Community-led development

20/03/202320/03/2023

Feed and Fund Round 2: FAQs

We’re excited to announce that Feed and Fund is back for Round Two!

Wednesday 10th May, 6.30 – 8.30 pm at the Featherston Community Centre.

What is Feed and Fund?

It’s a community micro-funding event, where a $10 entry fee (gold coin for tamariki under 16) gets you your supper and a vote. Spend the evening listening to pitches, chatting with your community and voting for your favourite project. The winner takes home all the money in the kitty to help make their project a reality!

Why should you get your community group involved?

We’re seeking 4-6 community groups or projects to pitch at this event. The winner of the first event (Featherston Athletics) took away $451.10 to go towards their project, but all of the pitches were able to showcase their mahi to a group of 50+ local community members. Great publicity and a chance for some great conversations!

How do we get involved? (Community group)

If you would like your group to pitch at the event, please fill out this form. To give your project the highest chance of success, ensure that it is providing a genuine benefit to the Featherston Community and that you are excited about it!

See the document below for our top tips on creating a perfect pitch!

Feed-and-fund-pitch-plan Download

How do we get involved? (Community member)

Please come along to the event, and engage with our wonderful groups! Ask them questions, learn about the good mahi happening here in Featherston and meet others in your community. The soup is delicious, and so is the company!

Entry is $10 per person (under 16s are gold coin) and this entry fee gets you your supper and a vote. All entry fees go straight into the winners kitty.

Wednesday 10th May, 6.30 – 8.30 pm at the Featherston Community Centre.

Four images showing a variety of different angles of the Feed & Fund 2022 pitchers, MC Mark Shepherd, curious audience members, and eventual winners Featherston Athletics Club. — Clockwise from top-left: 1. Amanda Cuff pitches for the Mini Fell; 2. Attendees were eager to probe and question each pitch; 3. Mark Shepherd reminding us all to work together at a grassroots level; 4. Winners are grinners – the victorious athletics club with deputy mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter.

20/12/202220/12/2022

Fab Feathy 2023

We’re thrilled to be able to announce that we have received funding for a ‘transitional’ year, so Fab Feathy will still be around in 2023! This is different than our current partnership with the DIA (which ends at the beginning of Feb 23), and will involve only one facilitator, and some slightly changed priorities.

We will be focusing on closing some of the big projects we have underway (such as an ongoing bicultural and bilingual project) and capturing learnings from our CLD experience that will benefit not only our community, but other CLD’s around the country. We will also be developing options to continue Fab Feathy beyond the transitional year (watch this space!).

We’ll be doing all this while continuing to support our community. On that – our practical support to the community will look a little different next year. With some lofty goals and less facilitators, we’ll be trying to do more with less. That might mean we’re a little less available than in the past, but rest assured, we’re still here and working for Featherston!

Our 2023 priorities:

Closing Projects Well. This workstream is focused on wrapping up incomplete projects.
Capturing Fab Feathy’s Mahi. This workstream is focused on documenting and sharing Fab Feathy’s experience during the partnership so that community-led development (CLD) can continue to flourish in Featherston, and other CLD’s can benefit from Fab Feathy’s experiences.
Designing and Implementing the Future Fab Feathy. This workstream is focused on designing and implementing a model that enables Fab Feathy to continue beyond the transitional year.
Continuing to Add Value to Featherston. This workstream is focused on continuing to deliver the value that is outlined in our value propositions (e.g., creating connections, reinforcing community) and supporting Featherston to achieve the aspirations captured in the 2017 Future Featherston Plan and 2022 Community Survey.

19/12/202219/12/2022

Windy Wheels Bike Track at Featherston School

A group of passionate locals have been working on community bike tracks, based on the Bikes In Schools model. This is on land gifted to the project by Featherston School – Te Kura o Pae Tū Mōkai.

This project fit in perfectly with the community led development principles, and so was a great project for Fab Feathy to support. We were able to source significant funding for this project via the DIA CLD fund, which has paid for the installation of two bike tracks and a container to store and work on bikes for the community. The group have also sourced funding elsewhere to keep this project sustainable.

The initial riding track was opened in March 2021, with the school reporting that the tamariki use the track regularly on the breaks.

The opening of the first bike track in March 2021

The group have worked with the tamariki, visiting local bike tracks and working out what they think will work well for the Windy Wheels track. The tamariki presented their findings and ideas to the working group at the end of 2021.

A selection of awesome ideas from the tamariki

The skills track was opened on 19^th September 2022, with a series of ‘pedal for your parakuihi’ events, with all community members welcome to test out their skills.

Opening event for the Skills Track, Sept 2022

Who participated/benefitted?

The working group for the Windy Wheels bike track is made up of local volunteers, who are passionate about our local tamariki having access to bikes and skills. A group of students from the kura helped the group to research other bike tracks in the area, and designed their own bike track.

The group have partnered with another local group, Ā Mua resource centre, to run bike repair workshops and drop in events. These regular events upskill our community in bike maintenance, and also fix up bikes that were heading for landfill – gifting them to our community.

The local Menzshed have also worked on this project, helping with the building of the obstacles for the skills track.

All members of the community have been welcomed onto the bike tracks, including the two other schools and local early childhood centres.

Awesome working bee vollies ahead of the skills track opening – Aug 2022

Two high-quality bike tracks have been created for our community, as well as a container workshop/storage area. The space is welcoming and friendly, with planting and benches available for those who need a rest after so much biking!

Working bees and opening events have provided opportunities for the community to reconnect and spend time with each other now that covid restrictions are a thing of the past.

Access to the bike library has meant all of our community are able to access bikes and increase their skills, and the regular workshops the group are holding means that bike repair skills are being passed around our whole town.

This group have overcome so many challenges over the period of this project, with many covid-related cancellations, shortage of supplies and contractors. What they have created is a fantastic amenity for our community, and with the cost of living increasing pressures on family transportation, more bikes in our community is hugely beneficial.

Opening day of the skills track – lots of fun

31/05/202231/05/2022

Fab Feathy Survey Results 2022

In May 2022, fifty-three members of the Featherston community completed a survey run by Fab Feathy. The survey aimed to give Fab Feathy a sense of what was working well in the community, and what should come next.

Analysis of the responses identified twelve key themes. The first set of themes captured what is great about living in Featherston. It seems that the people, the groups, and the community set Featherston apart. To top it off, it is close enough to Wellington to reap the benefits of urban living, but far enough away to stay connected with nature. It is also small enough to maintain a small-town feel.

The second set of themes captures what is working well in Featherston. Community groups, community-led facilities, and community activities are a real strength. This is no surprise given how frequently community members spoke of Featherston’s helpful and supportive community. Local news and events also appear well communicated, and there is a sense that retail and hospitality is a boon for the town.

The final set of themes captures what would make Featherston an even better place to live. Infrastructure, amenities, and services top the list, with people wanting to see improvements in the likes of water, electricity, footpaths, green spaces, and public transport. These desires were closely followed by hopes that both the look and function of the main street could be improved. There were many ideas about how this could be done, but the general sense was that the main strip needs to be tidied up, and that spaces need to be better utilised. In addition to these two major themes, respondents also wanted better collaboration with the council and the other South Wairarapa towns, and to see even more activities run in Featherston.

To close the survey, residents were asked what Fab Feathy should do next. For those that answered this question from the perspective of “should Fab Feathy continue?” the mandate is clear: Fab Feathy’s mahi should continue. Others in the community answered this question from the perspective of “what actions should Fab Feathy pursue?”. These ideas are summarised in Table 5 at the end of the full report.

Though the future of Fab Feathy is not yet decided, the feedback provided by the community provides plenty of direction; both for Fab Feathy’s next ten months, as well as if its mahi continues beyond 2023.

If you would like to find out more about our mahi, feel free to call into the Community Centre to say hello, email us, or keep an eye out for our monthly column in the Featherston Phoenix and our updates on Facebook!

To read the full report on our survey findings, see below:

Fab-Feathy-2022-Survey-Theme-Report-Download

03/05/202212/05/2022

UPDATE: Wairarapa Moana Trail Feasibility Report

A few years ago, some locals formed Wairarapa Moana Trail Trust (WMTT) to learn more about an oft-requested need: greater connection between the Featherston people and the whenua – particularly in terms of getting down to Wairarapa Moana (and back again in one piece).

After successful fundraising rounds, research, and reaching out through events such as Featherston Expos; Whakarongo ki te Taiao; Mysteries of the Moana; Featherston Christmas Parade; Paetūmõkai Featherston School bike track launch etc., WMTT were awarded funding to contract an engineering feasibility study from Rowan Sapsford at ROAM that investigates the feasibility of a route between Featherston and Wairarapa Moana Lake Domain; plus, a cost-benefit analysis.

Following much outreach and on-site consultation, a 7.24km best-option route was determined (see: Fig. 1). This route is broken into five separate segments:

An on-road route from Featherston Information Centre to the rail corridor at the eastern end of Woodward Street East
An off-road trail on the south eastern side of the rail line within the Rail Corridor, including a bridge over the Otauira Stream
A roadside trail (off-road) on the grass verge of Western Lake, Viles and North Soldiers Settlement roads. The southern extent of this section will connect with Pae tū Mōkai o Tauira Te Whare Whakapapa Raranga (formerly the Golf Course)
An off-road section using Council land and paper roads from Pae tū Mōkai o Tauira to Soldiers Settlement Road, including a bridge over the Otauira Stream
A roadside trail (off-road) on the grass verge of Soldiers Settlement Road to the Wairarapa Moana Domain.

Construction is calculated at $1.2 million to meet a grade 2 spec. Annual maintenance is estimated to be ~$12,000 per year.

However, Wairarapa Moana is a taonga, and a place of local cultural, ecological, and historical significance. Many locals and visitors wish to connect with Wairarapa Moana more, and to preserve the environment for inanga, kākahi, and other rare species. We don’t need to tell you that Wairarapa Moana is worth a million bucks.

Well, actually, it’s more like five million bucks: The Benefit:Cost ratio for the trail is between 4.1 & 4.9 (Regional & National level, respectively). This is very strong, and estimates net economic benefits (NPV) of ~$4.1 to $5 million (at a Regional & National Level) every year.

Only a handful of these users are commuters; instead, hundreds of local single-day users meet thousands of out-of-region and international users to enjoy the Wairarapa valleys, lakes, and mountains. This represents a significant catchment for a local, boutique tourism and hospitality sector to service cyclists and walkers visiting Featherston for the heritage or the hermitage.

Make sure you have a read of ROAM Consulting’s full Feasibility Report below:

WMT-Feasibility-Assessment-Final Download

To get in touch with WMTT, write to them at: moanatrail@gmail.com