In the Bay of Plenty region, a community centre is playing a pivotal role in reducing youth crime and encouraging families to be physically active.

In south Auckland, a married couple with four children is running free exercise programmes with funding from a local healthcare provider, helping people get fit and communities to connect.

These are just two of the many initiatives across New Zealand that illustrate the value of community engagement in building healthy, connected and resilient communities.

Four years ago, Arataki Community Centre was erected in the Mt Manganui area to cater for community and corporate events. Today, the centre serves as a focal point for the local and wider community, including disaffected youth and families. Last year, the New Zealand Recreation Association (NZRA) presented the centre with the 2015 NZRA Outstanding Recreation Facility award.

Arataki Community Centre manager Matthew Strange says much of this success can be put down to community involvement and Tauranga City Council’s vision in funding the centre.

“This is a low socio-economic community. Traditionally, there was a lot of crime. But about a year and a half after the centre was opened, we started to notice a huge drop-off in youth crime rates,” he says.

Church and counselling-related organisations use the centre, as does a group that provides free meals for the community. The centre is set within a park, with facilities that include a basketball court, a playground and a skateboard park.

Mr Strange says the centre actively helps community groups to reach out to people in the area through social media and networking, as well as posters and press releases. The centre has more than 600 likes on its Facebook page, which it maintains actively.

“The more people know about the activities on offer, the more they’ll come,” Mr Strange says.

The results have been astonishing. Over the past few years, levels of crime have dropped significantly, he says.

“Families are coming back to the area, making the most of the park, where before they would have stayed away because they didn’t feel safe.”

Building good community relationships is also at the heart of an exercise programme devised by John and Fiona Mann in south Auckland.

The couple, who have four children, started in 2011 with a group of about 20 people, in Mangere. Today, they draw about 250 people to their Fitlife exercise and bootcamp programmes in Mangere and Otara. Individuals are turning up to exercise with their extended families, says Mr Mann.

“The exercise is just a starting point. Our goal is for individuals to take what they learn about nutrition and exercise home and make some lifestyle changes for themselves and their families.”

The programmes, which are completely free for the community, are also changing the way people interact with each other, says Joseph Liava’a, community manager at East Tamaki Healthcare which is funding Fitlife.

“People who didn’t speak to each other before, though they might see each other every day at the shops, now stop to make conversation, because they are participating in the same activities,” Mr Liava’a says.

Outside the eight-week programmes, families in the same street are now getting together and doing their own offline activities, he says.“The community strengthening has been an unintended consequence of the programme, but what an awesome thing it’s turned out to be.”

At Arataki Community Centre, one of the most uplifting developments has been the change in people’s perceptions of themselves, which are more positive than before, says Matthew Strange.

“What the centre has clearly done is help build a sense of pride in the community.”

*Matthew Strange was a participant at the Engagement in Practice Workshop, led in collaboration by NZRA and Sport Waikato on February 17.

This article was sourced directly from New Zealand Recreation Association and can be viewed online here.