Our Vision:
He wāhi I ngā wāhi katoa - SPACE in every place
Our Purpose:
To provide communities across Aotearoa/New Zealand with access to SPACE.
To strengthen families/whānau through the provision of quality parenting support and early childhood experiences for infants.
We aim to:
Support families and communities so that every child has the opportunity to thrive.
Promote the family as being central to a community’s well-being.
Have SPACE programmes accessible to all families in New Zealand through collaborative partnerships with national and local organisations.
SPACE NZ Trust Annual Report 2011 SPACE NZ Trust Strategic Plan
Andy Soper – Andy's roots are in Playcentre, having come through Belmont Playcentre with his wife Kaye and their three children, and filling Property, Policy and Employment roles for the Hutt Playcentre Association. Andy's professional role is as a lawyer, and these skills have been put to good use from the very early days of SPACE in advising the team on matters such as agreements, funding, leases and organisational structure. Andy has shown strong leadership of SPACE as an original member of the Hutt SPACE National Team Advisory Board, and participated in the SPACE Working Party. His vision for SPACE is to extend its coverage, support existing and new providers of the programme, and progress towards long-term sustainability.
Donna Provoost – Donna's connections with SPACE began when she was a SPACE parent, attending the programme with her daughter in 2007. She is an economist with substantial background in social development, and has held a variety of senior policy, strategy and management roles in the public sector. Donna brings sound knowledge of government priorities and social trends to the role of Trustee, as well as experience in policy analysis, evaluation, strategic planning, community capacity building, and leading cross-agency teams. She believes that SPACE is an excellent concept, and is interested in exploring how it can be positioned to access funding opportunities and meet the needs of a wider variety of parents. Donna lives with her husband and daughter in Wainuiomata.
Faith Tupou – Faith is a long-time member of Playcentre, having been involved at Wood Hatton Playcentre with her whānau for 13 years. She has shared her knowledge with many families through facilitation of Te Reo Maori and Tikanga workshops, and involvement in the annual Hutt Playcentre Association Noho Marae. Faith is involved with Puriri Whakamaru – the Association's Māori roopu, national Playcentre Māori caucus, and currently holds the role of Hutt Playcentre Association Co-President. She has offered much support to SPACE over the years, most recently in her roles as a SPACE facilitator, as a member of the Hutt SPACE National Team Advisory Board and on the SPACE Working Party. Faith is passionate about whānau and believes that the SPACE kaupapa has much to offer Māori communities, with benefits for whānau, hapū, iwi, and Aotearoa as a whole.
Mark Huthwaite – Mark is a psychiatrist working in the area of perinatal/maternal mental health, and as a senior lecturer in the Otago University Wellington School of Medicine and Health Science. He has a special interest in parenting and the infant-parent relationship, and was impressed by the SPACE programme when he encountered it at a conference in 2008. Upon watching the SPACE DVD, Mark realised the power of the programme's therapeutic process for vulnerable families in particular. He partnered with the Hutt SPACE National Team to co-present a paper on SPACE at an international mental health conference in 2009. Mark's vision for SPACE involves national implementation of the programme, together with a robust research arm. His view is that SPACE is as good as, if not better than, many world acclaimed early childhood programmes.
Sarah Te One – Sarah's first experiences of SPACE were in 2004 when she was asked to be the research associate for the SPACE Centre of Innovation research. Since then she has been an enthusiastic supporter of the SPACE programme, speaking at SPACE training/hui and actively promoting the programme at Victoria University’ Faculty of Education. Sarah's interests include children's rights, childhood sociology, sociocultural theories of human development, and ecological theories. She was a programme leader for the Ministry of Education’s Parenting Support and Development pilot programme and, until taking up her new role as Principal Advisor to the Office of the Commissioner for Children, was a researcher on a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative investigating active adult participation in ECE. Sarah believes that SPACE has the capacity to effect enormous cultural change through strengthening families.
Truus Dingemanse – Truus and her family were members of Belmont Playcentre, and Truus went on to become a Centre Support Person for the Hutt Playcentre Association. She brings extensive knowledge of SPACE from having been a founding member of the SPACE team, a SPACE facilitator, a member of the SPACE Centre of Innovation research team, and member of the Hutt SPACE National Team Advisory Board. Truus has many and varied links within the early childhood sector, through her studies (recently completing a postgraduate qualification) as well as having worked in home-based education and care, kindergarten, early care and education centres, a hospital play service, and as a tutor/lecturer. She has a passion for SPACE and what it offers to families in Aotearoa/NZ, and wants to see it reach its full potential.