Hutt Valley

Funding Expo a great success

Thirty-four people representing seven communites attended the first-ever Funding Expo for former refugees living in the Hutt Valley on 26 September. Funders from local and central government provided information about how to apply for funding, how to do accountability reporting, and organising fundraising events.

This is the first workshop of its kind in the Hutt Valley run specifically for refugee-background communities. It was organised by Robert Byer, ChangeMakers' Community Development Worker who is based in Upper Hutt and works with former refugees living in the Hutt Valley. 

"It was a great success from everybody's point of view. The turnout was very good and people learned a lot of new information about funding which will be useful to their communities. The presentations were brilliant and the Community Resource Kits from the Office of Ethnic Affairs will be important for providing ongoing information," said Robert.

"The government  people there also promised to provide support to communities when they applying for funding in the future. If they need help with funding applications they can now go directly to the right person. This should make a big difference to successful funding applications."