We want to see a fairer Aotearoa where everyone can raise their whanau with dignity and contribute to their community.
Current Major Projects
Housing
We are running a Healthy Homes compliance project, workshops on tenancy law and advocacy, and working to get a tenants advocacy service running in Ōtautahi.
Electricity pricing and energy poverty
Fishing sector welfare
Maritime NZ threatened the funding of any welfare organisation that informed Ukrainian crew on Russian fishing boats that they might be able to apply for refugee status. RESOLVED. The initial issue has been resolved. We will post an update soon including next steps.
Pay Ratios Campaign
One to one advocacy support in South Canterbury
Other Projects
Prison Reform
We believe the crime and punishment debate needs to be depoliticised in order to remove the unhealthy influence of penal populism. We are involved in prison reform and justice in a number of ways. Firstly as key partners with the Howard League – PIS and literacy, and Pathway Trust.
We also advocate directly, working with Canterbury Corrections on a case-by-case basis.
For more on any of this work, or to volunteer to teach literacy or numeracy in prison, please contact us.
Community Organising
We are passionate about helping local communities to speak and advocate for their own needs. Click here for independently conducted research into the capacity building and empowerment value of our last community organising campaign.
This is the sort of project we would like to see parishes and community groups take on, and we would love to help.
University of Canterbury
We work with the University of Canterbury in a number of ways, but in particular helping to teach courses related to civic engagement and social change.
Humans of our Prisons
As a way of humanizing the problems in our prison system, we publish the stories of people involved in our prisons; both prisoners and those who work with them. This project doesn’t justify or defend the behavior of anyone. The stories do suggest that rehabilitation makes more sense than retribution.
Past Projects
Free Fares
We are part of the national free fares coalition calling for free fares for targeted groups.
Property Management Reform
Despite having the keys to billions in assets, and the ability to enter people’s homes property managers are unregulated. Anglican Advocacy produced a report documenting some of the worst behavior of property managers, and led the call for regulation. Read the report here.
NAVIGATE INITIATIVE
Anglican Advocacy partnered The Navigate Initiative in setting up the first community led re-integration project at Christchurch Men’s Prison. Independent. Read more about the project at Pathway.org.nz
SCHOOLS CIVICS COMPETITION
We’ve run a number of competitions around an important social issue for school students and youth groups across the country. The competitions were a chance for students to research, reflect, take a stand, and feed back to MPs the conclusions they come to on the subject for the year. For each competition, resources have been included to fit in with the NZ curriculum and remain useful after the competition has closed. Find teaching and learning materials from past competitions on our Resources page.
THE LIVING WAGE MOVEMENT
We are key supporters of the Living Wage movement, and were instrumental in bringing it to Christchurch. The Living Wage movement believes that the minimum a workers should be paid should depend on the cost of living.
HOUSING
This paper is now out of date and superseded by healthy homes and new RTA legislation. The old report is still available at paperwalls.org.
SLAVE-FREE SEAS
In 2013 we met (literally) boatloads of Indonesian fisherman who had been abused and underpaid while fishing in New Zealand waters. Since then, we’ve worked to change New Zealand law to protect everyone working in our waters. Read more about our success on this issue here.
Zero Carbon Act
We’re a big fan of the Zero Carbon Act because it’s calling for meaningful climate action at a policy level, rather than placing the burden of mitigating climate change on individuals and their communities.
PARS
We helped to govern and lead Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Services (PARS), who have been doing great work with prisoners in Canterbury and around New Zealand for years. To read more, visit prisonersaidnz.org.nz.