Our Way Southland News

Regional Issues Identified at Leaders' Forum

The Southland Leaders' Forum was held at the Kelvin Hotel in Invercargill, on 29 September 2009 and brought together leaders from central and local government agencies, the business and volunteer sectors. The forum discussed the findings of the Our Way Southland Community Outcomes Monitoring Report for 2005 - 2008, and collectively identified key issues and areas for collaborative action for Southland.

Approximately 110 people attended the forum. Attendees were split into groups based on Southland's seven Community Outcomes, with each group reporting a short-list of key issues for each outcome back to the Forum.

The forum concluded with each participant being asked to identify those issues of the greatest regional significance, and which might benefit from collaborative action. Participants had three votes each. The final short-list of regional issues, as voted by the Forum, was:

Following on from the forum, the key regional issues for Southland are now being progressed as follows:

Southland Youth Forum 2010
Because of the strong youth focus of the issues identified at the Leaders' Forum, planning is now underway for a forum in 2010 where Southland youth can identify their issues of key concern.

Focus Groups and Action Plans
The issues of parenting and leadership will be studied by cross-sector focus groups which will soon be brought together to develop action plans and initiate collaborative projects for the benefit of Southland.

Southland's Community Outlook

How well does Southland stack up?

The monitoring report for Southland's community outcomes from 2005 to 2008 has just been completed. From the facts and figures some interesting comparisons can be made.

Southland has maintained a low unemployment rate compared with the national average to August 2008, but the average hourly earnings and the average weekly income were consistently below the national average. Our life expectancy remains lower than national and OECD figures, although we are more likely to undertake physical activity over a week than other New Zealanders. In the Southland Region, 35.6% of those aged 15 and over had left school with no formal qualifications, 10.6% higher than the national average.

This report aims to provide a solid foundation for Councils, government agencies, Maori and the volunteer and business sectors to discuss and work together on Southland's future.

The monitoring report, covering regional and national trends from 2005-2008, has been compiled by Our Way Southland, a joint project between the region's four local authorities. Its purpose is to help make Southlanders' aspirations for their region a reality.

"We intend that this joint approach will create some discussion and really start to make things happen," says Community Outcomes Regional Coordinator Aaron Fox.

Seven broad outcomes were identified in August 2005 as a result of extensive community consultation. Councils now take their community's vision into account when setting programmes and activities, and the outcomes have been incorporated as guiding principles into each council's 10-year and Annual Plans.

The new report measures progress to date, providing a picture of how Southland stacks up against other regions and against national trends.

Dr Fox says "Looking back at how we as a region have measured up is important, but we now want to use this report as a step to move forward and get the community even more involved."

The next step will be a Leaders' Forum on 29 September to discuss the report, identify significant regional issues and develop an action plan to make further progress towards achieving the community's desired outcomes.

Copies of the report are available from the Community Outcomes Regional Coordinator based at Environment Southland, by calling 0800 768845 or from the reports page.

Our Way Southland Reports

The 2009 Outcomes Monitoring Report and the 2005 Community Outcomes Report have been posted. See them below, or on the reports page.

Open 2009 Outcomes Monitoring Report (2.0MB PDF)
Open 2005 Community Outcomes Report (1.4MB PDF)

2009 Outcomes Monitoring Report	2005 Community Outcomes Report

New Website

Welcome to the new Our Way Southland website. We invite you to return over the coming months as the website will be expanded and updated. We welcome your feedback.