Photos taken by Rebecca Harrington at the launch of the TIES Book in November 2010

In 2008, a group of eleven community people from Glen Innes, Point England and Panmure gathered to work on creating a resource of tools that would help the community and government to make decisions together. 

 

These people were;

The TIES Book Rōpū - Frances Hancock, Tess Liew, Puamiria Maaka, Alfred Ngaro

and Other members of The TIES Team - Neil Darragh, Bruce Forbes, Mike Ikilei, Tara Joe, Kathryn Scott, Georgie Thompson, Bob Wakefield. 

 

An extract from the TIES book helps to explain this team and their aspirations in coming together:

 

Who are we? 

We, the TIES Team, have lived and/or worked in the Tāmaki area for some time. We have strong connections with and knowledge of this place. We know many local residents and their stories. We’re interested in this community and concerned about its future. We do not claim to represent ‘The Community’. Rather, we seek to record and contribute our own knowledge and experience of living and/or working in this area. We promote collaborative reflection on and in action, on the basis that many eyes can see more than one set and a room full of ears will hear more than one pair. We strive to speak as a collective voice; respecting our individual interests and various connections, and knowing our communities will keep us in check.

 

Why come together? 

We came together to explore better ways of doing things across Tāmaki communities and with government and interested others. We got involved in the government-led Tāmaki Transformation Programme, advocating for a co-design and co-delivery approach in which local residents, workers, community-based organisations, business, Māori and ethnic communities would play an active role in its development. Along the way we talked with one another about our own experiences of community engagement, and shared stories containing important lessons about what works well for our communities. From there, we developed the Tāmaki Inclusive Engagement Strategy, which we call TIES.

 

What is TIES? 

TIES is a principle-based approach to community engagement. It offers a vision and a way of doing things. The vision of TIES is of Tāmaki communities actively participating in decisions affecting their future.

(The TIES Team, 2010, Pg.25)

 

Joanna Davies from The Aucklander wrote an article after attending the T.I.E.S. Book launch in November 2010. Puamiria spoke with her at the time;

 

"There are a lot of huge challenges in Tamaki," says Ms Maaka. "So we have put a book and resource kit together to show our success stories so far and to help community organisations collaborate."  

"We had to find ways to improve our place that actually worked for us, and we've done that by collaborating." 

 

"It's a resource that people can draw upon to see what works and what doesn't. Instead of duplicating different services, we can collaborate and work together. It's a vision of what we want to see in Tamaki, and how we are working to get there."

 

The TIES book includes a collection of successful community stories showing how to work better together.