Recent grass-roots initiatives in Northeast Valley, Dunedin, have generated a "really amazing" response within the community, Family Works community development team leader Melanie McNatty says.
Through her involvement with Presbyterian Support Otago's Family Works programmes, Ms McNatty has been helping with aspects of the Northeast Valley Community Development Project for the past two years.
"I'm pretty excited about what's happening in the valley," she said.
Local people were identifying their own needs and issues and helping to come up with their own local solutions, and other community development initiatives were under way in some other parts of the city.
Local people had developed a community garden in the valley and undertaken a series of other initiatives. The community had also developed a car club to provide positive activities for young people, and a local businessman had provided key support.
Ms McNatty has a University of Otago postgraduate diploma in social work and community development, and is a former student of University of Otago Associate Prof Pat Shannon, who is one of the early founders of the university's social work and community development teaching and research programme.
She shares his enthusiasm for the value of a community development approach, through which resources and skills are connected to meet locally identified needs, rather than tackling social work simply on an individual client basis.
Prof Shannon, who lives in Palmerston, was notable not only for his research and teaching but also for his own involvement in local community initiatives such as the Waihemo Wastebusters group, she said.
Family Works also provides counselling, runs a foodbank, and provides welfare and social work support for children and families.
