Sandfield in the Community

November 2008

The team at Sandfield is proud to contribute its knowledge and expertise to a variety of causes in the community. Here is a summary of that involvement.

Wymondley Rd Primary School – Otara

Through our association with Books in Homes, we have been inspired by the exceptional education occurring at Wymondley Rd Primary School, a decile one school in South Auckland. To support headmaster Tone Kolose and his team, Sandfield partnered with Mainfreight to assist the school in acquiring an Activeboard for each classroom. This interactive technology engages the students with stories, puzzles, and a variety of multimedia educational tools. Many of these children have no access to computers at home so this is giving them exposure to the benefits of technology. The ultimate goal is to have an interactive classroom run by the students and facilitated by the teacher. What a cool way to learn!

The Louise Perkins Foundation

The Louise Perkins Foundation was established in 2005 after research and experience that identified gaps existing in the provision of services to improve the quality of life of women with breast cancer. Since November 2006, Sweet Louise (the public face of the Foundation), has co-ordinated and funded the provision of a range of services shown by research to assist women to live with their disease in a positive way. These services are provided to women with metastatic breast cancer, using a voucher system that enables our members to choose from a range of services at a time to suit them. The Foundation also provides information, access to research, and advice to assist women and their families with the many issues they must face to lead a positive life with their disease

The Sweet Louise System allows the foundation to operate as a 'virtual organisation' allowing part-time staff and supporters to contribute from their homes and businesses, saving costs by eliminating the need for office space. Management of operations is highly efficient due to the integrated nature of the systems for registration, voucher redemption and accounting, often the only paperwork generated is the vouchers themselves.

We estimate that the savings to be in excess of $100,000 per year based on the costs associated with premises, services, equipment and staff. The system is easy to use and training for the organisation's support coordinators was conducted in one day as described by Sue Taylor, Manager, Sweet Louise: "the system is so intuitive that training for our support co-ordinators, both of whom were new to the organisation and who are 'people people' not 'technical people' was effectively completed in one day”

www.sweetlouise.co.nz

Books in Homes

The Books in Homes Programme was inspired by Alan Duff who, with the help of Christine Fernyhough, developed the idea after realising that failures in adult life often stem from childhoods spent in bookless homes. The philosophy behind the programme is simple - to break the cycle of 'booklessness'. Kids who can't read become adults who can't communicate and that's a serious disadvantage in a world that operates on the written word.

Schools are selected from areas where the children are most likely to come from bookless homes – lower decile schools. Alan's self-help philosophy is reflected by the fact that each school joins in a financial partnership with their sponsors to fund their books. The books are selected by the children themselves and are theirs to take home and keep. Each book has a sticky label which has the child's name in it as well as the name of the school and sponsor who have given the book.

Since its inception, the programme has grown rapidly. There are currently 510 schools with over 90,000 kids all receiving a minimum five books per year.

Sandfield has recently given the Books in Homes website a complete redesign and rebuild, providing them with our powerful website content management system, EyeSite. The new site is separated into the key aspects of the programme, information for Sponsors, Adults and Kids. Most importantly over half the site is dedicated to the Kids section, packed with learning items such as dictionaries, photo galleries, songs, book reports, e-cards and links to other great sites for kids.

It also provides a big online presence for all sponsors. It encourages support for unsponsored schools and provides a service where people can donate online to help Books in Homes.

Sandfield has also aided by setting up a website for the annual ‘Bookweek Appeal’. This has information about all the events happening during book week and provides a place where anyone can easily support by making a donation of any size through an online portal.

Since 1997, Sandfield has developed and supported the system that Books in Homes use to manage their day-to-day business operations such as the management of sponsors, schools and events. The websites seamlessly integrate with these systems to minimise administration.

www.booksinhomes.org.nz

www.helpduffy.co.nz

Youthline

Youthline has developed a unique, community-based approach to the development and delivery of services, and are the first point of entry for young people to access a wide range of youth development and support services . Core services include Counselling, Training and Education, Information and Referrals, Youth Worker services and Community Enterprise and Social Development services. Sandfield is providing Youthline with a range of services to ensure its IT infrastructure supports its operational needs and web-based service delivery programs.

youthline.co.nz