December 2024 Caregiver News: Auckland Region

Kia ora friends,

I am sending you thoughts of peace and calm as we head into the hectic month of December; I hope you have a happy and safe Christmas/New Year period with family and friends.

As 2024 comes to an end, I wanted to let you know that December is my last month as Auckland Regional Coordinator (Wellsford to Papatoetoe). From January 2025 I will be jumping over to the South Auckland/Central North area as Regional Coordinator. It’s been an absolute pleasure supporting you over the past three years and I look forward to catching up with you via online trainings once this change takes place.

My hours of work over the Christmas Period;

• My last day of work for 2024 will be Friday 20th December, finishing at 2.30pm.

• Chris will be available in the new year from Monday 27th  January 2025.

• Our National Office will be closed from Friday 20th of December and reopen on Monday 13th January. If you experience an urgent matter during this time involving allegations, please call 0800 693 278.

Training

Apart from our online Helping Children Feel Safe training on 2nd & 3rd December, our training schedule for 2024 has now concluded. In 2024 we had 750 participate in training, some participants told us; 

“This course particularly invaluable for preparation/ put in the ground work to build into teenage years.”

“I have done a lot of courses. Surprised that I still learnt a lot. Very helpful.”

We will release the 2025 Training Calendar in the middle of December, and we also can’t wait to be able to tell you about some new self-directed online trainings we have been working on. They will be available in Term 2 next year.

If you have never attended an online workshop and are worried about the technical side, you can call our national office in the new year, and we will run through the “how to Teams” with us. This will save you a lot of time and stress before the actual workshop.

EVENTS

Family Fun Days are in full swing around the country. With three events around Auckland, (Panmure, Takapuna, Henderson), bookings are now closed as we reached our ticket numbers.

I hope those of you who booked tickets have a wonderful family fun day out.

Save the Date! Summer Pool Party – Meet your Regional Coordinator

Time: 10am-2pm

Date: Saturday 15 February

Place: Panmure Lagoon and Leisure Centre, 29 Lagoon Drive, Panmure, Auckland 1072

RSVP: Registrations via our website will go live shortly.

We have 50 tickets available for each show time: 11am, 2pm and 5pm. These will be distributed on a first in first served basis, so get in quick!

Please visit our regional events page for more information and to grab your tickets

World Festival of Magic
Date: Sunday 15 December 2024
Times: 11am, 2pm and 5pm                                               

Venue: Barfoot Stadium, Selwyn College, Kohimarama

Support Groups

Support Group – Final meeting for 2025 

Waitākere Caregiver Catch up – Friday 6 December – 10AM at Cafe Kōrero, Rānui Community Centre (474 Swanson Road). Come along to meet other caregivers in your local area – this is a new group so if you would like to share your ideas on what you’d like to see out west for caregiver groups in 2025, we’d love to see you there.

RSVP to me so I can reserve a table – auckland@caringfamilies.org.nz

Caring Families Aotearoa Prive Facebook Group for Caregivers who are Social Workers

We recently created a Private Facebook Group for our caregiver members who are also an agency social worker. We have created this to be an online forum for any caregiver members, who also work as a social worker with Oranga Tamariki or another support agency, and who would like to connect with other caregivers for peer support. If this might be you, please look for the following Facebook page – Caring Families Aotearoa Caregivers who are Social Workers | Facebook.

Closed Facebook Group for Auckland Caregiver Members

Don’t forget about our general Auckland Caregiver Private Facebook Group. Click here to join the group and keep in the loop about the latest happenings with training and events.

Tiaki i a koutou anō, look after yourselves!

Christie