I am so disappointed that I am unable to be with you in person, but I hope through the wonders of technology I can at least express my congratulations to you all, for a magnificent 37 years of service.

I was reading about a local reggae band, a Tongan group of family and friends, called Three Houses Down. 

In an article, Band leader and Manager Rob Pome’e said:

“Where-ever we perform we love to represent Otara.  There are a lot of negative perceptions around Otara so we always represent our city to show that positive things do happen here”.

In many ways, that short statement summed up everything I know about Otara – that fierce pride, the vibrant sense of community; the fact that families are our greatest source of strength.

The Otara Citizens Advice Bureau has been supporting things to happen two houses down, three houses down, three streets down.

And the network that you have formed is an incredible platform for helping to ensure positive things happen.

I have had a look at some of the groups who work so closely with you – the Otara Ministers Association; Family Start Manukau; Te Tai Awa o te ora; Tupu Youth Library; Otara Diabetes, Niue Wardens, the Otara Community Law Centre, just to name a few.

Then there’s the 33 trained volunteers who walk the streets, who pick up the phone, who provide a listening ear to the community.

What you do, as neighbourhood groups, as charities, as businesses, as volunteers, as workers of this Bureau, is to plant the seed for strong and sustainable communities.

And when you look at the numbers you have helped, it is mind-blowing.  In the year end to 30 June, the Bureau provided support and information to a total of 11,214 clients.

Eleven thousand people who are being supported with a house over their heads; help to put their tax returns in; legal advice, or services for the elderly.

The volunteers provide a vital link into information – and if they can’t help, they’ll find someone who can.

I want to really acknowledge the amazing efforts that volunteers do, connecting people, building trust and confidence, and developing the resilience that defines vibrant and sustainable communities.

And I want to acknowledge that demand for your services has increased in the last year.  Your role has been critical in helping people to deal with the difficulties confronting them, and to deal with their problems, one by one.

At times like this, times of financial difficulty, communities more than ever need the sort of helping hand that citizens advice services give.

They say that the difference between a helping hand and an outstretched palm is a twist of the wrist.

What volunteering does, is to enable communities to stand strong on their own merits, while at the same time enabling the volunteer a unique opportunity to develop new skills, to meet people, and to give something back to their community.

The theme to this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, starting 5 October, expresses this idea perfectly.   The message is to be active, to connect, to give, to learn and to take notice.

‘Heke tipu oranga, he taonga tuku iho, ka pakanga ake, aue te aiotanga, te manawanui’.

In other words, volunteering helps us as much as it helps others.

Last week President Barack Obama conferred America’s highest honour on sixteen people who demonstrated what he called the ‘unshakeable human spirit’  - for doing what we might think of as volunteering to help one another. 

In his address to confer the honours, president Obama said

“No barriers of race, gender, or physical infirmity can restrain the human spirit, and that the truest test of a person’s life is what we do for one another”.

Today’s AGM will provide countless examples of what we do for one another.

And I want to really mihi to the Nationwide Health and Disability Advocacy Service who are doing what they can to ensure disabled people and their families, can have every opportunity to live their lives as contributing members of families, communities and workplaces.

The Advocacy Service provides a really important service to stand alongside disabled persons, provide information about their rights, and support them to resolve any concerns and complaints.

Providing a good advocacy and complaints service is another way to ensure that all people are treated equally and inclusively.

Of course disabled persons are also active volunteers.  The 1996 Disability Survey estimated more than 80% of people with disability  volunteered. 

In the UK, the Leonard, Cheshire and Scope charities recently produced a guide on how to involve young people as volunteers.  It includes ten top tips from young volunteers – including “concentrate on ability rather than disability”.

This is very much the message in the IHC Volunteer programme which promotes the message of one-to-one friendship in the community. 

It simply asks people to spend time doing what they want to do, when they want to do it, with a person with an intellectual disability. 

It’s a great concept – concentrating on going for a game of darts; enjoying time at the gym; watching a movie – doing it together.

This is at the very heart of community – something that everyone in Otara knows only too well.

And this is why the Otara Citizens Advice Bureau has been so successful for almost forty years – because you have cracked the secret.  The secret that what binds us together, whether in Otara or elsewhere, is that sense of common unity – having something to bind us and connect us together.

While budgeting worries; tenancy troubles or legal disputes might bring people in the door, when they leave, they leave with a sense of community – people working together, being linked into strong networks, inspired and supported by that unshakeable human spirit.

I wish you all a great AGM, I extend my congratulations to Lin Kaiou, the manager of the Centre, and to all who make this place such an important part of your community.