The Karori Rotary Club was delighted to host Kay Webster, Manager of the Karori Community Centre, and Riley Fraser, Youth Leader, at our meeting on 26 July.
We have worked closely with Kay for a numbers of years and it was nice to coincide an invite to speak to the Club at the start of our 2022-2023 Rotary year with new Youth Leader Riley Fraser.
From an earlier life as a Church Chaplain, including time at Marsden School, Kay has thrown her continuing community energy and leadership into managing the Karori Community Centre. She has lived in Karori since 1999 and she outlined many programmes that have also involved Rotary and other service organisations in connecting and celebrating events for the benefit of local citizens, young and old.
She gave the club a full kaleidoscope of projects and programmes being offered to the community and then focused her remarks on unmet needs and engaging Rotary and others to help bridge these gaps. These needs range from support for the Plunket Society around motor skills etc, to working with various ethnic groups, AA training, building food reserves for those in need, to keep helping building communications with those who want social support and care to help make a difference to people’s lives.
Riley Fraser continued this theme, from working for around five years in a community support role at the Karori Baptist Church and now the challenges of being Youth Leader at KCC. He did a degree in Anthropology and Religious Studies and has been living in Karori in recent years. He is committed to reaching out to young groups of people to give them focus, care around others, and to build confidence in their lives to take on a multitude of challenges. Most young people are from lower socio economic families where life is a struggle and it is hard for those Riley is engaging with get the support and encouragement that they need.
He outlined his focus to help build identity and a positive mental attitude to take on things where skills are appropriate, to have achievements recognised and to build competence. He said the young people who come to his weekly programmes are enjoying being together with others and to be able to share their feelings and gain trust from KCC leaders. Cooking classes have proven popular and a great thrill for those looking for cooking skills. The next steps are to extend the participation out to youth camps with support from other community groups.
Riley made a great impression on Club members with his sincerity and commitment to try and make a difference to many young people in Karori needing special support.