Highlights of the MNZ Strategic Plan
Welcome to 2016!
It’s unbelievable that we are two months into the New Year.
I hope that you have had a great summer break and we look forward to what new opportunities this New Year brings as we continue to work in the community.
This communication is to share with you based on our current strategy plan our highlights from July till date:
• We published and launched the MNZ report Our Multicultural Future: New Zealanders Talk about Multiculturalism in August. The report was subsequently presented at meetings in Hamilton, Waitakere and Whangarei.
• We organised and hosted the first national forum of migrant centres, multicultural councils and newcomers networks in August. Participants were very positive about the forum, and a national network is being maintained. Good relationships were established with a number of migrant centres, and some have since explored affiliation to MNZ. A working group was set up and had its first meeting in September. A priority identified was advocacy to change the Settling In Fund so that a significant proportion of the fund ids dedicated to supporting coordinators in migrant canters, with the remainder being a contestable fund for projects.
• We held a round of regional RMC cluster capacity building workshops in November. The report will be shared with RMCs after it has been presented to the executives.
• We organised the national Communities Football Tournament in Wellington in November.
• We completed an organisational self-assessment. The purpose was to identify existing capabilities and capacity so that the organisation can, in the future, prove that it is capable to delivering a contractual service to MSD (and consequently to other funders). Thank you to all the RMCs that participated and contributed to the discussion.
• We signed an MoU with International Studies Abroad for internship opportunities at MNZ.
Our focus for 2016 is on propelling the idea of positioning the organisation into the 21st Century – How do we want to look and how best can we operate in this new environment. How best can we collectively gather evidence based data and tell a compelling story about the difference we make in the community – be an outcome /outward focused organisation. Are we ready to take the next step as an organisation, for example take a risk of learning entrepreneurship as a primary income source for RMCs and for community empowerment and growth.
In view of this, here are the priorities for next 5 months subject to the executives’ ratification:
• Create awareness around School Board of Trustees and Local Government elections; diversity in the public service; diversity in the school curriculum; national languages strategy; and development of a multicultural strategy.
• Implement the MOU with International Students Abroad
• Ethnic Engagement Summits in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and possibly Dunedin.
• Promotion of Race Relations Day under the Multicultural March 2016 brand
• Support Race Unity Speech Contest.
• Signing new MOU with NZ Police
• Focus on support for youth and women councils projects
• Support CLANZ with the initiative for heritage language maintenance in the home
• National strategic planning workshop and draft new constitution in April
• Develop funding strategy
• Establishment of two RMCs/ Regional offices and coordinator positions
• Consideration of the Self-Assessment Recommendations
• Conduct a fact finding and support visit to 3 RMCs
• Run a social enterprise workshop for RMCs/community leaders to drive the idea of entrepreneurship
• Develop a national suite of multicultural programmes: Multicultural Education; Multicultural Research; Multicultural Events; and Multicultural Sports.
Please do contact me or Pamela if you can help in any form as we continue to look for volunteers to lead some of our projects.
I look forward to your support and thank you for your time.
Nga mihi nui,
Tayo Agunlejika
Executive Director
Multicultural New Zealand