There’s a fresh face committed to looking out for the Waimea community, in the form of Aniquah Stevenson, the new Neighbourhood Support co-ordinator for Waimea.
Aniquah takes over from Marty Price, who has been in the role since its inception 8 years ago.
Neighbourhood Support is a nationwide community-led movement that brings people and neighbourhoods together to create safe, resilient and connected communities.
Aniquah, who also spends part of her time as the Neighbourhood Support co-ordinator for Nelson, got involved with the organisation last year, working in Tahunanui as part of the ‘Reclaim the Neighbourhood’ programme, organising community events and encouraging youth engagement.
Aniquah says that Neighbourhood Support is beginning to change this year. While keeping its core mission statement to create safe, resilient and connected communities, Aniquah says that the organisation wants to play a more supportive role throughout the community.
“We want to work together with other organisations and work with our members to support different members of our community.”
“We’re in the early stages, but we are in a phase of looking at different possibilities to see how we can support a wider, more diverse group in the community, from youth to older people, people with disabilities, as well as people from different cultures and backgrounds,” says Aniquah.
Another new project for Neighbourhood Support, is the development of a new database ‘Gets Ready.’
The database, originally set up in Canterbury following the Christchurch earthquakes, will be coming to the region towards the middle of the year, and is a system where locals can securely record their contact details and any special needs, resources and skills they want to share, to help their local community look after each other in an emergency.
The database is recognised by Civil Defence, Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
The system can also be used to share emergency warnings, including wind, fire warnings, water quality warnings, and other messages, arriving as emails or texts.
While there may be changes on the horizon for the group, Aniquah says that Neighbourhood Support will stick to its core values – to keep creating safer and more connected communities in our region.
For more information, or to contact Neighbourhood Support directly, email nsupport.waimea@outlook.com.