Sunday, June 26, 2011

If you missed the Intake Day you can still join us!

We had a great recruitment training day yesterday. 11 people put their names forward to be new volunteers - a record number for mid-year. Seven managed to come along to Anvil House and Bill got everyone to tell their stories. Stories were a highlight for me - everyone's was emotional, a unique journey, but always with some common points we could all understand and relate to.

Carl led an insightful discussion about HIV and I ran the systems overview again. A big thanks to Butlers Chocolates for donating prizes for the quiz & congrats go to Sonja for beating Sara and Hector by just 5 seconds! Ted's behind the scenes work made sure it all ran smoothly and it was good to see some of the helpliners turn up during the day.

Don't forget that if you or someone you know wants to volunteer they don't have to wait until the next intake day in October/November. Email Helpline and you can pick up a role straight away. The next meeting at 6pm on Tuesday 19th July will be a good chance to meet everyone.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

School's Out Report from Mike & the crew

Hi everyone! School's Out has been steadily chugging along with a decent core of youth, some semi-regulars and some newbies. We've been having fun times lately with game days, guest speakers and Brendan even held a workshop on drag!

A fair few School's Out members were represented at the Queer the Night march on Thursday evening and they all had a fantastic time.

Outside of actual meetings, the facilitators have been super busy with school visits, meetings with potential guest speakers, Kazam fundraising and Kazam itself. We have a wonderful month ahead and I'm sure we're all very excited (I know I am!) Hope everyone is well. -Mike and the School's Out crew-

News from Gay Wellington's Co-Chairs

We recently had a meeting with John Mayes and Russell Bates from Gayline. Gayline agreed to pay $1,200 to sponsor School’s Out youth registration fees and other expenses for last weekend’s Kazam – National Youth Hui in Auckland.

Our discussions with Gayline also touched on the idea of moving into a long term regular but “one-off events” type of funding relationship with Gayline (who are in turn funded from the Rule Foundation). This is a promising opportunity to develop a new relationship and work together with this organisation to achieve good things for our community.

As part the Kazam Hui Chris’ household also hosted seven Q-Youth (www.q-youth.org) for two nights. They were in transit to and from Nelson to Kazam in Auckland.

We are both looking forward to meeting all the new trainees at the upcoming training day. It's always good to have new people - we usually end up learning as much as we teach at trainings so it should be really fun. George & Chris

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Lesbian Drop-In Update

Our Drop-in Group has been meeting at Blondinis recently and so far it has proved to be a warm and friendly space with a few new women coming each time. Several of us have met up for Out Take films, and I have to say there was an improvement in quality this year - a Big Thank You to the organisers.

The Wellington Gay/Lesbian choir is up and running – it also meets on Thursday evenings at the St Marys Church hall on Boulcoutt St.

Our next Drop-In is July 7th at Blondinis. I will be away for the August 4th meeting but I am sure there will be others to make sure it happens.
Stay warm - winter is on its way.
Jo