Looking back at community funding
Ciara Arnot Community Advisor •
Since 2019 the majority of our grant funding has been strategically aligned with our digital inclusion goals. We have put over $1.4 million towards a variety of initiatives that seek to bridge the digital divide.
Historically, however, we have had the opportunity to support a range of initiatives that benefit the wider Internet community of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Here are a couple of examples:
The power of the Internet to support mental health - Skylight Trust, Resilience hub, digital resources, and community training modules
Skylight Trust has been working to deliver trauma-informed training to diverse and geographically isolated communities of New Zealand utilising the Internet.
It has twenty years of evaluated experience delivering professional development, resilience training, research, resource development, and programme delivery.
As part of this mahi, the Trust produced a number of webinars:
- understanding trauma
- trauma-informed care
- working with trauma
The Trust understands that after a tragedy strikes, there is a need for immediate response to equip individuals and communities to deal with the ongoing challenges that trauma presents. At no time has this been more apparent than in the last few years, and we are glad to support this.
Internet project to improve our waterways - EOS Ecology, STREAMED – A community-based online water clarity monitoring tool
EOS Ecology is a Canterbury-based organisation working hard to equip communities with the power to understand and improve local waterways.
With rising concern in Aotearoa New Zealand about water quality, many people want to be more involved in the monitoring and management of their waterways. There are few effective monitoring tools/programmes to enable communities to take action.
STREAMED is designed to empower ordinary individuals, providing an online digital presence that will allow real-time logging and interpretation of water clarity data. This tool gives communities and schools a deeper understanding of the sediment issues facing their waterways and allows for immediate responses to discharge events by local authorities.
Project De-Vine Trust - To create a Geospatial database system to manage the many properties that Project De-Vine visits with its weedbusting projects.
In the Takaka area, as in many regions of Aotearoa New Zealand, a variety of pests threaten our flora and fauna, including noxious vines and other invasive plants. Project De-Vine Trust was established in 2007 to eradicate or progressively control such pests, targeting vine species including old man’s beard, banana passion vine, and climbing asparagus.
Funding supported the introduction and maintenance of a purpose-built integrated geospatial system to address inefficiencies in processes around planning, surveillance, control, and reporting. They were able to build their ArcGIS database system and later incorporate Microsoft Access.
Using technology these busy bees have been better able to report pest plants and tree species. Perfecting the system is an ongoing job, as is keeping these pest species under control.
Snapshot of our community funding
Check out our latest funding in review for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.
InternetNZ
Each year InternetNZ uses profits from the sale of .nz domain names to give out community funding. We provide funding for community-led initiatives that extend the availability, use, and benefit of the Internet in Aotearoa.
These initiatives were the recipient of funding in 2016 and 2017.