Riccarton Community Hub

What's happening in Riccarton, and where to find it

Seven years of building community celebrated

ODT showcase1

Seven years of building community in the Riccarton area were celebrated at the end of September by the Oak Development Trust. Starting with just one paid employee – Manager Carol Renouf – the trust now has six staff, and is active through around 12 programmes.

Let’s have a Global Christmas

Global Christmas flyer top

Global Christmas is an informative and an educative community project that is being initiated by the Philippine Culture and Migrants Services (PCMS) team. It aims to promote and encourage the diverse Christchurch migrant communities to showcase their traditional cultural Christmas practices in terms of songs, dances, costumes, food, decors, artefacts and festival activities.

New chef classes coming to Riccarton

Senior Chef 2

A new programme for seniors and the return of what is becoming a favourite for men are set to light up Riccarton kitchens.

“Research shows that as we age, we become less likely to prepare our own meals,” says Jane Callahan of Pegasus Health. If you struggle with cooking or have lost motivation to cook, Senior Chef, organised by Pegasus Health, could be the answer.

Senior Chef consists of 8 x three-hour sessions. The free classes cover nutrition topics such as eating for healthy ageing, menu planning, and budgeting. As well you get to cook a meal and sit down together to enjoy it.

Senior Chef will be held at Riccarton Baptist Church, 80 Rattray Street, on Mondays from October 15 to December 10. Contact the Senior Chef team on 374 1639 for a chat to see if Senior Chef is right for you. You must be enrolled to attend a course.

And a new Men2Cook course will start at Riccarton Baptist on 13 September. The course, instructed by chef Paul Meek, runs for six weeks, with the aim of helping men learn to cook tasty, hearty and healthy meals on a budget.

Participants have been highly enthusiastic at what they've learned. As one of the participants, Larry, said: “I now have confidence in cooking. My wife is rapt I can do it.”

For more information, or to register, contact Paul on 027 488 069, or Carol Renouf on 027 282 0693.

Childrens' programme makes a difference

 Wonderful Me tight crop

By Emma Turton, NZ Broadcasting School

After a couple of conversations and perfect timing, Ania Szurpicka and Nicki Aitken had a kids programme up and running.

The 'Wonderful Me' programme was funded by the Waipuna-Riccarton-Halswell-Hornby community board through the University of Canterburys' 'Christchurch 101' course.

The UC course had students locate a community group that needed funding and pitch it to the local community board. Out of the six ideas pitched, 'Wonderful Me' was one of three winning projects. Each project was allocated $500.

Free after-school coding club for children

 Riccarton library

A free after-school coding club is being offered for children years 5-8!

Code Club Aotearoa, Christchurch City Libraries and Verizon Connect are proud to offer a free Code Club for school children years 5-8. The Code Club will run for one hour per week during the school term, and VerizonConnect technologists will support the children to learn to code. Sessions start Thursday 16th August and run from 4.15 – 5.15pm

If you would like to enrol your child, either register via the link below:
https://codeclub.nz/join/wMf0M
or text Kate Allen 0273792995 with your child’s name and UpperRicc as reference.

And click on this link to download more information.

Neighbourhood Week 2018-19 – let’s get together this summer

Neighbourhood Week 2018 banner

Have you ever wanted to organise a Neighbourhood gathering?  Do you want to get to know the people who live close to you? Perhaps you've always wanted to put on a potluck for the whole street...

Neighbourhood Week is about bringing people closer together, and celebrating the unique and diverse mix of each neighbourhood. A neighbourhood could also be a small group of families at a local kindergarten, play centre, kohanga reo, school, church or a community group who share a common desire to build a strong community together.