Mapping Aotearoa's language organisations

Mapping Aotearoa's language organisations
_{COMET Auckland}

Estimated Time: 40 - 60 Hours Over 2 - 6 Months

We are working to create a coalition of organisations that support Aotearoa's many languages, so we can support one another and so we can have a collective voice with government. We already have a very active working group in Auckland, but we need to hear more from organisations in other parts of the country and from smaller community-based organisations. We need a small team of volunteers to help us research and create an expanded database of language organisations, with contact details and information about the extent and type of work they do. This database will be used in two ways - to enable us to connect with organisations around a possible coalition; and to potentially produce a publication to share information about Aotearoa's language support sector. The first step is to find out who is out there, and categorising the types of organisations that support language, so we can better understand their needs.

Working location

Much of the work can be done from home, but we can also make a desk and computer available at our central Auckland office if preferred. Planning meetings could be at our office or at a venue to suit the volunteer.

Proposed project steps with time estimates

1. Initial meeting for briefing and planning - 2 hours
2. Reading existing information and drafting categories and methods of collecting and collating information - 5-10 hours
3. Meeting with the languages working group to get feedback on the above - 2 hours
4. Planning the research setting up a database, constructing any surveys/search terms/phone interview formats or other data collection tools required - 5-10 hours
5. Conducting a web search for organisations in each of the categories identified and recording these alongside those already identified, with any key information identified from the web search - 5-10 hours
6. Sending communications to identified organisations and individuals to ask about other language organisations they know of (including members of national bodies) - 1-2 hours
7. Contacting organisations (by phone and/or email) identified through items 5 and 6 above, where full information is not available on the web or where it needs to be verified and recording information from these contacts - 15-30 hours
8. Collating and analysing information gathered to summarise the extent and type of support for languages in Aotearoa and to identify themes and trends - 5-15 hours
9. Meeting with the languages working group to report and discuss findings - 2 hours

What We Have In Place

We have:
- a database of around 40 organisations that have endorsed the Auckland Languages Strategy, including contact details from 4 years ago
- a current email list of working group members representing around 20 organisations
- connections with several key national bodies that could connect us with their member organisations (e.g. through their newsletters)
- a working group of language experts from across many different aspects of language support who can give advice and expertise to the planning and analysis.
For background, our existing language work is here:
http://www.cometauckland.org.nz/wawcs0160396/Languages.html

COMET Auckland

Education

Auckland

Mission

Driving systems change to make education and skills more effective and equitable across Auckland.

What we Do

We take a cross-sector, helicopter view of our education and skills system and focus long-term on ensuring Aucklanders have the education and skills pathways needed for individuals, families and the city as a whole to thrive. We do this through: Sector leadership – mapping data and evidence, working with sector leaders to identify and prioritise the most pressing areas of focus, and connecting people around that common agenda, to plan collaborative action.    That can then lead to advocacy or changes to partners’ business as usual, or sometimes to planning and trialling new ways of working (incubation projects).  Current incubation projects include Licence to Work (youth employability) & Talking Matters (early oral language in families). These incubation projects generally develop through scoping and planning to trialling, and then implementation and evaluation, with the goal of handing them on once they are fully developed, so we can move on to focus on another part of the system.

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