News from the Valley

It's time to get stylish and explore the recycled fashion for sale at the Opoho Church Fair, as well as enjoy all the usual fair stalls such as books and white elephant, and the cafe space. Fabulous fashions and fabrics are a special feature of the Opoho Church Fair so be sure to get in early to find yourself a great outfit or a bargain. In a celebration of recycling fashion we will have lots of women's, men's, children's and babies clothing available. It's a chance to explore new styles with scarves, shoes, jewellery, hats and more! Franziska and …

New rental regulations are coming in July. If you are a renter or landlord it is a good idea to check if your house is up to standard. From 1 July this year ceiling and underfloor insulation in rental properties is required where reasonably possible. Exceptions may include where there is not enough space under the floor, or in the ceiling. It is the landlord’s responsibility to meet the regulations. Ceiling insulation If the ceiling insulation was installed before July 2016 then it should be at least 70mm thick. If the insulation is still to be installed, or was …

Don't let those apples fall to the ground and rot! We'll provide the press and you can bring the apples (we have plenty of donated apples too). WHAT: Community Apple Press day WHEN: Saturday 13 April 2019, 10am-2pm WHERE: Valley Project community rooms, 262 North Rd It's time for our annual community apple juicing event! Bring along your spare apples and spare bottles and take home some freshly crushed apple juice. If you don't have any apples don't worry as we can swap some for koha. We welcome everybody to come along! The mulcher and apple press is loaned …

Get a FREE home assessment to help you get ready for winter and find out more about the upcoming new insulation standards for rental properties. Hi, my name is Lisa Burrough and I’m the Eco Design Advisor at the Dunedin City Council. It’s my job to help you get the best from your house, whether you’re living in your own home, renting or own a rental property. The Healthy Homes in the Valley (formerly known as Cosy Homes) team have asked me to write a regular column to help you find ways to improve your home and hopefully I’ll …

A passion for advocating about climate change and some of its lesser talked about effects such as increasing ocean acidification are what inspires North East Valley resident Pam McKinley to continue educating people about electric cars. “What comes out of the back of your car goes up into the atmosphere, but comes down into our oceans,” says Pam. “Electric vehicles are great for the environment and your wallet.” The McKinley family of four have had their electric car for four years and it does everything they need it to do, from running errands around to town, to taking a …

Did you know it costs about $1 to produce and deliver each copy of the Valley Voice to mailboxes in the North East Valley area? This month we are trialling a voluntary community subscription (with an idea to run this as a once-a-year fundraising drive every April). We want to emphasise that this is an entirely voluntary donation. Our fantastic community newsletter has been delivered free for the past 25 years and the Valley Project fully intends to keep it that way. Of course, we are always looking for new ways to come up with the funding. Currently about …

Young mum, Nika Wood, who has a five-month-old baby, would love to meet other new parents who are a similar age to her. The 20-year-old North East Valley resident is stepping up as the new facilitator of the young parents group held at the Valley Project community rooms which provides an avenue for younger parents to connect, support each other and have fun. It is loosely aimed at parents under 26 years. Life for younger mothers can be different Nika says that she goes to lots of different playgroups with her son, but often finds herself talking to mothers …

BY JULIE HOWARD (WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY EDITH LEIGH) THREE MUSLIM refugee families, one of whom lives in a house described as "not fit for human habitation", have turned to their community desperate for help to find new homes after pleas for assistance hit a brick wall with government and partnered support agencies. One family has been given notice and the other two families live in appalling houses which have holes in the roof, wet carpets and insufficient heating. The families are distressed, panicked and gravely worried about their health. They are appealing to the valley community for help …

We love our monthly Valley Voice community newsletter so now, as well as personally delivering it to your mailbox, we also want to make it more accessible online. The Valley Voice blog We already post the Valley Voice online as a pdf, but we know that pdf's aren't so great for sharing, especially on social media. So we've decided to start posting our Valley Voice stories as a blog - or you can think of it as your very own hyper-local news feed. This means you can keep up-to-date with what's happening, share cool valley awesomeness with your friends, …

What a load of rubbish! The first part of the Creeky Awesomeness Kaitiaki i te awa challenge got off to a filthy start last month when about 40 people helped to clean up Lindsay Creek at Chingford Park. It was depressingly astounding how much we fished out, including three buckets of broken glass shards - yikes! And that is just from a short section of the creek, so better not go barefoot! Six sacks of rubbish were also collected in the one-and-a-half-hour-long effort. Co-organiser, OpenVUE (Open Valley Urban Ecosanctuary) educator Clare Cross says she was surprised at just how …

The awesome volunteer crew from Arana College who spent a day of their first week in Dunedin volunteering at the Valley Project. They certainly put in a good day of hard work! There was gravel to remove and wheelbarrow down to the pot holes in the carpark, the back garden behind the community rooms was seriously in need of some weeding and then they laid out all the mulch. While they worked there was a lot of discussion about how to wear your toga to avoid mishap, whether getting hit by eggs would hurt and how it felt to …