NEIGHBOURLY: Good Neighbour Trust has gone from strength to strength since being launched in the Bay just over a year ago. PHOTO/ANDREW WARNER
NEIGHBOURLY: Good Neighbour Trust has gone from strength to strength since being launched in the Bay just over a year ago. PHOTO/ANDREW WARNER
Meet the hard working, community-minded people behind the hugely successful Good Neighbour Trust.
Having the neighbours from hell move in next door is everyone's worst nightmare.
The misery and havoc they so often wreak is enough to send decent, law abiding citizens into a frenzy.
But thankfully for the good folk of Tauranga there's more chance of the neighbours from heaven moving into their streets today than the dysfunctional beings who feature in reality TV shows.
And this is all thanks to some hard working, community-minded people who are behind the hugely successful Good Neighbour Trust, which has gone from strength to strength since being launched in the Bay just over a year ago.
Their latest project is a community garden in Welcome Bay, which needs volunteers for a quick build on November 14, but more of that later.
In a nutshell Good Neighbour is all about inspiring people to become more neighbourly to each other and offering a helping hand to those in need. Back in the day such values were commonplace in New Zealand but have gradually been eroded by a changing social and economic landscape.
The first, Neighbourhood Projects, involves a group of around 40 volunteers who help out with anything from mowing lawns to delivering free firewood.
Then there's Food Rescue, inspired by Wellington's award-winning Kaibosh Food Rescue programme.
It collects surplus or unused food from markets, supermarkets, cafes and manufacturers which is repackaged for distribution to various charities.
And there's Community Gardens which currently has 70 garden plots rented to people in the community.
Good Neighbour is the brainchild of several mates who went to Fiji in 2011 to build a medical dispensary in a small community.
Inspired by what could be achieved in such a short space of time and the profound impact it had on the community, they returned to Tauranga intent on doing something similar there.
Their vision was to inspire people to work together and make local neighbourhoods better places to be.
Good Neighbour is now very much part of the Tauranga scene.
The people behind it are a diverse bunch of individuals who believe the world would be a better place if there was more caring and sharing in our towns and cities.
They include John and Jackie Paine, Lavina Good, Al and Anne Gourley, Jason and Todd Rowling and Cam Hill.
As manager of Good Neighbour and its only full-time worker, Hill is the lynch pin of the organisation and is heavily involved in the day-to-day running of most of its projects.
Born In Te Puke, he spent the first 10 years of his life in Fiji where his parents worked with a mission organisation.
"I saw the needs of people early on," he told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend."We lived very simply over there. I remember people sending us clothes and things in boxes and we would distribute that around."
Helping out brings deep joy to our city and that joy creates well-being and a good dense of community
After leaving school he followed in his father's footsteps and became a builder, later marrying Christine and embarking on their OE with her sister and brother-in-law.
Unlike many young New Zealanders who make a beeline for the UK or Europe the four of them had their sights set on India and Third World countries.
It was an eye-opening experience and they returned to New Zealand with a better appreciation of the desperate circumstances in which so many people around the world are forced to live.
Back home in Te Puke, Hill resumed life as a builder, running youth groups on the side, but all that changed when it was suggested that he should undertake theological studies.
He went to Auckland for three years to gain a degree in theology, after which there were postings to Baptist churches in Otago and the Bay of Plenty, followed by 10 years with the Cool Bananas Trust which teaches Christian values and life-skills to schoolchildren.
Despite the buzz of working with young people and all the challenges that entails Hill felt the urge to push himself in other directions.
"I just felt that Cool Bananas was coming to an end for me and thought there was something more and I wanted to explore that," he says.
So with friends John Paine and Jason Rowling he travelled to India and Nepal to check out groups who were involved in community projects.
And it was in Nepal that the seeds of Good Neighbour were planted.
"I came across a group working under the banner of the Nepalese words for Good Neighbour.
"They were putting water into the slums, teaching women how to read, teaching people how to plant vegetables to sell and generally making a huge difference to these people.
"We were really impressed with what was happening and wanted to take this on board as well as the values that were motivating them."
The trip proved to be a life-changing moment for all three men who returned to the Bay of Plenty intent on undertaking community work here.
In fairly short order, Hill and Rowling, the owner of Carmel Country Estate Retirement Village in Tauranga, took a team to Fiji to help build the medical dispensary mentioned earlier.
"It was a six-day project and we finished with about 30 minutes to spare," recalls Hill.
"The Fijians cried when we left and it was incredibly moving."
Inspired by this experience he and Rowling, together with a core of like-minded friends, then created the Good Neighbour Trust, which got off to a flying start when 300 people turned up for the launch at Baycourt.
GROWING: Good Neighbour Trust manager Cam Hill and community garden coordinator Andrea Green need help to open a Welcome Bay community garden. PHOTO/BROOKE BATH
Hill says the number attending exceeded all expectations and "made us all realise that maybe we were on to something".
By now there were considerable demands on Hill's time, but more were to present themselves when two youths twice broke into his house and stole some property.
It would have been easy to have left them to the mercy of the justice system but that wasn't Hill's style.
"My heart went out to one of the lads as he didn't have a Dad as a role model and his home life in general was less than ideal. If we want Tauranga to be a better place we have to get involved and make a difference, and I chose to see if I could make a difference with that one boy."
So Hill turned up to a Family Group Conference in order to meet him.
"I said to the person officiating that I didn't see any value in getting money back from insurance claims, and the boy owes me 50 hours of work that I was happy to oversee ."
The court agreed and Hill was given the task of enforcing the youth's community service hours which involved, in part, painting a fence on Hill's property, something that proved easier said than done.
Getting the offender to return to the scene of his crime and paint the fence proved very difficult until it dawned on Hill what the problem could be.
"One day I was driving home thinking how much I was looking forward to dinner and then it occurred to me I bet that young guy is not feeling the same way because he doesn't have much to eat.
"So I got three big food parcels from Bethlehem Baptist church and drove round to his place where I found him and his Mum arguing on the front lawn about not having any food in the house.
"I told them the parcels were from people who care about others in our community and his mouth dropped down and he said he's never seen so much food like that before.
"His Mum hugged me and took me inside and it was then that I realised that their cupboards were literally bare."
Hill's thoughtfulness did the trick and the youth turned up at his house the next day ready to work.
There are really good people in Tauranga getting excited about what they can do
"He arrived wearing a shirt he had stolen from us and painted the fence.
"Then I took him for a swim and said let's do this again tomorrow and he returned to do exactly that."
The young offender later ended up on a life-skills course in Hamilton and is now believed to be living in Australia.
The organisation is also committed to building community gardens, with the third and latest one planned for 260 Welcome Bay Road.
Volunteers are being sought for a quick build on November 14 from 8am until noon.
Also required are businesses, individuals or families to sponsor the 30 individual plots, which are selling for $500 each.
"Sponsorship pays for the garden construction and set-up costs," says Hill. "The individual plots are then rented out to the community at $12.50 a month.
"Community gardens enable families to get cheaper, healthier and fresher food and to grow friendships and cultivate vibrant communities while tending to their produce."
Given such an impressive track record it's little wonder that Good Neighbour was the supreme winner of the Trustpower Community Awards in Tauranga last year and is a finalist in the Sustainable Business Network Awards in Auckland later this month.
Hill says the organisation is constantly on the look-out for more people to join its team of volunteers.
"A lot of people want to help but aren't aware of how they can help so please go to our Facebook page or website, www.goodneighbour.co.nz and find out what's happening."
"More than anything else we want people to be inspired to help. "At working bees we've had families and people of all ages doing their bit, including children as young as seven and eight."
Looking ahead he says the organisation is hoping to have its own premises sometime next year.
At present its operating from three different houses but is looking for a building that will incorporate a commercial kitchen that can be used to teach people how to cook, as well as a cafe.
Clearly, these are exciting times for Hill and his team, not to mention everyone else in the Bay who stands to gain from the positive impact that Good Neighbour is having on the community at large.
