A lot has happened with the EHF Community Collective in the month since our last update! Exciting momentum continues around this as a platform for supporting activities that increase connectedness and enrich our fellowship.
Campaign for Pekaira
The call went out and the community responded, raising nearly $25,000 to support Pekaira after she was forced to leave her home. Here's an update from Paula Neme, who has been in contact with Pekaira every step of the way.
Thanks to all who have supported in various ways with messages, finances and moral support regarding the very poor condition (black mold, leaks, cold etc) of Pekaira’s rental house and seeking a solution. Pekaira has been supported by a core team of Ben Preston (engineering), Steven Moe (legal) and myself (coordination) on a pro bono basis. On May 19, we had a meeting with the head of LINZ (property owners) and a representative of Colliers (property managers) to talk and agree about the work that is clearly needed. Over the coming weeks, Colliers will finalise scoping of that work and start improving the house with a new roof going on first—we expect Pekaira to be able to move back in with her family to her whare (home) sometime in July. While this is good news, we want to see it through to completion, but are also looking at the bigger picture—this is perhaps just one example of greater injustice. We want to understand how we ended up in this situation so that we can collectively resolve any systemic issues that may be leaving others in a similar position. We see this as an opportunity for us to learn more about the environment we're working within, and to work to change it for everyone's benefit. LINZ and Colliers have agreed to meet to discuss these larger issues. We will keep you in the loop on Slack for any news and updates. And we will reach out if we need further help, but for now, we feel very confident about the ways this is happening and the people that are involved. Noho ora mai, Paula
Kaitiaki and Working Group
A group of fellows has come together to lead development of the EHF Community Collective—a small Kaitiaki group in a governance role, a wider working group of helpers, plus support from the EHF core team. If you'd like to know more, check out this document, which they are preparing to present at the next EHF board meeting. If you're interested in joining to help out, please get in touch.
Projects Feature
Open Collective has released a new feature called Projects, which are a way to have specific budgets within our larger Collective, making it much easier to track amounts raised for different purposes. Projects are specific campaigns or initiatives - led by Fellows - that seek to enrich or develop the Fellowship in a specific way. Fellows acting as Project Leads will be able to make decisions around how contributions made to their Project are spent, while everything is transparent to the whole community.
We already have four Projects on the go. Contribute to what you'd like to support, or start your own!
You can also contribute to the general fund, to support work that enriches and extends the EHF Community, allocated by the Kaitiaki group.
Events
Our Collective has been used to host 3 events so far! It's a great way to use this platform to track RSVPs and collect money to cover costs. Whoever shouted the food and drinks can submit their receipt and get reimbursed—easy! Any fellow is welcome to host events for the EHF community using this tool.
Connected Collectives
This space is specifically for initiatives focused on enriching the EHF fellowship community itself—if you would like to fundraise for a kaupapa focused on the world out there, you're welcome to create a Connected Collective, which is a page all your own that we can link up. Several fellows have already done so.
Get Involved
Here is how you can use and support the EHF Community Collective:
Fund Projects that other fellows are leading
Start your own Project to contribute to realising more of the incredible potential of our fellowship—if you're already doing such work, please let us help you make it more visible and sustainable!
Join the Working Group that is behind this overall effort
