Sabbatical in New Zealand 2012: The Wellink Trust and Take 5 art space

This is Shaun McNeil who came from Scotland 14 months ago to work at Wellink and is now it's acting CEO. He is trained as a psych nurse and for about ten years worked in that role. He is a person with mental illness experience and played a very active role in the Scottish Recovery Movement which lead to his connection and role here in New Zealand. Wellink currently has 72 FTE's, with 60 percent of these employees being people with mental illness experience. They are a dynamic group providing many varied direct service supports within the Wellington/ Lower Hutt City/ Kapiti Coast regions. One of the unique services that they introduced me to is called Key We Way Respite House. The Key We Way Home is very near the seaside, about a two minute walk away from the beach in a very nice neighborhood. The home has plenty of outdoor area as well as a spacious interior where up to four people can reside for brief respite stays. It is the first of its kind in New Zealand, that is a respite program organized and operated by peers. This is managed by Treena Martin. Treena reviewed the program with me and is one of Wellink's Intentional Peer Support instructors. Those who have mental illness experience and have an interest in working at the Key We Way Respite service must undergo the Intentional Peer Support Training Program before they can work at this respite program. Another program they had me visit is where they have a warm line that also requires the Intentional Peer Support training. At the same site is a transitional residential program for older teens and young adults. The teen program is called Headspace. The staff here work with each resident to transition into their own community apartment within 18 months, targeting various skills development for competence at independent living.

Shaun McNeil, Acting Chief Executive, Wellink Trust

Wellink's base in Lower Hutt City

This group setting is the Wellink office for job development and placement, Worklink. They have some vibrant client art work on the walls here. The woman in black and red is Rani, and it was her first day working for Wellink. Beside her is Liz who heads up this office. She is Maori and Rani identified as 3rd generation from South Africa, but having now lived in New Zealand for the past 8 years and calling NZ home. Alan supports people looking for work. They also help support volunteer placements for people who identify that they are not ready for work but want more structured activities and exposure to working environments. Many staff/ peers here identify volunteer experiences as valuable to their eventual preparation and transition into payed employment, and that was the case for Shaun McNeil.

Liz "McAlpine" Brown and Rani Moodley, Wellink staff.

Brown

Alan Sutcliffz, Wellink staff talking about employment services

Treena Martin, Wellink - Key We Way Respite

Recent funding cuts have meant that Wellink now only has a single staff for QA - Donan Nellas, and a single person for IT and service tracking, Ramon Medina, both from the Phillipines but now living in New Zealand. Ramon has a background working for one of the big computer companies but was happy to make the transition into this NGO program. He is challenged by the very limited resources since they had to downsize but feels very valuable in his role, so too does Donan who works to ensure that all services maintain a high level of professional, ethical, and effective service.

Ramon Medina and Donan Nellas, business management IT, and QA

Josh is a very skilled and highly passionate program developer. He is of Maori heritage. He shared many of his projects with me and I was glad to stay late while he took me through several of his past projects. He incorporates many of his artistic/ creative skills as he brings these projects to publication. He is using a highly organized computer system, originally designed for intranet systems development, flow charting, and tasking out development systems that entail many layers of system development. It works in real time and makes keeping track of all the various tasks on point for many different departments simultaneously. I suggested that this system might effectively be applied to tracking a client's personal and professional development and he thought so too but had yet to try and apply it to this task.

Joshua Palmer, IT and creative wizard, Wellink Trust

organizational structure at Wellink

The next set of photos is from my visit with Take 5, a creative art studio space and daytime drop in center. Stephanie Cairns manages this program and was glad to show me through while she was busy getting last minute details looked after for their annual art show that opened that same night. After meeting several of the staff and artists I was taken to the public art gallery where the show had been just hung. They were getting the final details settled and were happy to give me a private showing, explaining a lot of the stories behind the work on display. They have a great depth of talent at Take 5, and one peer is internationally known and shows his work regularly in New York City, where he typically has every piece sold before the show even opens to the public. Gary is a wood and bone carver who provides some instruction at Take 5. He is also very skilled at pyrography (wood burning), and painting portraits. The space to work in at Take 5 for artists is very limited but well organized, and has helped many peers find a creative outlet when otherwise they would have none. Most art materials are supplied by Take 5 and their generous supporters.

Gary at Take 5

Graham at Take 5

Graham is another artist on staff who provides instruction and guidance that focuses mostly in the pottery end of the art studio space where he operates the large kiln and keeps the ceramic supplies well organized.

Shapeshifter sculpture

After my inspiring visit to Take 5 and their annual art show near the city center I went across the street to take in the Shapeshifter outdoor sculpture show, another New Zealand International Arts Festival sponsored public showing. This venue is a well grassed park with stream and meandering walk that includes a glass arboretum with many wonderful plants that are used to compliment the various sculptures. The timing of the Take 5 show worked well with the Shapeshifter show, helping to bring people already interested in the art scene to step across the street for the Take 5's show.

Stephanie Cairns at Take 5

This Odlin Gallery that is hosting the Annual Art Show for Take 5. It is a wonderful older style New Zealand structure that feels like a converted home. The large gallery space for the show is full of light and provided excellent viewing and a central public location.