[video: Upbeat pop guitar music starts. The glass exterior of a modern building with busses and cars driving by. A man in a leather jacket laughing while talking to woman. A booklet titled “Towards a 30-year plan for Auckland’s First Suburb” sitting on a table. A young woman sitting at a table with others nodding her head while talking. Another woman sitting at a desk talking. A map of Parnell inside the booklet with a man pointing out one of the roads using a whiteboard marker. A woman sitting in a café.]
Cheryl Adamson: We now have a council lead document that captivates so many views and it’s all in one place, and I think that’s a milestone.
[video: A commercial street on a nice day. There are cars parked along the road next to a line of trees surrounding a green park area. Text “Parnell, Empowering Auckland’s first suburb”.]
[video: A large teal crane on the back of a white truck outside of a white concrete and glass five5 story business building. Other construction is going on around the building. The Auckland skyline behind overhead train powerlines. The exterior of a café, down the street are people walking together. A mother and her young daughter walking alongside shops in Parnell. A busy street with cars driving up and down it looking towards the waterfront. Pippa Coom sitting in front of low green shrubs on a street in Parnell. Text “Pippa Coom, Chair, Waitemata Local Board”. A green bus driving down a busy street. A café, outside two men are sitting eating lunch at a wooden table.]
Pippa: There’s a real resurgence in Parnell at the moment so this was an opportunity to use the resources in the community to develop a plan for Parnell. The local board’s been very involved in a number of plans, and each has been developed in quite a different way, but this one has been the first that’s really embraced an empowered communities approach.
[video: Two women wearing winter clothes walking past a café. Behind them are other pedestrians on the street. Tim Solomon inside a Holy Trinity Cathedral, a modern white church. Text” “Tim Solomon, Planner, Auckland Council”. The exterior of the cathedral on a clear day. It has large glass windows and a high pointed roof. Inside an office, looking through a window, there are seven people sitting around a table. A woman wearing glasses talking to the others at the table. The same woman is pointing at a document with red writing on it. Pippa and Tim in the same room talking and gesturing. A map on the table, some parts of the map have circular close up photographs on top of them. A woman at the table talking.]
Tim: So when we began this process, we quickly realised that there was quite an engaged community in Parnell and were very, very interested in its future. So when we went to the local board, one of the options we put forward to them was to have a working group and the Community Empowerment Unit was the logical place to go for that specialist skill.
[video: The exterior of a large red stone town hall in Parnell. Inside the building, people sitting at a table, a presentation is being projected onto the wall behind them. On the table are mugs, glasses and various pieces of office stationery. Inside Holy Trinity Cathedral, Monica Sharma sitting on one of many bright orange chairs. Behind her sunlight comes through large clear and stained-glass windows. Text “Monica Sharma, Community Development Programme Manager, Community Empowerment Unit”. Back in the town hall, men and women talking to one another and listening intently. Some gesture with emphasis. Others point at documents.]
Monica: So empowered communities approach for the Parnell plan is around supporting diverse participation, bringing the community views through into that, because the community holds a lot of knowledge about their place. I worked with Tim to co-facilitate the working group meetings and the workshops.
[video: Cheryl Adamson sitting in a modern café, text “Cheryl Adamson, General Manager, Parnell Business Association”. Cheryl smiling while looking at her grey laptop. On the laptops screen is, on screen a website showing an article titled “Towards a 30-year plan for Auckland’s first Suburb”.]
Cheryl: Six workshops took place led by the team from council, at which we all gave our input. Looking back now, it certainly feels like everyone has had a voice.
[video: Outside Parnell District School, a large blue sign showing information about the school and its map. Inside a classroom of the school, children sitting in a group, some on the floor, others on chairs. Tim presenting to the class, behind him projected on a whiteboard is a presentation asking “Where do you walk/cycle in Parnell? Where do you spend your time?”. A student smiling. Richard George in front of a large glass door, text “Richard George, Principal, Parnell District School”. A female student holding her ear and talking. A student writing on a large piece of paper with multi coloured markers. The back of a student wearing a school jacket, “PARNELL” in yellow text across the back. A map on the table, some parts of the map have circular close up photographs on top of them. Children are pointing out parts on the map and sticking down orange circles. Two female students looking down at the map. Two other students, one with her hand in fist at her chin in thought, the other looking down reading. A large piece of paper on a table with red hand-written text on it. Students writing on the paper. Tim looking at a student and nodding in agreement. The same map, students holding the circular close up photographs trying to place them in the right spots.]
Richard: So we’ve got the council here today to run some workshops with our students, and we really see our students as enabled learners, so we want them to have a voice in what’s happening in their community. Because in thirty years time they will be the ones who are living here, they will be the ones who are leaders in the community, and so they should have a really strong voice in that process.
[video: Students laughing and smiling in conversation. Pippa Coom sitting in front of the same bushes. A view looking over Parnell towards Rangitoto on a clear day. A long street, far in the distance the Auckland harbour and three shipping container cranes. The exterior of the orange and grey town centre. The exterior of a modern glass office building, inside people are sitting and talking. The view through a glass window towards a busy street. The inside of a workshop, under a large steel arch a man is working on a steel plate. A museum exhibition about the earth’s crust. Kids looking at an art exhibition made up of reused wood and metal.
Pippa: I’m really excited, that if we deliver on all of the actions that we’ve committed to in the plan, we will help to make Parnell an even better place to live, work, play, and visit.
[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.