September 2007 - Deborah Morris-Travers

September was another busy month for Every Child Counts. On 5 September we hosted our 2nd annual conference and launched the inaugural Every Child Counts Annual Awards. The conference was held in Wellington and brought 100 people together from government and community groups, with a focus on placing children at the centre of policy and planning. Naturally, there were a lot of logistics to manage, as well as media liaison, and ensuring our speakers were well briefed. Speakers included Dr Emma Davies from the Ofcie of the Children’s Commissioner; Bev Adair and Ben Lummis; Lyn Campbell from the Families Commission; Nic Mason from the Institute of Public Policy; Victoria Owen from Local Government NZ; and Lorraine Tarrant from SKIP (Strategies with Kids, Information for Parents).

Two Every Child Counts Awards were presented. The institutional/ organisation award was resented to Parliament in recognition of the passage of the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act. The award was accepted by Parliament’s Speaker, Hon Margaret Wilson, and Deputy Speaker Clem Simich MP. The individual award was presented to Beth Wood, a tireless child advocate.

Following the conference, we had a comprehensive debrief and began preparing for our next conference in September 2008.

We then turned our attention to a range of internal matters needing our attention: our constitutional status; the recruitment of new members for our Steering Group and Project Team; funding applications; preparing a campaign plan for 2008; and identifying what is needed to upgrade our website (with the generous support of the Vodafone mini-World of Difference programme).

In September, we also developed some scripts for radio advertisements about parenting, which highlight the needs of children and advertise Every Child Counts.

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