Looking back: Impact of the Beca Corporate Prize on the Colville community
In 2017, Community Waikato provided a conference for the Waikato social service sector called ‘Thriving in the 21st Century.’ At this conference Community Waikato were able to offer a corporate prize by partnering with professional services firm Beca. This prize gave an organisation from our sector the opportunity to win advisory assistance for their project from the Beca Hamilton team.
Members of both Beca Hamilton and the Colville Project
Beca is a New Zealand born organisation over 100 years in the making. They are problem solvers - the thinkers, the creators, the planners, engineers and practitioners, who understand how to make things happen!
Colville Community Health Trust won this prize and received $3200 worth of advisory services from Beca Hamilton for their Waikato based project, The Colville Project. The Colville Project (TCP) is a community –led development project which includes the construction of a wellbeing and education centre, and requires assistance from engineering, planning and advisory professionals.
The conference prize was won by the Colville Community Health Trust (CCHT). At that stage, TCP was a partnership between CCHT and Colville Social Service Collective (CSSC). TCP now has a stand-alone Trust.
Bronwyn Blair who is co-Chair for The Colville Project says that in terms of the prize awarded, Beca worked with them to complete a Geotechnical Factual Report regarding their preferred site.
“The completion of the Geotechnical Factual Report has been integral to us fulfilling due diligence requirements in terms of investigating the appropriateness of our preferred site/property for the project. Completing due diligence is always important, especially when working on behalf of community and with monies donated by community. We recognise completion of the geotech report by Beca as a crucial step in any potential purchase” says Bronwyn.
Geoff Cable, Senior Engineer at Beca Hamilton says that the Colville team and Beca have stayed in close contact following the 2017 Community Waikato conference.
“In additional to the prize support of geotechnical services, we have held numerous phone conversations and a few in person trips following the conference which have resulted in a wider impact to support the project” says Geoff.
“The wider support has included general project advice, architectural sketches, and high-quality drone imagery of possible sites” says Geoff.
The Beca team says that they were inspired to support The Colville Project mission which is essentially based on community sustainability with a vision for self-sustaining Northern Coromandel Peninsula communities.
Bronwyn says that over the time since being awarded this prize, they have engaged with community, iwi, local government and a range of other stakeholders, through both consultation and information sharing.
“We have become a Trust in our own right and have continued to fund raise for both the land-purchase and contribution to the building of the Wellbeing and Education Centre. We have investigated and re-investigated several potential sites for The Colville Project; and have explored options of both sole purchase, and tenants in common. We have completed a high-level TCP Concept Design, which we contracted Beca to develop, and a high-level business plan. We have identified a preferred site, and completed a Geotechnical Report regards this site; as well as engaging with MPI and other consultants to complete further due diligence. Currently, and with pro-bono support from a lawyer, we are engaging with landowners of our preferred site” says Bronwyn.
CCHT, CSSC and TCP are extremely grateful for the support of Beca through this process, both in terms of the work they have gifted and the work they were contracted to complete.
“Beca have been very supportive of The Colville Project from the get-go, and have worked with care, integrity and patience to ensure that we received the most useful pro-bono support possible, even when this meant that the pro-bono work was deferred past the initial year in which the prize was awarded. This has meant that the long-term benefits to our community have been sustained and not compromised” says Bronwyn.
More information regarding The Colville Project can be found at this website https://www.thecolvilleproject.nz/