About SCPI

SCPI is made up of a group of Trustees and a Trust Director.

Trustees:	Patrick Hanley Conor Twyford David Haigh Chris Holland Tuwhakairiora Williams
Trust Director:	David Robinson

top

Patrick Hanley

Pat is the convener of the trustees of the Social and Civic Policy Institute. He is a member of the Board of the Electricity Complaints Commission, The Wellington Wairarapa Lottery Committee and the Charities Commission Establishment Group. He is a past president of the New Zealand Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations.

Pat has 30 years experience working in the areas of Social Development and planning. For the past four years he has worked with ANGOA (the Association of NGO's of Aotearoa) as Projects Manager focusing on government community sector relationships.

For ten years he worked in the disability sector with responsibilities for policy development and research with the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind and New Zealand CCS. He has also worked in local government, with Maori organisations and in the area of social impact assessment. In Canada he worked in community development in Halifax Nova Scotia and with First Nations in British Columbia. He has also written extensively on social development, disability issues and human rights.

Pat has three children and lives in Pukerua Bay, north of Wellington.

top

Conor Twyford

Conor has a background in political organising and community development as a practicing artist. She spent part of her childhood living in an Aboriginal community in North East Arnhem Land in Australia.

After graduating from Griffith University in the early 1990s with an Honours degree in environmental politics, she worked for Community Aid Abroad in Brisbane before moving back to New Zealand to volunteer for the Alliance Party, where she eventually became General Secretary. Following the 1999 election she worked for a year as Ministerial Secretary to Hon Matt Robson, then Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control. Together with Philip Alpers she then went on to research and co-author the first regional study of the social and economic effects of small arms violence in the Pacific for the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey. This work was followed by a two-year volunteer assignment in Vanuatu, working with local artists to establish a new artists' organisation.

On her return to New Zealand in 2004 she worked as Executive Officer for the New Zealand Council of Social Services for three years, during which time, as well as giving birth to twin boys, she spent some time as a member of the ANGOA Coordinating Committee.

Conor is currently managing a collaborative project between NZCOSS, the New Zealand Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations, Social Services Waikato and the Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota to promote more effective employment relations in the tangata whenua, community and voluntary sector. She enjoys playing an active role in her local community in the early childhood arena.

top

David Haigh

David has an MA in sociology, diploma in community studies and a diploma in professional ethics. For the past 12 years he has been a self-employed consultant in social policy and social research. He is also a part-time lecturer at the Planning Department, University of Auckland in policy analysis. During his time as a consultant he has carried out social impact assessment (e.g. gambling in Manukau City), evaluations of programmes (e.g. Otara Health & Housing Project), prepared strategic plans for NGOs, assisted in setting up Mainstreet programmes, and carried out many projects for local authorities, iwi and NGOs.

He has had management and governance experience in a number of roles: member of the Auckland District Health Board, member of the Auckland Regional Employment & Access Council, member of the Social Monitoring Group of the NZ Planning Council, deputy chair of the Auckland Ethics Committee; and as community adviser for the Auckland Regional Council (1975-91) and earlier for Manukau City Council.

David has contributed a number of publications including Social Assessment of Policy (in Social Assessment & Central Government, Institute of Policy Studies, 1995), A Philosophy of Partnership, in Institute of Policy Studies paper, 1999), Auckland Regional Economic Profile, 1993, ARC.

David is also active in his local community of Grafton in the city fringe of Auckland. He has recently established an arts trust in Newmarket to promote the arts. His contact details are: Side Lines Ltd, PO Box 68-556, Newton, Auckland. Phone: 09-378-5538

top

Chris Holland

A trained teacher, Chris moved into workplace literacy research and professional development in 1990. In 1995, employed as a research associate at Lancaster University, Chris co-founded and co-directed a key national DfES funded teacher support organisation now known as The Network.

Chris has provided research and development consultancy to European projects funded by the European Social Fund and based in Germany and Austria. These projects aimed to reduce the social exclusion of migrants through language support in the workplace.

Since her return to New Zealand, Chris has worked as a consultant researcher and developer for government, education, business and unions in New Zealand and elsewhere.

In 2003, Chris directed a study of how students learn in the arts. Since then she has completed two evaluations of drama programmes in schools, including the very successful Everyday Theatre, which explored family violence as part of the MSD’s Everyday Communities programme. In 2004 Chris was project manager to Victoria University’s Youth Connectedness project.

Chris’ PHD, completed at Auckland, focused on workplace literacy policy, professional development and practice. Chris has published on workplace language and literacy, teacher training and community drama.

top

Tuwhakairiora Williams

Tuwhakairiora has a background in the education and health sector. He is the principal associate of Williams & Associates and specialises in providing strategic policy advice to government, non-government and Maori agencies. He has extensive involvement in the Maori sector, assisting Maori organisations with the development of strategic and business plans, and conducts training workshops on governance and management. He is often invited to serve on government agency committees and is Chairman of the Maori Electoral College of the Maori Television Service and a Board Member of Amnesty International NZ.

Tu has a degree in political science and has been involved in a number of research projects. The most recent being a study of social capital in New Zealand and a four year study, looking at the impact of globalisation on Maori and Pacific Island communities in New Zealand.

top

David Robinson

David is SCPI's Trust Director and has a background in community work in London and Wellington. He returned from the UK to Wellington in 1972 to set up the City Council Community Services Section. In 1984 he completed an Honours Degree in Sociology at Victoria University. Since 1985 he has been a partner in the Robinson Driver Partnership carrying out social research.

In 1987 David was founding Chairperson of the New Zealand Council of Social Services. In 1993 he formed the Institute of Policy Studies Programme on Civil Society; he has contributed to and edited their publications Performance Without Profit (1993), Social Capital and Policy Development (1997), Social Capital In Action (1999), Partnership - from practice to theory (1999), and Building Social Capital (2002). Currently David is a Senior Research Associate at IPS.

David is a member of the Advisory Council of the International Center for Not-for-profit Law, a Board member of CIVICUS (World Alliance for Citizen Participation), Deputy Chair of the Committee for the Study of the Non-profit Sector in New Zealand, and a member of the ANGOA Coordinating Committee. He also manages the Pacific Civil Society Law Programme (a partnership between ICNL and the University of the South Pacific Law School).