The Positive and Proud workshop will assist participants to build resilience and generosity towards others in at-risk communities using flaxroots engagement strategies developed by the Merivale Community Centre. Positive and Proud is a piece of action research providing an evidence base and direction for community action. It provides a snapshot of how the residents of Merivale, Tauranga feel about their community and what they would like to change about living there. Presentation by Graham Cameron, John Fletcher, Merivale Commuity Centre at the 2009 SPINZ National Symposium: Culture and Suicide Prevention in Aotearoa: http://www.spinz.org.nz/page/108-events-archive+spinz-national-symposium-2009+symposium-coverage

1. building a community that supports
tamariki and whānau in life crises

3. POSITIVE
& PROUD Merivale, Tauranga
Demographics
 Only decile 10 community in Tauranga
 2,400 people in <900 homes
 30% under 15
 37% single parent families
 40% Māori
 34% no qualifications
 Unemployment rate double the national rate
 BOP has 5th highest suicide rate in the country

4. POSITIVE
& PROUD Findings
o People want to feel safer
o We need to provide opportunity to young people
o We need to enhance support for parents and whānau
o People want to improve our physical environment
Our model to meet these needs:
oConnecting Merivale
oManaaki Mokopuna
oTransition Merivale

5. POSITIVE
& PROUD Manaaki Mokopuna
What’s going on in Merivale?
o Factors: alcohol, violence & the recession
o Anomie & strain theory
o Affluenza
Manaaki Mokopuna is a rebellion
o we want to grow a community that:
o eschews dysfunctional societal goals & means
o becomes an intentional urban community [resilience]

6. Institutional Mertons
Means
Accept Reject Deviance
Typology
Accept Conformity Innovation
Cultural Goals
Reject Ritualism Retreatism
New
Means
New Rebellion
Goals

11. MVL LOCALZ

12. POSITIVE
& PROUD Connecting Merivale
o Community development = relationship development
o When people feel safe they can engage with services
o Professional boundaries OR relational distancing?
o Increasing specialisation of services
SO, we...
o focus on building relationships and connections with people (rather than
building a client base)
o creatively link people with the services & supports they need

17. POSITIVE
& PROUD Current approach
o population-based programmes for depression & alcohol use
o mental health and problem-solving skills
o community-level suicide prevention programmes
o educational programmes for professionals
o integrate & enhance community & primary care
o psychotherapeutic & pharmacotherapeutic treatments Suicide Prevention in New Zealand
A contemporary perspective:
Social explanations for suicide in New
Zealand
Published in May 2005 by the
Ministry of Health

18. POSITIVE
& PROUD It’s the economy stupid
Why inequality matters
child wellbeing is worse in unequal societies - and despite what many of us fondly
imagine to be this country's egalitarian values, we are, thanks to some accelerated
widening in incomes between rich and poor in the 1980s and 1990s, one of the
most unequal countries in the developed world.
Tapu Misa – NZ Herald
The long term solution... is therefore to move beyond the "growth at all costs"
economic model to a model that recognizes the real costs and benefits of growth.
We can break our addiction to fossil fuels, over-consumption, and the current
economic model and create a more sustainable and desirable future that focuses on
quality of life rather than merely quantity of consumption. It will not be easy; it
will require a new vision, new measures, and new institutions. It will require a
redesign of our entire society. But it is not a sacrifice of quality of life to break this
addiction. Quite the contrary, it is a sacrifice not to.
Robert Costanza