After more than four years of pulling the community together, Connect Cromwell is being disestablished.
Since 2019 the not-for-profit organisation has helped big ideas come to fruition, aided community groups to navigate funding challenges and quietly worked in the background to support Cromwell, all thanks to funding from the Department of Internal Affairs.
Cromwell was one of 16 communities nationwide chosen for the Department of Internal Affairs’ community led development programme, a five-year partnership to support areas dealing with social change.
While Cromwell was not struggling with the same socio economic related issues as other towns, it was navigating the challenges associated with being the fastest-growing town in New Zealand at the time.
With the substantial growth came a ‘‘real disconnect of community’’, and so part of the work involved trying to pull the community back together at a time when there were so many new people coming in, Connect Cromwell community facilitator Rosanna Ottaway said.
That partnership was always due to wrap up at the end of this year, and with the mission to better connect community groups with one another completed, it was decided to wind up early.
‘‘We have so many groups in Cromwell doing amazing work. . .We’re in the background helping people connect all the dots and there doesn’t seem a reason to continue now all those groups are working together,’’ Mrs Ottaway said.
‘‘We aren’t the ones creating the change — while we are a cog in the wheel, we aren’t the main person creating something.’’
Earlier this year Connect Cromwell had announced the recipients of its Winning Ideas competition, where teams put forward project ideas for the town.
The winning teams were now each at a point they had what they needed to complete their project, Mrs Ottaway said.
Connect Cromwell will close its office doors on July 28.
