SuperGrans Tairāwhiti (SuperGrans) is the latest local charity to establish an endowment fund at The Sunrise Foundation (Sunrise).
For 18 years the team at Supergrans have been helping whānau that are overwhelmed by crisis and poverty. They run workshops that help people to help themselves, teaching them how to budget, cook healthy meals, grow vegetables and apply for jobs.
They also support families with practical assistance such as providing beds, sheets, blankets, fridges, food, and clothes, helping families to move into safe accommodation and donating home cooked meals to folk in crisis.
Linda Coulston, SuperGrans Manager, says her team love the work they do helping to instil change in our community. “Helping whānau up the hill of life through building confidence, instilling life skills and creating an environment where whānau are nurtured and taught much needed life skills, are the highlights for us.”
“Our outcomes are amazing and the feedback we get from our clients is testament to the hard work our small dedicated team of five, which includes two social workers, put in every day. They couldn’t do what they do without the support of our wonderful volunteer ‘SuperGrans’.”
“Our ‘SuperGrans’ are pretty amazing. Some are older ‘Grans’, some young ‘Grans’ and some are not ‘Grans’ at all, in fact some are blokes. They all have the same thing in common though – huge practical experience in life skills and they’re generous, community minded people.”
Linda added that “getting back to basics is a key component to our delivery. Getting your hands in the soil and creating food from a vegetable garden was the norm for our grandparents and this is a skill SuperGrans instil in our whānau to help not only to save money but enrich their wairua.”
All of the household goods SuperGrans gift to local whānau in need are donated by others in our community. Linda says they have seen an increase in demand for help moving whānau in crisis, and furnishing homes of whānau who have nothing. “We have tremendous support from our community and every time we ask for help via social media we are inundated with donations of a whole range of household furniture and essential items.”
As with so many community organisations funding is a challenge and this, says SuperGrans Treasurer, Gwen Bush, is why their board has established an endowment fund at Sunrise. “We see our fund at Sunrise as a diverse way of securing future funding, rather than relying solely on applying for funding through grants, which are hit and miss.”
“The money we have invested to establish our fund is safe with Sunrise, we won’t lose that money, it will only build. It’s a low risk way of securing future funding.”
Molly Pardoe, SuperGrans Chair, says SuperGrans philosophy is helping whānau to help themselves. “With the establishment of this fund we are investing in SuperGrans future. This marries well with our philosophy.”
“Without the support we receive from our community, by way of volunteer time and donated goods, we couldn’t do anywhere near as much of the vital work we do in our community as well as we do. We hope people will support us by donating to our fund to help continue this work well into the future.”
Any donation to the SuperGrans Tairāwhiti Endowment Fund will be invested, protected and grown each year in line with inflation. The surplus investment income will be granted back to SuperGrans Tairāwhiti every year, meaning your donation will keep supporting them forever.