Amanda Hema

Community Development Manager
South Waikato District Council
3 years in local government

“information is shared freely between staff working in similar areas at different organisations”

I have a fantastic job. I manage a team of four who deal with Community Support such as grants, youth development, events, capacity building of NFP organisations, community relationships and we also focus of Economic Development that looks at investor opportunities, business development, industry clusters, trade training and regional initiatives.

Its about personality and relationships

I have a Bachelor of Education, Diploma of Teaching, Grad Dip in Public Relations, Associate Diploma in Public Speaking & Drama and have completed a portion of the Grad Dip in Economic Development.

The truth is in my role none of the qualifications really matter. The skills needed come down to personality and relationships. You have to be confident in meeting new people, you have to like your community and relate to their needs. Being innovative and proactive are two really good qualities that help make the job rewarding, fun and successful.

All in all you have to be a people person and be able to communicate both the good and bad.

I love the commitment and dedication of the team I work with

I love the team I work with – they are second to none when it comes to commitment and dedication. I think the great thing about our job as a team within Local government is that we get to be the good guys – we are here to help and always make it our job to go beyond the call of duty.

We have lots of contact with the public, community organisations and leaders. We also get to see the fruits of our labour and share them with the wider community.

Support network in local government is great

It serves a wide and varied group of individuals. Often it is a struggle to “please all the people all the time” but it makes for a challenging environment in which you work towards balancing needs against desires for specific outcomes and projects.

Throughout the local govt sector information is shared freely between staff working in similar areas at different organisations, the result of this is that best practise models are easy to gain an understanding of and the support network is great.

It never ceases to amaze me how helpful Local government staff are.

Working at South Waikato District Council

South Waikato District Council is a wonderful place to work ,the mix of staff is great– we have staff who have been working for council for 40+ years and others who are graduates bringing in “new eyes” to the organisation.

There are a mix of cultures, ethnicities and experiences. This makes us a diverse staff who together have a good understanding of the community we serve. The people are also supportive, helpful, open and eager to improve themselves and the services they are providing.