ARPASS
Community facility/education process
A project team comprising, ARPASS, Ministry of Education and ASB Trust have developed a system to help schools plan recreational facilities development. This involves aligning council recreation and schools planning, and identifying guidelines for an agreed planning process.
The project will:
- provide a process to assist school Boards of Trustees in planning of school facilities that schools and the community will use
- link council LTCCP planning of community facilities with the facility plans of local schools and provides a framework for engaging funding partners
- provide the Ministry of Education with a process to engage in the early stages of school/community facility developments
- develop a set of principles to assist schools with ongoing maintenance and operational expenditure.
There is a range of principles to guide this process.
- Facilities fit an identified need within a community and are designed, built and funded to appropriate scales.
- Reduce effort of volunteers and board of trustees in developing proposals.
- Projects are coordinated and agreed between councils and schools.
- Assist identification of school/community facilities and levels of investment for external funders.
- Transparent and uniform processes for the development of shared facilities.
- Cluster facilities that meet the variety of needs within a community i.e. indoor, aquatic, performing arts etc.
The Ministry of Education has since developed national guidelines around this regional project. The processes outlined above focus principally on the provision of sports and recreational facilities, however, they are also applicable as guidelines for the provision of arts and other facilities located on school sites.
Disabilities Audit of council facilities
All public facilities belonging to the councils in the Auckland region have been audited in order to identify needs to enhance access for people with disabilities to physical activities.
Key Partners in ARPASS
Delivery of the strategy is based on a model in which an independent strategy director is employed to facilitate the partnership between the agencies involved.
Partners include:
Local and District Councils – Auckland City Council, Papakura District Council, Franklin District Council, Waitakere City Council, North Shore City, Rodney District Council, Manukau City Council and Auckland Regional Council.
Partnering arrangements between councils at this level are complex. Council organisations in the region work together at a horizontal level – i.e. between councils. Within each council there are also a number of players at different places vertically within the organisation, for example planning, executive management and political leadership.
SPARC – SPARC works in partnership with ARPASS in different ways. SPARC’s Relationship Managers are involved in the project at all levels, including sitting on the ARPASS Board, supporting LTAs, and through the Strategic Partners Group.
Regional Sports Trusts – These include Sport Auckland, Sport Waitakere, Harbour Sport, Proud2B Counties Manukau. RSTs are also represented at the level of the Strategic Partners Group and Board.
Advocates – Ministry of Health
Budgets and project costing
Details of ARPASS income, expenditure, and some specific projects spending can be viewed in the ARPASS annual reports available online at www.arpass.org.nz.
SPARC funding of ARPASS is for $1 million over five years – $200,000 per year. This reflects the fact that SPARC recognises that Auckland is home to one third of New Zealand’s population. SPARC’s funding is matched by the ARPASS partners on a pro rata basis for a total strategy budget of $2 million over a 5 year period.
Project collaboration is key to success
Two things that set this project apart are its scale and scope.
- The scale – of the region, the number of partners involved, and the impact on national levels of participation in physical activity resulting from changes made in this region.
- The scope – not just looking at “new ways of doing old stuff”. Instead, critically analysing whether existing decision-making and delivery structures are appropriate. The net result of being prepared to be critical in a constructive way at this level is bringing about changes to how the Auckland region supports and makes decisions in sport.
Getting buy-in in multi-agency projects has been crucial. Most of the organisations involved in ARPASS (with the partial exception of the RSTs) work independently to support physical activity and sport in their community. This has resulted in differing priorities and focus. Overcoming these differences has required the various organisations involved to place greater importance on regional perspectives in their activities.
Visit arpass.org.nz or contact the Strategy Director, Kelvyn@arpass.org.nz to learn more about this project.
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Updated | 07 Oct 2008.
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