[video: Upbeat pop guitar music plays. A local construction site on an overcast day. A young boy in orange high visibility vest putting on green gardening gloves. A brown muddy puddle. A man wearing a high visibility vest and using a nail gun to build a fence. Volunteers shifting wooden planks. Members of the local community sitting at a table looking at and discussing plans.]
Voiceover: Over the years communities have been disempowered. So, a community-lead process is where you join together in a partnership and make shared, open, transparent decisions.
[video: Text “Huapai, Community-led placemaking” fades in over an exterior view of the Kumeu Arts Centre on an overcast day.]
[video: A busy main road in Huapai, many cars driving along both sides of the road past a subway, the Kumeu Library and many other shops.]
[video: Phelan Pirrie is standing in front of a hedge and high red and brown hatch fence with a stylised painted cutout of a family on it. Text “Phelan Pirrie, Deputy chairperson, Rodney Local Board.”]
Phelan Pirrie: Huapai is on a state highway, in-between Riverhead and Huapai if you take the last five years and the next five years, their population growth will be about eight to ten thousand people.
[video: The same community construction site. A man and a woman in orange high visibility vests are walking across a dirt and gravel road toward a ute. ]
[video: Kiri McCutcheon, standing in front of a flax bush garden. Text: “Kiri McCutcheon, Specialist Advisor, Community Empowerment Unit”. Followed by a pile of rubble made up of large concrete chunks]
Kiri McCutcheon: So there was funding set aside for a playground in the area and speaking with the community we realised it was actually a town centre and space for gathering that was actually needed.
[video: Graeme Hammonds, standing in the construction site, there are people working behind him. Text: “Graeme Hammons, Convening Group Member”. A group from the community sitting around a table looking and discussing plans printed on paper.]
Graeme Hammonds: Well essentially the pomegranate process is one of empowering communities and after listening to the lectures organised by the council a number of us who were on the rate payers group had an intense interest in the community got on board with the project
[video: Dale Wallace, standing in front of a metal fence on the construction site. Text: “Convening Group Member”.]
Dale Wallace: We formed a group called the Huapai Hub. We got together with officers from the council and we make a plan.
[video: Gary Moss, wearing am orange high visibility vest in the construction site. Text: “Gary Moss, Convening Group Member”. Followed by multiple quickly cut scenes of children and youth painting a wooden art piece by hand.]
Gary Moss: A public meeting was held and a large number of people came to that and put forward the ideas of what they would like to see in a recreational place. It’s got to be something that provides for people of all ages.
[video: Jack Haldane-Wilis and Dale Wallace standing next to one another, both wearing orange high visibility vests, pointing and discussing the plans that Jack is holding. A man working on a fence with a nail gun. The two community members. A boy walking a strip of concrete on the ground towards other volunteers.]
Jack Haldane-Wilis: So we’re finishing off the fence through here.
Dale Wallace: Doing a great job the boys, really nice.
[video: Jack Haldane-Wilis sitting at a bench around the construction site. Text: “Jack Haldane-Wilis, Architectural designer, Resillio Studio”. Scenes around the site: a man carrying garden matting, a builder working on the fence, women moving wooden planks, a child inspecting the new fence, others working in various ways.]
Jack Haldane-Wilis: So placemaking it’s about shaking up and shifting a little bit the standard method of how you might plan or design. Trying to bring the user groups that will be central to that space to the centre of the process.
Dale Wallace: I think the empowered community approach is the way to go in the future and council seem to be wanting that to happen.
[video: Phelan Pirrie is standing in front of a hedge and high red and brown hatch fence with a stylised painted cutout of a family on it. Exterior of the Kumeu Arts Centre on a clear day and some volunteers around a table in front of it.]
Phelan Pirrie: The exciting this is about when the space actually gets activated and people start using it.
[video: Chocolate cake being cut and taken out of a baking tray. The same group of volunteers talking to one another, enjoying eating the cake and drinking tea and coffee. Kiri McCutcheon talking to camera.]
Kiri McCutcheon: Working with communities and building their capabilities and connections are really becoming quite powerful and the projects are just going from strength to strength.
[video: Text: “Brought to you by The Community Empowerment Unit at”, Auckland Council logo (Auckland Council text next to a pōhutukawa flower over water) “aucklandcouncil.govt.nz” “Search: community empowerment” fade in over a white background. Music fades out.]
Duration: 2 minutes