Money concerns spark charity redundancies

Nine staff have been made redundant and school programmes cut as Graeme Dingle Foundation bosses respond to budget cuts.

The well-known child and youth development charity has helped thousands of Marlborough students through a variety of initiatives since it started 13 years ago.

Regional General Manager Kelvin Watt says the organisation is not immune to the nationwide pinch many charities and businesses across the country are feeling.

The hardest part of the restructure has been the redundancies, Kelvin says.

“It’s been really challenging to let people go from our front facing team here, because they become family and are always popular with the kids and schools that they work with.

“Our intent is to restructure and rebuild back, but we have to be adaptive to continue reaching 4500 students each year here in Marlborough.”

The Stars Teina programme for year 7 and 8 students and the Toroa Career Navigator course have been stopped.

Primary school programme Kiwi Can moves from a weekly to fortnightly programme in 12 schools, while Stars and Career Navigator programmes in the region’s colleges will continue as usual.

“We’re one of many amazing organisations feeling the crunch with drops in funding this year, which have come from decreases in each of our diverse funding streams,” Kelvin explains.

“KiwiCan has been a key one, as we spoke with parents and discussed the situation of moving to a fortnightly programme for next year, so we still reach 12 schools in the region with the intent to return to weekly classes.

“It’s a consolidation phase, as not 13 years ago GDF Marlborough was a one-person operation – but in the situation today we decided we’d rather restructure programmes and continue in a more limited scope”.

Kelvin says the need for courses to help build students’ confidence is still “very much needed.”

“A key for our support is our strong community connection and involvement, and while we’re forging ahead with programmes, fundraising plans and events for next year we’re needing to find our balance first.”

If you’d like to contribute to the Graeme Dingle Foundation Marlborough’s ongoing local work supporting students, go to www.bit.ly/ShootingStarsDonate