Newsletter October 2007
Welcome to our Spring, pre-Christmas newsletter, I hope you are all well and finally seeing some better weather and healthy eating.
In this edition:
- Resources to support theme for 1st Quarter 2008
- Minigrants 2008
- WellChild framework review and B4school check
- Active movement
- Web-site update
- Childrens’ Day 2008
- WellChild/Tamariki Ora week 2008
Attachments:
• MoH media release re. new immunisation schedule changes
Resources to support oral health theme
January – March 2008
We are aware that we chose oral health as a theme for our week a little while back - however unfortunately it remains an issue and one of the Ministry’s priorities so we felt it would be good to look at this again ..
We have been in discussion with dental colleagues and checking out resources currently available. These will be mailed out to you in the second week of November. We hope they support the carers of our under fives and promote the importance of good oral health Hopefully this will give you time to look through them and work out how you can tackle the issue of dental health within your communities. As always our selection of resources is not exclusive. Iif you have other resources on the topic you have developed, or regularly use, we would love to hear about them so that we can share the information with other coalitions. In particular we are always on the look out for good resources in languages other than English. Early in the New Year we will send out a press release for the quarter which you can use in your local newspapers or to support your promotion.
Minigrants 2008
This year we are endeavouring to get the Application for minigrants processed before the long Xmas break. This will mean the funding to the successful coalitions will arrive in time for their activities in early March. The forms are already out there and on the web-site for you to fill out - please get them back to me by Monday 3rd December.
This year the challenge is for you as coalitions to find a new member from another organization not previously involved in WellChild/Tamariki Ora week, eg Library, local Council, Fire Brigade.
The minigrants are tagged to the WellChild /Tamariki Ora week and its theme but do not necessarily have to happen in that week if that is not the right week for your locality but they are awarded only once a year at this time.
The grants are of a fixed pre-determined amount - This year we have increased the amount of the grant from $500 to $750 – with the expectation that this extra amount should be used in some way to promote your event or the theme in some form of local advertising or media campaign, and we will be looking for evidence of this in your reports at the end of the event.
WellChild framework review and B4 school check
Those of you who gave feedback into this review should have by now received a summary of the feedback ( I can send you a copy if you haven’t) – we are now awaiting the next stage and also some early feedback on the B4 school check pilots – these are still in their very early stages and it is important to analyse them fully before any decisions are made to roll this programme out so I don’t anticipate any major announcements yet but will keep you informed.
Active Movement
We have been working with SPARC for sometime now and recently have looked at developing even closer links so that we can promote key common messages more. SPARC have a network of Active Movement coordinators who work with the under fives so these are principally the group we should be liaising with the most. I have an up to date list of contacts nationally - if you are not aware of the one in your area please let me know. They have really good ideas and resources to encourage the under fives and their carers to become and keep active which, as we all know, is good for the body and the developing brain too.
Web-site update
It is always good to share ideas with other groups working in the same field and the web-site was set up as a means of communication both to and between coalitions. When we first went live we did upload all the WellChild/Tamariki Ora week events for that year so that everyone could see what the rest of the country was doing.
Since then subsequent coalitions have been able to upload their own events each year. However we suspect that many people do not do this for various reasons and we do feel it would be of benefit to other groups to see what is going on elsewhere. So this year we are going to see if we can again find the administrative time to load all the events that we are aware of onto the web-site. We will assume that unless you specifically say so you would be happy for your event to be listed and publicised this way. Please let me know if you have any problems with this approach.
WellChild/ Tamariki Ora framework review
The review continues and the B4 school checks are hopefully being extended out from their pilot sites too. What caught my attention recently was Canterbury’s solution to the tricky problem with handover from LMCs to WellChild /Tamariki Ora providers – they have all come together to jointly produce a couple of resources for LMCs/ Midwives which outline the choices parents and care givers have for WellChild /Tamariki Ora services and a concise clear referral form to go along with this – with their permission we have scanned these and they should be attached for you to see a good example of working together for the benefit of our tamariki.
Childrens’ Day – Sunday March 2nd 2008
Kick start your WellChild /Tamariki Ora week promotion with a Childrens’ day event.
This year we are joining forces with Childrens’ day again- WellChild /Tamariki Ora week with our week running from 3rd – 9th March – and we will also be sharing a common theme of “new experiences” Check out the childrens’ day web-site www.childrensday.org.nz for more information.
WellChild /Tamariki Ora Week March 3- 9th 2008
In 2008 we have again decided to adopt the same theme as national childrens’ day “New Experiences” – obviously you can develop this however you wish according to the needs, problems or demographics in your own area.
Some examples would be:
- tie in with the oral health theme for the first quarter – new enrolment with dental services
- focus on first time or new parents as a whole new experience.
- Match up with the theme for the 2nd quarter – immunisation - a new experience.
- Link in with active movement – learn a new game or develop a new skill.
Closer to the date we will give you some more ideas but in the meanwhile start being creative and get those minigrant applications in.
Remember we always have balloons and flags available and stickers can be accessed all year around for any of your WellChild/Tamariki Ora promotions
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them” James Baldwin
Marguerite Dalton , WellChild /Tamariki Ora Week Coordinator
Click here to download a PDF version>>
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