[Image description: A colourful green banner that says "Click here for online resources and fun stuff, made by Newtown Community and Cultural Centre".]
Stay up to date – join our e-newsletter mailing list: bitly.com/newtowncontact
Join our new Facebook group for community support: bitly.com/newtowncovid19
Stay up to date – join our e-newsletter mailing list: bitly.com/newtowncontact
Join our new Facebook group for community support: bitly.com/newtowncovid19
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre statement on Covid-19
COVID-19 UPDATE 9/6/2020
Now that Aotearoa has reached Covid-19 alert Level 1, we are excited to say that we are pretty much back to normal! The Community Centre is now open our usual hours 9-4.30 Monday - Friday. Drop in for free tea & coffee, a chat or any questions about venue hire, or to check out what's going on in Newtown!
We're still asking people to keep up the good work though - we need to stay vigilant about Covid-19 & also colds / flu:
We expect our classes and events will be getting back to normal over the next couple of weeks. Feel free to call us if you're not sure if something is happening! 04 389 4786. Our Free Soup Friday is starting up again on 12/6/20 12-1pm.
Our Justice of the Peace is not back yet, but we hope they will be soon. There is often one available at Paul Eagle's electorate office - 04 389 0989.
Ngā mihi,
Ellie & Eryn
Kaiwhakahaere / Coordinators
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre
____________________________
COVID-19 UPDATE: 29/5/2020
As we mentioned in previous communications, we’ll be reviewing our Level 2 guidelines as times goes on, time has gone on – so we’ve reviewed our Level 2 guidelines! The government has announced some changes to gatherings under level 2 – effective from Friday 29th May these can be up to 100 people (from 10). As we hold multiple venues in one premise, each venue is considered a separate space and therefore can have (up to) 100 people in it. Of course, many of our venues only allow a lesser number due to already existing size restrictions.
Here are the changes that we are going to be making whilst still at level 2 - effective from Tuesday 2nd.
• Most of our staff will come back to working at the centre, alongside volunteers.
• We will start to hire our venues for casuals/one-off hires.
• We will allow more groups to be in the premise in differing rooms/venues at the same time, although will still require the group to social distance in hallways and keep the premise locked to the wider public.
• We will allow more than 10 people per group – this will see more of our regular hirers back.
• We will open our drop-in during the mornings only from 9.30am-10.30am. Anyone is welcome to come have a free cup of tea or coffee and a chat. These drinks will be served.
• We will restart our Free Soup Fridays from 12th May with extra health/safety and social distancing protocols in place. Anyone is welcome to come along for a hot yummy bowl and good banter!
Please bear with us, we are really busy – we know everyone wants venue hire and has loads of questions, but we have lots to consider for each booking. We’ll do our best to get back to everyone in a timely fashion, but this may be delayed!
Outside of the Soup Friday, drop-in, people attending classes/workshops and by appointment the doors will remain locked and we are still ‘closed to wider public’.
Ngā mihi,
Ellie, Eryn and the Newtown Community & Cultural Centre whānau
____________________________
COVID-19 ALERT LEVEL 2 UPDATE: 12/5/2020
Kia ora,
We’ve made the difficult decision that at Alert Level 2, we will not yet re-open the Newtown Community & Cultural Centre to the public.
The main reason for this is the structure of our building and the large number of different spaces that we have. We don’t believe physical distancing will be effective or possible, and our top priority is always to keep our community and our staff safe and well.
Although we won't have our doors open, a number of our private hirers will be returning over the next weeks, with strict regulations on how they can use the space safely. So if you usually come to a class or group at the Community Centre, contact the person who leads it to see if it’s starting back up again, or email info@newtowncommunity.org.nz to check.
Our staff will continue working from home - we’re really proud of the work that we’ve achieved remotely and we believe that we can continue doing a great job from afar for now.
We will be monitoring the situation closely and making decisions about what comes next for us in the next weeks.
We’re very much looking forward to opening our doors and welcoming the community back, once it’s safe to do so.
Kia kaha Newtown.
Ngā mihi,
Eryn, Ellie & the whole NCCC whānau
____________________________
Community Centre Closure update 23/3/2020:
Kia ora,
We’re sorry to say that we have followed the advice of Wellington City Council and today closed our doors. The health of our communities and our staff are our highest priority and we see this step as essential to stop the spread of the pandemic.
This means Newtown Community & Cultural Centre, Newtown Hall, Network Newtown and SMART Newtown have closed their doors to hirers and visitors. Wellington Timebank and the Newtown Citizens Advice Bureau offices are in the Community Centre and are also closed.
This means that we are not running our drop-in, or our Youth Programme activities in person (including Newtown Holiday Programme and Kids Club at Newtown Park). We’re working on different ways to reach out to our most vulnerable people and young people in the community.
We’re still working, and generally we are looking at creative ways that we can carry on supporting people and building community while maintaining physical distance. We would love to hear any ideas that you have.
Contact details:
Stay up to date – join our e-newsletter mailing list: bitly.com/newtowncontact
Join our new Facebook group for community support: bitly.com/newtowncovid19
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre – 022 422 9838/ info@newtowncommunity.org.nz
Wellington Timebank – info@wellingtontimebank.org.nz
Youth Programme – youth@newtowncommunity.org.nz
Kia kaha – Stay strong Newtown.
Ngā mihi,
Ellie & Eryn
Kaiwhakahaere / Coordinators
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre
Public Statement - updated 20/03/2020
Kia ora Newtown Community Centre visitors.
We wanted to write to you to let you know what we’re doing to prioritise your health and wellbeing (and our own!) in the light of COVID-19 / Coronavirus.
We don’t want panic, but we are acting cautiously to do what we can to prevent a widespread outbreak. We hope you will join us.
What we are doing:
Please get in touch if you have any questions/concerns/comments at all and we’ll be sure to update you all with any changes.
Ngā mihi,
Eryn and Ellie
Kaiwhakahaere / Coordinators
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre
Now that Aotearoa has reached Covid-19 alert Level 1, we are excited to say that we are pretty much back to normal! The Community Centre is now open our usual hours 9-4.30 Monday - Friday. Drop in for free tea & coffee, a chat or any questions about venue hire, or to check out what's going on in Newtown!
We're still asking people to keep up the good work though - we need to stay vigilant about Covid-19 & also colds / flu:
- Keep washing your hands!
- Keep a track of where you've been in case of another Covid outbreak. (We still have paper forms and app sign in if you want to use them.)
- Please stay home if you're not well.
We expect our classes and events will be getting back to normal over the next couple of weeks. Feel free to call us if you're not sure if something is happening! 04 389 4786. Our Free Soup Friday is starting up again on 12/6/20 12-1pm.
Our Justice of the Peace is not back yet, but we hope they will be soon. There is often one available at Paul Eagle's electorate office - 04 389 0989.
Ngā mihi,
Ellie & Eryn
Kaiwhakahaere / Coordinators
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre
____________________________
COVID-19 UPDATE: 29/5/2020
As we mentioned in previous communications, we’ll be reviewing our Level 2 guidelines as times goes on, time has gone on – so we’ve reviewed our Level 2 guidelines! The government has announced some changes to gatherings under level 2 – effective from Friday 29th May these can be up to 100 people (from 10). As we hold multiple venues in one premise, each venue is considered a separate space and therefore can have (up to) 100 people in it. Of course, many of our venues only allow a lesser number due to already existing size restrictions.
Here are the changes that we are going to be making whilst still at level 2 - effective from Tuesday 2nd.
• Most of our staff will come back to working at the centre, alongside volunteers.
• We will start to hire our venues for casuals/one-off hires.
• We will allow more groups to be in the premise in differing rooms/venues at the same time, although will still require the group to social distance in hallways and keep the premise locked to the wider public.
• We will allow more than 10 people per group – this will see more of our regular hirers back.
• We will open our drop-in during the mornings only from 9.30am-10.30am. Anyone is welcome to come have a free cup of tea or coffee and a chat. These drinks will be served.
• We will restart our Free Soup Fridays from 12th May with extra health/safety and social distancing protocols in place. Anyone is welcome to come along for a hot yummy bowl and good banter!
Please bear with us, we are really busy – we know everyone wants venue hire and has loads of questions, but we have lots to consider for each booking. We’ll do our best to get back to everyone in a timely fashion, but this may be delayed!
Outside of the Soup Friday, drop-in, people attending classes/workshops and by appointment the doors will remain locked and we are still ‘closed to wider public’.
Ngā mihi,
Ellie, Eryn and the Newtown Community & Cultural Centre whānau
____________________________
COVID-19 ALERT LEVEL 2 UPDATE: 12/5/2020
Kia ora,
We’ve made the difficult decision that at Alert Level 2, we will not yet re-open the Newtown Community & Cultural Centre to the public.
The main reason for this is the structure of our building and the large number of different spaces that we have. We don’t believe physical distancing will be effective or possible, and our top priority is always to keep our community and our staff safe and well.
Although we won't have our doors open, a number of our private hirers will be returning over the next weeks, with strict regulations on how they can use the space safely. So if you usually come to a class or group at the Community Centre, contact the person who leads it to see if it’s starting back up again, or email info@newtowncommunity.org.nz to check.
Our staff will continue working from home - we’re really proud of the work that we’ve achieved remotely and we believe that we can continue doing a great job from afar for now.
We will be monitoring the situation closely and making decisions about what comes next for us in the next weeks.
We’re very much looking forward to opening our doors and welcoming the community back, once it’s safe to do so.
Kia kaha Newtown.
Ngā mihi,
Eryn, Ellie & the whole NCCC whānau
____________________________
Community Centre Closure update 23/3/2020:
Kia ora,
We’re sorry to say that we have followed the advice of Wellington City Council and today closed our doors. The health of our communities and our staff are our highest priority and we see this step as essential to stop the spread of the pandemic.
This means Newtown Community & Cultural Centre, Newtown Hall, Network Newtown and SMART Newtown have closed their doors to hirers and visitors. Wellington Timebank and the Newtown Citizens Advice Bureau offices are in the Community Centre and are also closed.
This means that we are not running our drop-in, or our Youth Programme activities in person (including Newtown Holiday Programme and Kids Club at Newtown Park). We’re working on different ways to reach out to our most vulnerable people and young people in the community.
We’re still working, and generally we are looking at creative ways that we can carry on supporting people and building community while maintaining physical distance. We would love to hear any ideas that you have.
Contact details:
Stay up to date – join our e-newsletter mailing list: bitly.com/newtowncontact
Join our new Facebook group for community support: bitly.com/newtowncovid19
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre – 022 422 9838/ info@newtowncommunity.org.nz
Wellington Timebank – info@wellingtontimebank.org.nz
Youth Programme – youth@newtowncommunity.org.nz
Kia kaha – Stay strong Newtown.
Ngā mihi,
Ellie & Eryn
Kaiwhakahaere / Coordinators
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre
Public Statement - updated 20/03/2020
Kia ora Newtown Community Centre visitors.
We wanted to write to you to let you know what we’re doing to prioritise your health and wellbeing (and our own!) in the light of COVID-19 / Coronavirus.
We don’t want panic, but we are acting cautiously to do what we can to prevent a widespread outbreak. We hope you will join us.
What we are doing:
- We are following guidelines from Ministry of Health and Wellington City Council. You will have noted that large gatherings of 100 people indoors/outdoors are being cancelled around the country. As we only have capacity for smaller gatherings, we have been advised that we can remain open for hirers and groups for now. This could change – please be aware that we may cancel bookings with little notice if things change. We’ll do our best to keep you updated as early as we can.
- We’re currently collecting contact details for people who come to our classes and events – this is so we can contact people if we do end up closing, and also to make sure we can let people know if someone unwell comes to the Centre.
- We’re taking care of our staff by supporting them with sick leave – this also takes care of the community. Please be aware that this may mean we’re short-staffed and less able to respond to questions!
- We are not charging any users for last minute cancellations.
- We pride ourselves on having a clean centre – but we’ve asked our cleaners to do additional cleaning such as wiping down light switches and handles.
- We’re providing more cleaning materials and hand-sanitiser for anyone that comes in to use– there is a bucket of cleaning materials available in each of our spaces.
- We have posters around the Centre letting people know what symptoms to look out for, how to avoid spreading illnesses and promoting hand-washing.
- We’re thinking of creative ways that we can deliver some programmes and support our community through this time.
- We’ve created a Facebook group Newtown Covid-19 Community Support Group. You can find it and join at bitly.com/newtowncovid19
- Check Ministry of Health guidelines yourself – make decisions based on their advice.
- Get on our mailing list for updates on our events / potential closure etc – sign up at bitly.com/newtowncontact
- Join our Facebook group where community members can support each other: bitly.com/newtowncovid19
- Do not come to the centre if you are feeling unwell.
- If you have been overseas (except in the Pacific) then self-isolate for 14 days.
- Wash your hands as soon as you come into the centre.
- Use hand-sanitiser of your own, or ours (unless we run out!)
- Use the disinfectant sprays we are providing in each space – wipe down surfaces on arrival and when you leave.
- Always use the dishwasher – please put the dishwasher on if full / unload if clean.
Please get in touch if you have any questions/concerns/comments at all and we’ll be sure to update you all with any changes.
Ngā mihi,
Eryn and Ellie
Kaiwhakahaere / Coordinators
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre