A great deal of community work projects are taking place on the West Coast including the building of walking tracks and mountain bike trails. However, the most impressive could be giving support to cancer patients.
“A huge weight is off my mind,” says Kathy Johnstone of Hokitika. Because of problems with her immune system Kathy can’t be around chemicals.
“I used to be a very independent woman,” Kathy says. “But weed spraying is just out of the question. So I was relieved when Corrections offered to come to my rescue. They not only got rid of the weeds but also removed two large trailer loads of rubbish and fixed some guttering among other things.”
Never imagined
The person who sought community work assistance for Kathy and two other cancer patients on the West Coast is Adam Gilshnan. He is Cancer Support Navigator for the West Coast Primary Health Organisation (PHO).
While handing out invites for the
Men’s Health Day in Greymouth, Adam walked into the local CPPS Service Centre and had a chat with Service Manager
Kelly Hill. “I was just blown away after talking to her,” says Adam. “Never had I imagined the kind of support we could have been getting from community work parties.”
Second chance
Mowing the lawn, tidying up the yard and painting the house are just a few tasks work parties can do for non-profit agencies.
“For the not so well-off cancer patients, a delivery of firewood is also possible and can be appreciated greatly,” says Kelly. “Needless to say we choose the offenders very carefully for this kind of work and they are always supervised.”
Kathy is certainly appreciating the support she is receiving from the work parties. “I am gob smacked. It didn’t worry me at all to have offenders doing work around the house in the first place because I believe everyone deserves a second chance. But I didn’t expect them to be as polite and courteous as they have been.”
Adam hopes it is just the beginning of the partnership. “We have great plans for helping more cancer patients in even more ways. We are already thinking about creating vegetable gardens for them. Kelly and I have discussed how helpful that would be – especially for cancer patients who are struggling to make ends meet. Also, I am going to spread the word to my colleagues. Like me before, most have no idea of the possibility that community work could be helping people with cancer.”
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Email commdesk@corrections.govt.nz or phone (04) 460 3365.
Community Works is published quarterly by the Department of Corrections. Contact details for Community Probation & Psychological Services can be found here or by looking under C for Corrections in the Government listings of the Telecom White Pages.
ISSN 1178-1327