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Otago Community Trust has provided funding of over $405,000 in support of a wide range of community projects in their July funding round. Several of the successful applications for funding were for initiatives supporting upgrades to outdoor education and mountaineering facilities.

Leaning Lodge Trust received a $40,000 grant which will assist in replacing the old Leaning Lodge hut structure on the Rock and Pillar range. Closed since 2014 due to it becoming non-compliant with building codes, a completely new steel-framed prefabricated hut is now proposed for the site.

Leaning Lodge Trust spokesperson Phillip Lindsay said over the last three years the Leaning Lodge Trust has undertaken extensive work to design a new hut that will meet the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) back-country-hut standards and its site lease conditions, thus ultimately ensuring it becomes included in a hut booking system.

“The new building will meet the extremes of the harsh and challenging surroundings, while providing the adventurous with recreational, research and educational access to unique and diverse alpine terrain.”

“It will comprise an entrance foyer, kitchen and dining facilities, 10 bunks and a deck looking over the Strath Taieri valley.”

We are still in the fund-raising process but having now secured the $40,000 grant from Otago Community Trust, together with the $115,000 the committee has worked hard to raise to date, we are in an excellent position to fundraise for the final amount required to advance the project, Mr Lindsay said.

Otago Community Trust chair, Diccon Sim said the trust is pleased to be providing Leaning Lodge Trust funding support to ensure this unique alpine environment can be enjoyed by a wide range of outdoor enthusiasts.

The July funding round also saw the Otago Outdoor Education Trust receive support for an upgrade of its outdoor education camp facility in Bannockburn. A $25,000 grant will assist with the cost of upgrading the camp’s bunkrooms, specifically the double glazing, exterior cladding, interior wall insulation and new flooring coverings.

Otago Community Trust was also pleased to approve a $45,000 grant to Te Hou Ora Whānau Services in its July round. THO is a kaupapa Māori social service and education provider, offering a variety of programs and services that support and empower tamariki, rangatahi, pakeke and whānau.

THO Kaiwhakahaere, Dan Anderson said the grant from Otago Community Trust will help two of its leading preventative programmes - Amatanga Clubs and Āwhina Ako.

Grounded in tikanga, Āwhina Ako provides trauma-informed educational services to rangatahi who need to reset and refocus their educational pathway.

Amatanga is an afterschool and camps programme which empowers and enriches tamariki with new experiences that are fun and help to build life skills, grow strengths, and foster leadership communication skills.

“Our aim is to not just reach our young people early. We are working with the wider whānau in a holistic way. This has meant providing a cohesive continuum care, a wraparound practice methodology and greater external collaboration.”

Preventative work and community led solutions are critical to making a long-term difference to complex, multifaceted and intergenerational social problems. It is also important to remember that this work is about relationships and a desire to serve anyone who needs support, said Anderson.

Otago Community Trust chief executive, Barbara Bridger said it was pleasing to be able to support kaupapa Māori service providers like Te Hou Ora grow their programmes and strengthen services in the community.

“A key strategic focus of Otago Community Trust is to support our new priority community groups where we can and these well designed and targeted programmes have the potential to have a long lasting, positive impact for tamariki and rangatahi going forward.”

Other organisations benefiting from grants in July include the International Festival Environment Science Technology Dun NZ Inc who were approved $75,000 grant to assist with the cost of developing and presenting NZ's only International Science Festival. Wānaka Yacht Club Inc who were approved a $9,781 grant to assist with the purchase of a rescue boat and Save the Otago Peninsula (STOP) Society to assist with the cost of the groups ongoing native plant revegetation projects on the Otago Peninsula.

In total Otago Community Trust approved $405,803 to 25 organisations in July 2022.

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