Chairperson's Annual Report

Chairperson's Report to Annual General Meeting, September 2008

This last year has been significant in the growth and development of the Trust. The following lists just some of the key achievements:

Significant increase in government funding
Support for three major research projects
Completion of a high quality publicity video
Support for the Director and Chairperson to present at the ISPCAN conference

Libby Robins and Bill Pringle are both committed to service excellence and I am always impressed by their ongoing hard work to keep up to date with trends in practice in the field of child abuse prevention and build best practice into our service. The fact that independent research validates our programme is a credit to the staff and clients who work together on making changes for the better in families' lives.

Our service continues to build its reputation ad we are now acknowledged as a key player in Child Youth and Family's Differential Response model. This model will mean further devolution of care and protection services to the voluntary sector and we are in a better position than ever before to take our place with the other agencies in Christchurch who partner with government in this arena.

Without secure funding the Trust's work would not succeed and this effort from Board members and their allies is valued and essential to our continuing success. I congratulate Judith and the team who have achieved outstanding successes and who work tirelessly to promote the Trust's work. Of course it must also be said that this benefits from the guidance and wise oversight of Charles our Treasurer who reminds us of the realities of what can be achieved and with how much. Funding, as other not-for-profit agencies know is a continuing challenge and despite the pressures on the philanthropic sector it is a credit to Libby and Charles that we make use of every opportunity that comes our way.

I thank our Board secretary Joc and the other Board members who so willingly step up to fill the gaps as requires. Liz has been a steady rock who so ably provides support as Deputy Chairperson and keeps the balls in the air with just a moment's notice.

Jane's legal advice is always helpful and timely and tempers some of our more flighty discussion.

Thank you to the Board members who turn up rain or shine; we've had a consistently good turn out. I believe we've had a quorum at every meeting for quite some time now. Board members also continue to be very generous with their support of the fundraising events we organise from time to time.

I do not wish to ramble on tonight and would just like to finish by saying that it is a pleasure to work for this organization and this is largely due to its commitment to amazing team work and to generosity of spirit.

Finally, I would like to thank all of our consistent supporters:

Bendigo Valley Foundation
Ballantynes
Contact Energy
DCYFS
Maurice Cater Charitable Trust
Jigsaw New Zealand
Christchurch City Council
Rotary Club of Christchurch
Department of Internal Affairs (Cogs)
David Ellison Charitable Trust
E B Millton Charitable Trust
Lamar Trust
Lion Foundation
New Zealand Lottery Grants Board
Ministry of Social Development
Mainland Foundation
Pub Charity Inc
Kiwi First NZ Limited
Scottwood Trust
The Southern Trust
Special donations
St Margaret's College
The Canterbury Community Trust
The Keith Laugesen Trust
Tindall Foundation/United Way
Weft Knitting Ltd

Annabel Taylor Ph D
(chairperson)

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