Filipino Community Centre mabilis na sumusulong!

Filipino Community Centre and Shrine Fundraising Project on the fast track

The members of the New Community Project Steering Group are: Chairman of the Auckland Catholic Filipino Chaplaincy c/o Fr Ruben Elago MSP; Mel Libre, representing TawagAwit group; Nida Gray, representing the Business sector; Agnes Granada, representing Filipino society; Miriam Batucan, representing Santo Nino group and John Cutten (alternate); Lito Banal, representing the Industrial Sector; Bert Ricacho, representing North Shore; Guia Olmedo, representing Samut Sari; Sam Dignadice, representing CAPO; Dr. Tony Noblejas, representing the Federation of Pilipino Organisations; Bong Sirilan, representing Couples for Christ, (awaiting acceptance).

Around early 2004 the Devotees of Senor Santo Nino decided to initiate an action plan to fundraise for a long held dream – a Santo Nino Shrine and Filipino Community Centre. As a result a small Steering Group was formed from committed members and given the task of determining how such a project could be made a reality.

Shortly afterwards I was asked to join the group as chairperson and project manager. Once an overall budgeting exercise was done, it became obvious that such a project was going to be well over an early estimate of five million dollars, in today’s dollars it was likely to be eight million or even more depending upon various key factors like the size and location of the site in determining land cost, overall design and material costs.

The realisation soon came, that in order to raise such a large amount of capital, it would be sensible and realistic to enlist the help of fundraising professionals.

Several national companies were approached in during 2004 and from the short list interviewed, Lisa Wells Fundraising in Dunedin was selected to consult with the Steering Group and recommend the best plan for fundraising.

Over the next six months several meetings took place with John Whelan from Lisa Wells. One of the key reasons for choosing Lisa Wells Fundraising was that John Whelan had extensive experience with fundraising for church and community groups and was the fundraising consultant on the St. Benedicts Cathedral restoration project in Auckland, as well as others around the country.

At John Whelan’s recommendation, top priority was given by the Steering Group to funding a Fundraising Feasibility and Planning Study to be conducted by John who interviewed thirty five people in the Auckland Filipino community.

This was done in early 2006 and the study report presented in August 2006. In the Feasibility Study report were six recommendations to be considered to bring the preparation phase to the point where the project would be considered ready to enter into the capital fundraising phase.

It had always been the Santo Nino group’s ideal, that for the project to be truly a community project it also needed to embrace the wider Filipino community.

So in line with the Lisa Wells study recommendations the Steering Group embarked on a plan to reach out to the wider Filipino community with a series of community meetings to get feedback and ideas.

The result was four meetings held in March this year, well attended by a broad selection of the Filipino community in Auckland and by many of the key community group leaders. Particular thanks for support and input goes to Agnes Granada, president of the Filipino Society, Sam Dignadice president of CAPO and Dr Tony Noblejas of the Federation of Philippine Organisations.

The key purpose of these meetings was to engage community participation and encourage collaboration.

A goal was to identify people with areas of expertise within the community that would benefit the project.

One such person who came to light was Mario Madayag, a (half) Filipino, internationally renowned architect.

Mario was introduced at one of these meetings by Sam Dignadice from CAPO. Mario was the architect responsible for the Britomart Transport centre, now a landmark in Auckland city.

Mario in turn brought along a friend Caroline Robinson, an artist and designer who specialises in ethnic community projects.

Both have taken a great interest in the project and will be principally involved in formulating and creating the design of the Centre, capturing the Filipino “essence”, in close collaboration with the community.

As part of their research, Mario and Caroline will go to the Philippines on a brief guided study tour, which is still in the planning stage.

Saturday, the 9th of June, was an important milestone in the project. A community meeting was held at St. Benedicts Crypt, which was the planned follow up meeting from the four community meetings earlier this year.

The results of collating all the feedback from the March meetings culminated in a plan to move the project forward by creating seven task groups: Site, Communications, Finance, Community Support, Fundraising Preparation, Concept and Design and Community Trust Naming and Set-up.

Perhaps though, the most important step in the Santo Nino Steering Group’s plan realised at this meeting, was the formation of a new “Community” Steering Group to take the project forward to completion.

Members of the New Steering Group were elected as representatives from the many organizations, community and religious groups in the wider Filipino community.

The Task Groups are still to be fully manned by volunteers who feel they have expertise or talents in any of those areas.

If you are interested, please contact the writer at endev@mail.com or on 021-263-7250, or any member of the New Steering Group.