Gerry Forde’s enthusiasm is infectious. 

Gerry is the leader of the Spirit Army, a volunteer initiative aimed at helping Invercargill families who are doing it tough. 

A big part of helping them overcome their challenges has been creating a place they can call their own, a place they can come together and create positive experiences, including growing vegetables and playing together. 

“That’s where we want to go,” Gerry says. 

“We want to take a family that really isn’t coping and get them to the point where they are strong, in control of their own lives and are giving back as an active part of the community.”

Which is where Healthy Families Invercargill play systems innovator Megan Dawson has been able to provide some welcome support. 

Megan is the play guru for Active Southland (the lead provider for Healthy Families Invercargill). 

She encouraged Gerry to apply for Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa funding, which is aimed at increasing activity for children and young people and is administered by Active Southland on behalf of Sport New Zealand. 

“Some families lack opportunities to play at home and we’ve seen that play and active recreation is a great way to help bring families together,” Megan said. 

“It creates a fun environment and is a great way to develop connections.” 

Gerry and the Spirit Army put together an outstanding application which will mean they can purchase a range of indoor and outdoor play equipment to suit a variety of ages, including a mud kitchen, trampoline and even a motorbike for rangatahi, which will be used to help teach mechanics and safety skills. 

“We’ve got a place here where we can have some activity and some fun with the kids, but it’s always been very basic,” Gerry said. 

“We want to make it so that everyone is involved every step of the way. Groups of mums are going to be choosing the equipment and buying them, making their own decisions about where the mud oven goes and where to put the trampoline and where we are going to put down the hangi pit.” 

Having support from Healthy Families Invercargill and the wider Active Southland organisation had provided the Spirit Army with a great boost, Gerry said. 

Gerry works with Autism Southland and other disability services and will extend invites to other community agencies to come join the fun. 

“Now we are working together and we are getting the cohesion we want, which is hard to get with families who didn’t really know each other and have issues about joining in and being with each other. This has just been a wonderful boost…we are underway, we’re on fire.” 

Article added: Tuesday 24 May 2022