Network for Community Hospitality

Welcome to the Network for Community Hospitality. We are a group of people, researchers and not-for-profit organisations in New Zealand who are interested in sharing, collaborating and working together.

The term 'community hospitality' refers to the original meaning of the word hospitality; that is, welcome for the stranger, or, advocacy, shelter and care in the community.

Facilitated by Waikato Management School's Dr Cheryl Cockburn-Wootten, the network includes organisations such as charities, the third sector and academics working together across sectors to share resources, knowledge and support each other around New Zealand’s social issues.

Contact us

Email: [email protected]
Dr Cheryl Cockburn-Wootten, senior lecturer at Waikato Management School
Facebook page

What we do

We facilitate inter-sector and inter-disciplinary collective research and activities. This includes sharing resources, cross-fertilisation of knowledge and events that seek to make a difference to our society.

Examples

Action based research projects and evaluations
Awareness and promotional events
Town and gown connections
Connecting students to issues in our wider society
Facilitating research internships and volunteering
Networking, advocacy and leadership mentoring

Our values

Thinking differently, working creatively
AMahia te mahi - 'Getting the job done'
Working together to advocate for vulnerable populations
Eat, talk and be happy
Crossing thresholds to a more inclusive society

Member testimonials

Community Living Trust - Claire van der Most

"We’ve found the network to be a great group of people who are willing to share their knowledge, skills, opportunities, challenges and have some fun and laughter. It’s amazing the connections you make and the support you gain, from people and/or organisations you’d never ‘normally’ consider engaging with.

"Through the network we’ve been provided with some great opportunities – two which immediately come to mind are a case study for over 200 university students about improving our communication (internal & external), and of course the students gained some useful learnings too.

"The other was speaking at the ‘Town & Gown’ event in 2015 – raising the awareness of influential business leaders around current social issues within the Waikato region. If you’re considering broadening your networks, make contact with them – you never know what opportunities may present themselves!"

English Language Partners New Zealand - Jo de Lisle

"I approached the network a couple of years ago because I like the way it promoted collaboration between agencies, opening up opportunities for projects that bring a whole lot of interested people together to for general community benefit.

"I found that the network raises initiatives that are of direct benefit to the refugee and migrant people we work with at English Language Partners New Zealand - Waikato Centre. An example of this is the Think Tank series of workshoips held by the network in 2015. The last Think Tank workshop used the KETSO discussion system to explore the issue of how welcoming New Zealand is to refugees and what could be done to improve the situation.

Our organisation is heavily involved with issues around refugee resettlement, so it was very interesting and useful to firm up connections with others working in the same area and also hear the views of the various refugee communities themselves; it is always motivating to hear the voices of the communities we serve.

This meeting helped to reaffirm our awareness of the positive and negative aspects of settling in a new country: finding a job, learning English, getting to know how the systems work. This is information that I have been able to disseminate to our staff and volunteers to help them in their teaching/settlement work.

One thing I have very much liked about the Network for Community Hospitality is the open and friendly attitude of the organisers. They are very sincere in their desire to connect organisations across the city, to make positive changes, and contribute to community well-being. I have found the experience to be very welcoming, supportive, interesting and fun. At the same time the network offers the chance to raise issues and share possible solutions around social inclusion in our city.

I would recommend the Network to people who need to make contact with other service providers, to be informed about social issues here, and to know what is happening in other parts of the world. The Network for Community Hospitality affirms the value of positive thinking and positive action.