Creating Cohesion

The ball's rolling.

Thursday night several community leaders gathered at the New Brighton Community Gardens where the primary topic for discussion was the recovery of our community: New Brighton.

Research undertaken world wide has shown that community led recovery initiatives appear to be particularly successful and often contribute to the wider recovery. Superb examples of this would include Broadmoor in New Orleans (following Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures in 2005), Canberra in Australia (following the Bushfires in 2003) and more locally, Matata in the Bay of Plenty (after extreme flooding in 2005).

If there was one wish that was made that I may have the power to grant it was to get "more community groups working together".

Our community needs cohesion and with that cohesion will come the strength to rebuild.

Can you imagine a community with an organisation that has a single vision- to see it renewed?

The proposal was made that a new organisation is created charged with the role of co-ordinating our recovery, revitalisation and renewal. But of course, this organisation won't work without you.

There will come a time, very shortly, when we will ask you more than just what you want in your New Brighton; there'll be the opportunity to share your ideas and really make a contribution to the revitalisation of greater Brighton.

Community is all about common unity, and in this case our common unity is a reNewed Brighton.