HDC Community Outcome: Our community has access to health and recreation facilities to enjoy long and healthy lives.

Trust Objective: Local communities and individuals have opportunities to participate in community life.

Manaakitanga, one of our core values along with integrity, customer delight and neutrality, is a Maori concept that governs how we approach service delivery and means hospitality: the process of showing respect, generosity and care for others. It underpins how we approach our role in providing facilities, services and opportunities for passive or active participation in community life centered on Takere, Horowhenua's heart and hub, but also at Shannon and Foxton Library and Service Centers.

The THT Community Engagement Team is small and they have high performance targets. The programme is delivered because we facilitate and coordinate rather than provide the programme of events. Most events are only possible because of the individuals and community groups who help deliver them.

With our society moving at a faster pace and more detached manner due to technology, busy schedules and the frequency at which we change jobs, homes and locations, it makes it harder and harder to feel any sense of community. It is too easy to become isolated in our homes and yet isolation tends to beget a sense of loneliness and depression not to mention the breakdown that can occur in communities due to a detachment from others: increased violence, substance abuse, mental illness and so forth.

A strong community benefits the individual, the community as well as the greater society. People of all ages who feel a sense of belonging tend to lead happier and healthier lives, and strong communities create a more stable and supportive society.

The purpose of the Community Engagement Focus Team, who are responsible for this objective, is: To facilitate opportunities for the community to provide, participate and experience a wide variety of events.

The scope includes events, exhibitions, community celebrations, marketing, customer service and volunteers.

Our strategy is to encourage our residents to participate in any way they feel comfortable: sometimes as an active participant, entertainer, exhibitor or provider, other times as watcher, guest or audience.