us some donations, which helped us fund out EOTC Week.

Below are some photos of our activities for the week.