Latest News
Making a friendly space for elders in Waihī Beach
Trudy Van Stee is in her happy place - behind the drums at a music afternoon with about 20 members of A Friends Place. She’s surprised to be Volunteering Services’ Volunteer of the Month, but the many older people living at the beach aren’t. They know about the many activities
Get to know neighbours for a safer, friendlier city
Want to get to know your neighbours - and your city - better? Western Bay of Plenty Neighbourhood Support is keen to find more volunteer Area Coordinators, and help make the city more friendly, connected and safer. It has about 14,500 member families around the city, but needs more
A new tool to support volunteer engagement
Volunteers | tūao give their unpaid time and skills to communities and causes they believe in. This volunteering action needs to be nurtured and enabled. Our Guidelines are based on what volunteers need and offers easy steps for you to meet their needs. Seven practice areas, based on the volunteering lifecycle
Alzheimer’s Tauranga urgently needing volunteers
What have you got planned for 2024? Could you help by volunteering with Alzheimer’s Tauranga to make life more rewarding for the more than 600 families across the Western Bay of Plenty living with dementia? Alzheimers Tauranga is urgently looking for volunteers to help support the growing number of
Volunteering Services manager wins Local Hero medal
Tauranga Volunteering Services manager Angela Wallace is a finalist in the national Local Hero awards for her work founding Awhina House, a transitional housing residence for women.She says her nomination came as a complete surprise a couple of weeks ago when she received a medal in the mail. She
Good Bitches show kindness to others
All around Tauranga, a bunch of women - and a few men - are busy in their kitchens baking cakes and slices they’ll never get to eat. It’s World Kindness Day on November 13, and many Good Bitches around the country are dropping off their goodies to women’s refuges,
Alzheimers Tauranga urgently needing volunteers
Alzheimer’s Tauranga is urgently looking for volunteers to help support families affected by dementia.The organisation provides a range of services to more than 600 families across the Western Bay of Plenty each year, a figure which is consistently growing. A number of their regular volunteers are finishing up this
Volunteer manager wears many hats
Katikati volunteer manager Lesley Ruf wears many hats - and she’s desperate for more volunteers to manage.Next week it’s International Volunteer Managers’ Day on November 5, and all over the Bay of Plenty, managers are being celebrated for the work they do for no financial reward. Lesley manages about
Candidates front up on social issues
Candidates representing some of the major political parties presented their ideas on social issues this week to an audience of about 50 people working in the social and charities sector.The meeting was organised by SociaLink and Volunteering Services which supports the Western Bay of Plenty social and community sector.
Fundraiser Rena movie night for environmental groups
Volunteering Services and Envirohub are running a fundraiser screening of the Rena disaster movie Taking Back Our Beach next month to raise funds for two environmental groups. The screening will be held on Wednesday 11 October at 6.45pm, at United Cinemas Bayfair, and will raise funds for ARRC Wildlife
Looking After the Blade
It’s Conservation Week this week, and all over the Western Bay of Plenty volunteers are out in all weather laying traps and ensuring native birds and flora can survive. Conservation volunteer John Rowlandson spends hours each week trapping “the baddies” - stoats, possums, rats, feral cats - to protect his
A volunteering challenge for election candidates
SociaLink’s Volunteering Services is throwing down a challenge for election candidates in the Western Bay of Plenty - volunteer a couple of hours for social agencies and see what’s really going on in the city. Volunteering Services manager Angela Wallace says it’s an opportunity for election candidates from the
Kura Kai keeping families fed
Staff at SociaLink and Volunteering Services turned into chefs for a couple of days last week to provide meals for Kura Kai as their contribution to National Volunteer Week.In four teams they cooked up a tuna bake, pork ragu, spaghetti carbonara and butter chicken, making 48 meals for Kura
Skyla helps the next generation of rowers
Skyla Still is at school at Ōtumoetai College, but she’s already volunteering her time to help the next generation of young rowers.At 17, she’s been with the rowing club for four years, and enjoys her sport so much she’s one of a group of young rowers who turn up every
Making the most of their abilities
At Casita’s shop in Greerton, four young workers in their twenties are taking their lunch break. They’re all volunteers at the shop, one or two days a week, and they all have an intellectual disability, either global developmental delay or Down Syndrome. And they love their work. The shop
Mel pitches in when emergency strikes
When the water started rising at Waihī Beach last month, local RSA manager and community volunteer Mel Gearon was ready to rescue flooded residents - and give them a hot meal and a place to rest. It was raining hard on May 29 at the beach when Mel had
Lalangi turns volunteering into a career
In her native Sri Lanka, Lalangi was a quantity surveyor in construction working in a high-pressure environment when she and her husband decided to try a different country and culture. New Zealand seemed like the ideal place, quiet and calmer than Sri Lanka. They arrived in 2015 and
Kathy has trouble saying no!
Kathy Webb says she’s always had trouble saying no when asked to volunteer for anything. The current chair of Western Bay of Plenty Neighbourhood Support, and a Street Coordinator in Bellevue, is now in her 70s but shows no signs of giving up contributing yet. It was soon after
Aquinas youngsters busy volunteering
Students from Aquinas College have ditched the school books for the day and are out in the community volunteering this week. It’s Youth Volunteering Week, and the students are spending the day doing service for others. Four of them are at The Kollective getting messy cleaning chairs used by
Volbop joins Socialink
After 17 years of dedicated service to the volunteering sector and local communities, Volunteering Bay of Plenty (Volbop) has passed the baton to SociaLink. Volbop's Acting Chair Berenice Langson said, “I am pleased to announce that SociaLink, the umbrella organisation for the Western Bay of Plenty social agencies and charities, will
