Parish Resources
The Methodist Alliance acknowledges the work parishes do in fulfilling their mission to their local communities throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. To support this work, the Methodist Alliance has created resources specifically for parishes.
These include:
Child Protection Policy
Parishes need to be aware of the risks involved with activities and how to minimise these risks to ensure safety for all involved: the parish, the workers and the participants.
Obligations under the Children's Act and Safety Checking
The Methodist Alliance has drafted a Child Protection Policy which provides guidance for parishes and their people who work with children to create a safe environment for children. It is a tool that protects children and staff by defining what action is required to keep children safe.
Your parish can use the Child Protection Policy to help build a strong culture of child protection and wellbeing. The policy outlines the roles and responsibilities of people in your parish, including safe recruitment of staff and volunteers, and provides definitions of different types of abuse, indicators of abuse, confidentiality and information sharing, and how to report concerns.
In the draft policy, replace "??? Parish" with your parish name
Police Vetting
Mission Resourcing coordinates police vetting - read more here.
All people working with children and young people need to be safety checked by 1 July 2019.
Guidelines on how to set rent for social housing
There are many factors to consider regarding how to set rent for social housing to meet the needs of your parish mission and the needs of the tenants.
The Methodist Alliance's Housing Community of Practice has drafted Guidelines on how to set rent for social housing to help with this decision making.
If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact Airedale Property Trust on 09 302 6282.
Advice on interactions with people experiencing homelessness
The Methodist Alliance believes that all people have the right to a safe, warm, affordable home and that homelessness should never be an acceptable societal norm. With collective action, homelessness should be rare, brief, and non-recurring.
The Methodist Alliance's Housing Community of Practice has drafted advice for interacting with people experiencing homelessness.
If you would like further advice or support, please feel free to contact your local Methodist Mission:
Lifewise (Auckland) or 09 302 5390
Methodist City Action (Hamilton) or 07 839 3917
Palmerston North Methodist Social Services or 06 350 0307
Wesley Community Action (Wellington) or 04 385 3727
Christchurch Methodist Mission or 03 375 1470
Methodist Mission Southern (Dunedin) or 03 466 4600
Volunteer Resources
The Methodist Alliance acknowledges that volunteers are essential to the success of many projects and services. We have put together a resource with links to volunteer agreements, code of conduct for volunteers, application forms, acknowledgement, acceptance and decline letters etc. See resource here.
Social Justice Issues
The Methodist Alliance Working Group campaigning to increase benefit & abatement rates has pulled together resources on social justice. These can be found here.