Friday 27 May 2022 4:51pm
A local community revitalisation project that saw students partnering with community groups will be celebrated at the University of Otago’s Dunedin campus on 31 May.
Students from the Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social and Community Work programmes worked with members of Milton-based community development organisation Project Bruce to support several projects in the Tokomairiro-Milton, Waihola and Taieri Mouth areas.
Project Bruce recently received significant funding from the Department of Internal Affairs for development initiatives.
Thirty-two students formed teams of four and worked directly with the Project and community organisations on: Let’s Taco Bout It: Understanding the need for food support in the community (with Food Bank, Kiwi harvest); Sk8r Squad: Exploring how to make a community skate park; Positive Playtime: Helping primary school children manage difficult emotions through play (with Milton Primary School); Fairy Gardeners: Building engagement with an established community garden; Bruce playgroup: Creating a welcoming bi-cultural space for parents and children (with Milton Puna Reo Playgroup); Super Grands: supporting grandparents raising grandchildren (Project Bruce); Prison Bake: Engaging community with a baking program in Otago Corrections Facility (Good Bitches Baking); The Bruce Link: Welcoming newcomers into the community (Project Bruce).
Social and Community Work Lecturer Dr Marissa Kaloga (above) says students learned how to combine human-centred design principles and social work skills to provide a framework for co-creating “equitable and innovative responses in community development that promote social, economic, and environmental justice.”
“Their learning was guided through the empathise, define, ideate, prototype, and test phases of design thinking. Due to COVID, the students had to be very creative and resilient to accomplish this work by distance for the first half of the semester. The resulting projects have shown considerable impact across multiple areas and illustrate the dedication of our social and community work students.”