Christchurch

Our Chirstchurch Office is involved in a number of projects and initiatives in Christchurch and South Island regional areas.

bullet point icon  Meet our Christchurch team
bullet point icon  Profile of the South Islands Pacific peoples

Pacific Youth Leadership And Transformation (PYLAT)

The Pacific Youth Leadership And Transformation project (PYLAT) is a partnership between MPIA, several government agencies and PACIFICA Women Inc (Christchurch Branch) to develop the leadership capacity and capability of young Pacific people in Christchurch. The centrepiece of PYLAT is a simulation of the New Zealand parliament (Parliamentary Select Committee). This year approximately 50 young people took part in the simulation and produced the PYLAT Communiqué.

bullet point icon  Read the PYLAT Communiqué (PDF).
bullet point icon  View Tagata Pasifika’s video coverage of PYLAT week on Youtube at
http://youtube.com/watch?v=olQ73CEPdmQ&feature=channel.

SPACPAC

Specifically Pacific (SPACPAC) is a secondary schools initiative focused on acknowledging and raising the educational achievement of Pacific people in Christchurch. This festival is held annually and consists of four key events that run over the course of SPAC PAC week. These include the Pasifika Youth Church Service, Careers EXPO, Young Leaders Breakfast, Pasifika Speech Competition and the Polyfest cultural night.

Refreshed

Piloted in 2008 as a follow on from SPACPAC, this project aims to support and assist Year 9 and Year 10 Pasifika students make informed subject choices in accordance with the careers they aspire to. The programme consists of interactive activities to get students to understand NCEA credits system, to think of careers beyond conventional jobs, to appreciate the value of qualifications in determining income levels, and to be inspired by motivational messages. This project is currently led by Career Services in collaboration with MPIA, the University of Canterbury, and the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology.

Pasifika E-Network

The South Island office administers an E-Network that sends notices to over 500 people in the South Island including Canterbury, Nelson, Blenheim, Invercargill and Dunedin. For those wishing to distribute notices including vacancies, Pacific fono, meetings, conferences, scholarships, etc. please send your information to Melissa.stanley@mpia.govt.nz.

Canterbury Pasifika Network (CPN)

The Canterbury Pasifika Network is a forum of Pacific government workers, Pacific providers, and Pacific communities that meet bi-monthly for networking purposes. It is an opportunity for any organisation or group to provide information and updates about their services and programmes with a specific focus on Pacific people.

The meetings are hosted by different agencies and include (among others) the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, Pegasus Health, Department of Internal Affairs, Department of Labour, Christchurch City Council, the Pacific Business Trust, and the University of Canterbury. Anyone interested in joining or presenting information to the network should contact Melissa.stanley@mpia.govt.nz.

Pacific Business Network

The South Island Office of MPIA works in partnership with the Pacific Business Trust (PBT) and the Niu Economic and Enterprise Development (NEED) Trust in building Pacific business capability in Christchurch.

The purpose of the Pacific Business Breakfast Networking series is to:

Four business network breakfasts are organised each year.

South Island Pacific Scholarships Database

The Ministry has compiled a database of Pacific scholarships available nationally. Go to our Scholarships page for more information.

Information Sessions

The Christchurch office runs bi-monthly information sessions for Pacific communities. These sessions are conducted by specialised agencies and providers and cover a wide range of topics from scholarships to heating your homes, and apprenticeships to Working for Families.

Community Radio

The Ministry sponsors the Voice of Pacific Women, a radio programme for Pacific women. The Ministry hosts the programme on the last Friday of each month and presents updates on its work and other community-based projects.