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What we do
Creating change that matters and will last.
We build strong communities by supporting local voices to be at decision making tables. We bring people together, build on what is already there and make change happen.
ENGAGEMENT
STRATEGY
RESEARCH
EVALUATION
PLACEMAKING
FACILITATION
TRAINING
CONSULTING
We work with individuals, groups, organisations, businesses and communities of all kinds.
We use place- and people-centred approaches to develop the most effective strategies, actions and tools for your situation and collective goals.
See some of our recent work below:
Community Strategic Plans
Strategic planning and community engagement
At the request of Timaru District Council, Catalyse worked with the Community Boards in Geraldine and Pleasant Point to deliver strategic plans and first-year work plans. The work used a range of creative community engagement tools, including our ideas board, online and postcard surveys, and happened in places as varied as local pubs, cafes, markets, theatres, libraries, rural halls and schools. The strategies and plans were both grounded in and refined by conversations with Mana Whenua, community leaders, and the public including primary and secondary school pupils. It was a real pleasure to bring this work to the places people already gather in and help surface ideas from locals who do not usually engage in such work.
St John's Feasibility Study
Research and reporting
St. John's Presbyterian Church in Mt. Roskill hired Catalyse to conduct a feasibility study for a new community centre on their current site. We used postcard surveying in libraries, community centres and outside shopping centres to engage a wide range of locals and encourage them to tell us more in a longer online survey. This information was complemented by desktop research, statistics and mapping to provide a comprehensive report that documented not only what people would like but showing how feasible and viable such a facility is likely to be too.
Harae Mai and Welcome
Evaluation, project support and playbook development
Catalyse joined this community initiative to welcome new residents after it had already been prototyped in Glen Eden. The project provides resources to help those new to the area ‘find their feet’ in their new neighbourhood. The resources are decided on by a group of locals and gathered or created locally. We worked with Innovation Unit, Kāinga Ora and Roskill Together to support Haere Mai and Welcome in Roskill by collating and analysing information from workshops as it emerged and feeding it into the design process. We also designed some easy-to-use evaluation tools and undertook a range of interviews to assess the process. Along with information already gathered in Glen Eden, this information was used to create a playbook for other communities to use, should they wish to develop Haere Mai and Welcome in their place. This playbook is now being used in Oranga and we are working alongside those delivering it there too.
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We also develop custom tools for our projects!
Our tools and resources are an essential part of Catalyse work process. Standing on the shoulders of many, we often design and adapt tools for specific projects, so we get what is needed in the most appropriate way.
Kainga Ora Impact Stories
Research, assessment and tool development
Two of our tools were developed when Catalyse was commissioned by Powerdigm to collaborate with Kainga Ora to gather stories about the impacts of two community hubs. Together, these tools helped people who shared a community space (but didn’t always know one another) get to know one another better, stimulate conversation, prompt all sorts of reflections and questions as well as help facilitate an initial analysis on how well the hubs had worked.
This process means those contributing data also have a chance to contribute to making meaning of that data and the visual tools we've created make the gathering and analytical processes easier and accessible.
We have successfully adapted both of these tools for other contexts and purposes since and they continue to reveal all kinds of things! You can see the tools here.
Focus on Placemaking
Hibiscus Coast Placemaking
Placemaking through play.
When the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board decided to invest in encouraging more play in their rohe, they were not thinking of dedicated playgrounds but of opportunities for play in all kinds of places. Catalyse was asked to work with local communities to help locals develop playful activities that mattered to them, cultivating community connections along the way. With 10 projects to deliver across the area in a 9 month period, we partnered with a wide range of local groups and organisations to deliver playful placemaking as diverse as a cupboard of games designed by adolescents for adolescents, a series of footpath games with an accompanying guide book and GeoLingo - a way of sharing language and feeling more at home in a place.
Mairangi Bay Placemaking
Locally-led placemaking facilitation and support.
Building on previous efforts led by Auckland Council and the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board, our role in this initiative was to support local residents to co-create meaningful placemaking. First, we facilitated a collaborative mid-winter/Matariki co-design workshop with community members. This session revealed a diverse array of placemaking ideas and identified three priority projects. Using a divergence-emergence-convergence framework to guide us in our role as enabler, these ideas were all integrated into a cohesive map, collaboratively developed and designed with input from the community.
Takapuna Pavement Placemaking
Community-driven placemaking facilitation and support
When local people expressed distaste for blocks of colour painted temporarily on footpaths in Takapuna, we asked them what they would like instead and, using chalk, they told us! With the support of Eke Panuku, people young and old, from all kinds of backgrounds and with many different experiences of ‘art’ shared ideas in a pavement art workshop that were then developed by a smaller group of locals with the help of two professional artists, Kingi Gilbert and Paris Kirby. With Catalyse’s facilitation and support, the group engaged with Ngāti Pāoa as Mana Whenua, navigated rules and regulations, and sourced materials to co-design several art pieces. One of these artworks, referencing key local features and stories, was installed for 8 months and will inform permanent works in the future.
