This year marks Community Waikato's 20th anniversary
This year Community Waikato turns 20!
In 2000 Trust Waikato CE and trustees understanding the need for capacity strengthening, set up a trust designed specifically to support and strengthen the social services, health and welfare sector in the Waikato region. This independent, legal entity was known as the Social Service Waikato Trust.
In 2001 the new board finalised the trust deed, created a logo and appointed Bev Gatenby as the first Chief Executive.
In 2002 the first staff and a Kaumatua were appointed.
2003 – 2008: Kumara Vine was born along with the scholarship round, our funding manager relationship with the Tindall Foundation and our partnership with Unitec to bring the Graduate Diploma in Not-for-Profit Management to Hamilton. Staff numbers continued to increase to meet demand and specific positions including Youth Advisor, IT Advisor, Te Kaiwhakarite and Training and Communications were developed. Social Services Waikato moved to its current premises in 2007 and rebranded, changing its name to Community Waikato, and its logo to the Ti Kouka tree, to better reflect the reality of the work that we did and the people we worked with. The new premises, equipped with its own training room support the development of increasingly sophisticated professional development opportunities.
2009: The work of Community Waikato continues to grow in quantity and complexity, reflecting the evolving demands of the social service sector organisations and the increasing professionalisation of the sector overall. The growth of the Administration Manager role, particularly in the area of funding, has resulted in the establishment of the Administration Support position in 2009.
2010-2014: In 2010 the Maaori advisory roopu, Te Huapai was established to support Te Kaiwhakarite role and advise the board. In 2011 we celebrated our 10-year anniversary at our 2011 AGM. We began student placement and supervision relationships with Wintec and University of Waikato in 2012. In 2013 Community Waikato secured funding through the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) Community Development Scheme (CDS) to support a community development position in the South Waikato area.
We also registered as Capability Mentors through the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), Investing in Services for Outcomes (ISO) initiative. By 2014 we had 9 staff, were planning a conference, an upgrade to the website, moving to the cloud and actively seeking a CRM database with online registration and payment capability.
2015: 10 staff who are coming to grips with a new CRM system and celebrating a very successful sector conference. Holly Snape joins the Community Waikato team as Chief Executive.
2015 to 2019: Community Waikato organises another successful conference and a symposium. We play a key role in the development of the rural transport forum. We are part of a three-year relationship with Len Reynolds Trust helping them establish themselves. During this time there is significant development of the Kaiwhakarite role. We develop online funding rounds and workshop registrations.
2020-2021 – Community Waikato responded to the worldwide Covid pandemic providing support to the community as part of the Covid response during this time. We currently have 11 staff working across the roles of CE, Administration and Finance, Marketing and Communications, Workshops and Donations, Advisory and Kaiwhakarite support. We now have 3 staff working in the Kaiwhakarite space delivering programmes and services to the Maaori community development sector. We consolidate our roles, develop a range of resources, some in collaboration with other entities. We have continued to build on relationships, undertake community research, rebranded, and co-piloted a Christmas Kai initiative, all the while maintaining our usual service delivery, building capacity and capability in the NFP sector.
