Western News: November 12, 2020

WESTERN NEWS Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday November 12 2020 11
Preparing young for life’s adversities
Myriad groups help
keep our community
moving. Reporter Bea
Gooding speaks to
Life Education Trust
Canterbury community
engagement manager
Andy Gray about why
the trust has been an
iconic fixture in schools
for the past 30 years
and why he’s involved
Could you tell me a bit
about what the Life Education
Trust does, and how it came
to be what it is today in
Canterbury?
The Life Education Trust
started over 30 years ago, which
started in Canterbury. There’s
now 32 regional trusts across
the country, and one national
branch. The vision is to inspire
tamariki and rangatahi to make
positive choices and to give them
the power to do that. The trust
addresses challenges including
obesity, substance use, mental
health and well-being and
bullying.
We operate in three mobile
classrooms in Canterbury,
they’re like big container shells
that have been turned into
REWARDING: Life Education Trust Canterbury community engagement manager Andy
Gray is passionate about inspiring children to make the right decisions in life.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
classrooms and are moved
around different schools –
whether it was as far as Omihi in
North Canterbury, right down
to Rakaia. Whether schools have
35 students or 500 students, we
end up making our way there no
matter where they are.
What issues is the trust
currently facing in the wake of
Covid-19?
Quite a few in all fairness –
when Covid-19 hit during the
first lockdown, even though we
were still continuing to support
the teachers and tamariki during
lockdown, we didn’t get any
school fees come in, and the
funders that we usually used
were all closed down.
It’s been tough, but we
managed to get through it
and we’re in a better position
now. We reached out to a lot
of people that have done quite
well throughout Covid-19, like
supermarkets, and to the Rata
Foundation and Lottery Grants
Board who have helped us out.
With Covid-19 it’s a doubleedged
sword. It’s great that
we’re busier now and we’re
looking to expand to a fourth
classroom because of it. But the
double-edged side of that sword
is obviously with increased
demand it means that more
people are affected, there are
higher anxiety levels.
We’ve learned a lot about
mental health from the
earthquakes in the past 10 years
and also the mosque attacks
where kids have been affected.
Things like a lack of employment
that comes from it just filters
through to the kids, so we expect
to see increased demand over the
next few months.
The trust has been iconic in
Canterbury schools for the past
30 years. What do you attribute
towards its success?
Obviously, the most
memorable thing about Life
Education is Harold the Giraffe.
But the reason why I think we’re
so iconic is because we tend to
react to the issues currently at
hand.
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