''This is a good time to be reading up on documents, including the wellbeing and health survey that was done last year," Hinemoa says. "It's helpful to be able to get a gauge on the area and see what's going on, so it's quite exciting.'
''It's been a little bit hard with lockdown."
Working most recently in Rotorua and before that, Auckland, Hinemoa didn't know a lot about Te Puke when she was offered the role.
''The good thing about going into a community you don't know about is you can be there for the first time to engage with people, to hear about their story, hear about their journey and also what they feel they can contribute.''
She says she has a lot of experience in developing things at a community level.
Initially, she sees her role as listening and engaging: ''Just to see how people are feeling because you can come out of this feeling quite exhausted and the levels of need escalate. Wellbeing to me is us all looking after each other.''
And, she says resilience is about discovering a community's strengths and building on them.
''Often the resilience of a community is good leadership, or it can be more passion.
''My role is about trying to connect and build on what the community has, but also to make that sustainable and I think that's an important word to use - anybody can throw money at doing stuff but, at the end of the day, if that means those issues won't be supported long term because it's heavily dependent on funding, it will in the end fall over when funding ends and you don't want that, so you need to think about sustainable
options.''
Colab's Community Wellbeing and Resilience Project has a vision to enhance the wellbeing and long-term resilience of the Te Puke community though building cohesion and connectedness.
Colab coordinator Chris Johnstone says issues being focused on, especially food security, already existed but became more evident during this and last year's lockdowns.
The aim of Mana Kai, Mana Ora is to ensure people, families and whānau across the region have access to affordable, nutritious, sustainable food that meets their dietary and cultural requirements.
With a background in social work and counselling, Hinemoa has also worked in community development in areas including healthy homes, community wellbeing, health promotion in schools, children and family services within the prison service and managing house repair and tenancy services.
