Our vision:
We will facilitate a positive, healthy, secure and resilient future for Blueskin Bay and linked communities and promote sustainable resource use.
Our mission:
The Trust will act to strengthen our communities in the immediate, mid and long-term future, with emphasis on energy, food, water and community resilience.
Blueskin’s largest settlement Waitati was heavily flooded in April 2006. In September 2006 a community visioning exercise kicked off a community wide strategic thinking exercise, and the Waitati Edible Gardeners group (the Weggies) was set up. In 2007, the Blueskin Energy Project (first called the ‘Waitati Energy Project’) was established, and on the 1st of October 2008 the Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust was launched.
Our Governance page details who has been involved in the making of BRCT at the beginning.
Waitati is the largest of the Blueskin settlements and hosts the Trust’s office, but is not all there is to Blueskin. From Long Beach, to Karitane, with all the settlements in between, Blueskin is a place of diverse coastal settlement and rich heritage. With an expanded number of community initiatives actively working to make the transition to a lower energy future and seeking to
lower the carbon footprint of Blueskin Bay settlements, we are a dynamic community. The Trust represents this general vision, and enables initiatives that meet the Trust’s objectives. Our Trustees represent the diversity of our community and currently hail from Warrington, Waitati, Dons Creek and Purakaunui.
As a legal body BRCT can sign agreements, apply for funding, negotiate/secure contracts and demonstrate transparent process to enable community respect and give oversight to projects developed or supported by the Trust. BRCT’s mandate is not inherited, it is earned through the delivery of projects and initiatives that benefit the community and ensure ongoing community support. We’re very fortunate to have a diverse and very experienced volunteer community in the Blueskin Bay area, whose long social and environment activist history and experience is regularly infused with rich new blood. The BRCT office is located at Waitati School.