An Easter Egg-scursion

This Easter, Kiwis can take part in The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt, the first event of its kind in New Zealand, showcasing 100 giant eggs designed by New Zealand artists to help raise funds for Starship Foundation. All the eggs, hidden throughout Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, are being auctioned off to support the national children’s hospital, which provides world-leading care for almost 120,000 patients each year.

Starship Foundation approached Curative to create The Big Egg Hunt’s official site. Aria and Kaan spearheaded the design, in collaboration with our ever-awesome development partners, 96Black. Meanwhile, Starship also invited me to be one of the artists, to paint one of the giant eggs. Team Curative then had the lucky privilege of contributing to this event from these two very cool prisms.

Meghan Geliza [Sliver, #Egg94] Photo: Debbi Shibuya

With this event well under way, it was awesome to see how much fun people are having with the event – taking their families out on hunts in the weekend, collecting points, supporting the cause. Seeing a community fully embrace and be mobilised by an event of this scale; an event that is very fulfilling to support on so many levels – from playing in on the hunt, to enjoying works of art in public spaces, to supporting both local artists and the children at Starship during the auctions. It was amazing to see the power and resonance of a great idea: an idea that combines the best of our human attributes – creativity, beauty, play and generosity.

There’s still time to join in on the hunt to win a unique 18ct Whittaker’s Gold Slab, or, to support the artists and Starship Children’s Hospital by bidding on one of the eggs here. 

Happy egg hunting!

Meghan and Aria

“It’s a bad plan that admits no modification”

The Latin writer, Publilius Syrus, said this two thousand years ago; and he really couldn’t have said it better. 

As a team that’s constantly planning and shaping new projects we’re learning the importance of being prepared for the things that you just can’t plan for. We’re learning to adapt as we go. And we’re learning to manage the difference betweens the absolute musts, and the nice-to-do’s.  

Recently, this has been especially true of our development of ‘Steer Clear’; a campaign for the NZ Drug Foundation which encourages young people to find safe alternatives to driving stoned. 

After a lengthy planning process with our friends at Innovate Change, we identified a target audience, the change we want to create and some clever methods to get there. It’s a pretty great plan with lots of facts, figures, insights and ideas. It’s beautifully designed, carefully thought through, and hits all the right marks. 

So, now it’s just as easy as making it all happen over the next 18 months. Easy as. Well, kind of. 

The campaign launch had a fixed date, as we were booked in to kick off at Splore. And that date came with some pretty unique deliverables; including building a full-scale ‘Dope as Drive’. Essentially a converted van which simulates the experience of driving high, highlighting all of the risks along the way.   

For an undertaking like this, unexpected obstacles aren’t, after all, all that unexpected. This meant that the ability to pivot and adapt on the go was fundamental to getting everything ready in time for launch. 

We definitely believe that being agile is that much easier when you have the right people on the team. And, to convert an old van into a gaming device, build a digital experience and manage the many layers of event logistics, we needed a pretty special team. 

When things need to happen, the right 
people are never idle.

To compliment the Curative crew for this project, we buddied up with Mindhive to build all the physical bits; Handle the Jandle to take care of all of the event details (with the ease and care that can only come from their years of experience); and our very clever besties at 96Black who took on all of the technical requirements to turn an online experience into a real life one too. 

As you can imagine, a huge sigh of relief was audibly released when the Dope as Drive had it’s first run through at Splore, (all while the TV3 camera was rolling). Especially after the unplanned hour of ‘tinkering’ on-site to get it going. 

And as the hot sun beat down, the music played on, and the festival goers got festive, we learnt a whole lot more over the launch weekend that will help us improve the whole experience in the future. 

So, it’s a plan that’s being modified. And for that reason alone, we know it’s a pretty good one. 

We’re comfortable knowing that getting started on a great plan today which may need some tweaking and adjusting, is better than waiting to write the perfect plan tomorrow. 

Check out Steer Clear or our Curative website to find more interesting things as we roll out our plan. 

Eddy & Eddy 

Curative Crew 

Two + People

It’s funny how we measure things in time. Although, there’s no doubting the wisdom that comes with great duration, or the naive optimism in relative youth.

But as we turn two, we’ve realised that time is not the yard-stick for our success (we’re pretty pleased to have surpassed the milestone that befalls more than 80% of small business though). Instead, our measure is the people who surround us.

Curative started with just two. Jade & Eddy. And as we looked around the room at our 2nd Birthday Party, it became clear that Curative is so much more than just the two of us now. And it’s even bigger than our incredible little team.

It’s an idea that people believe in. That people support. And that is kept alive by the partnerships that we’ve formed, and the people we’ve met along the way.

The costumes that showed up at our party were a small hint at the energy, passion, commitment and wild ideas that live in our network of friends, colleagues, clients and supporters.

And they highlighted something we’d already learnt. You only need to give people the permission to be creative. To be part of an idea. And they can and will do great things.

So, as we move into year three, we are so much more than two.

And we have you to thank. If you’ve read our blog, been to our events, worked alongside us, tasked us with a brief, inspired us with your own work, or entertained us with conversation; you have been part of our idea.

You’ve challenged and enriched our thinking. And we hope to meet more people like you. That’s what will make us feel truly wise; and always full of optimism.

Love, love
Eddy & Jade :)xo

Check out more photos from our Curative Cardboard Birthday Bash » 

Curative’s Christmas Office Dates

It’s been a busy year, so we are closing the doors at Curative HQ for a few weeks so we can regroup, and return next year just as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as ever. 

Our doors will be closed between the 20th of December - 13th of January. 

We are looking forward to putting our feet up for a few weeks, and we encourage you to do the same; you deserve it. 

We look forward to getting back into it, and connecting with you in the new year. 

A Festive Future

As our action-packed year draws to an end, we’re counting down til our holidays begin and, as always, we’re full of hope and inspiration for the future.

The tail end of November took the Curative Crew out of town and down to Wellington, for an action packed extended-weekend of future-filled thinking.   

Our epic little field trip was largely due to Festival for the Future, an annual event bringing together a diverse range of thinkers, change-makers and doers to spark world-changing ideas for a better New Zealand. For two days, we all flitted between keynote speeches, workshops, films and performances around Te Papa, triggering a bombardment of inspiration and ideas that we found ourselves marinating in days later. 

Stellar speeches we all loved included Kiritapu Allan’s one on being a lawyer making change for young Maori, and the one by Weissenborn guitar musician Thomas Oliver, who also crooned us with a lovely performance by festival’s end. 

But I’d have to say, my favourite was definitely Martin Leung-Wai’s talk on The Roots. As an architect, he has empowered communities by combining sustainability and art in his beautiful installations. This talk made me ruminate on the thought that all of us have certain skills or inclinations and how these can be seen as gifts which, when fully expressed, actually benefit the world. One of the quotes I really loved was from the festival film Who Cares, which sums this thought up beautifully:

“Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~Howard Thurman

Different versions of this thought echoed through the weekend, confirming the idea that charity starts at home; that the best way to effect change is to begin the journey inwardly, then as we build relationships around our communities, we can spark something in each person we touch that will help them recognise their own gifts, their own potential. In most of the change makers we’ve heard during this weekend, the common theme was of the individual sparking change when they recognised, acknowledged and brought forth innate strengths in the community. This profound thought will be one of many we’ll carry with us as we move forward with our work.

Our final day in Wellington made us bring all of our thinking and dreaming from Festival for the Future into our Curative strategy sesh - a day of play while sparking ideas, visualising possibilities on what Curative could be in the future. Despite dividing into teams for much of the day we freakishly realised, after reconvening by the end of each exercise, that we are all on the same page on how we envision Curative years down the line. It was pretty exciting, to get to that sort of depth in our exchanges, collectively looking at this beautiful entity we’re part of and being able to evaluate how we can help in its growth.

We seriously recommend taking a day (or in our case a whole weekend) away from the day-to-day doing, to check in and re-set the course, or make sure that you’re all still heading in the same direction. 

As always, we know it sounds like it’s all fun and games here. But it’s the fun and games that power us through all of the work that we have going on. 

One of which is launching the new website and video for The Tindall Foundation. With nearly two decades of doing good work strengthening New Zealand communities, The Tindall Foundation approached Curative to help them tell their story and the family values that drive them. This is something they haven’t previously done to this extent, being very private about themselves and their work. Working with the family and team was definitely inspiring to say the least. It is crucial that the The Tindall Foundation has a vibrant and accurate online presence, being the foremost thought leaders in NZ philanthropy, as they move towards becoming philanthropic global players in this increasingly connected world.

Another piece of work we’re really proud to release is the second video for Complex Care Group, putting the spotlight on Jo and her beautiful son Harvey, and the life they lead living with complex needs. It is truly heartening being able to help share their amazing story.  

As we nearly wrap up the year, looking back on how incredible 2013 had been, we set our eyes on what’s yet to come on the other side of the holidays and beyond. Every exciting growth spurt and change we’ve all gone through together just affirms the adage that life just gets better as it goes on. 

So here’s to the future - to more adventures, more solutions for our communities, more positive ripples to send out to the world, and, relationships forged and strengthened, as we create more beautiful and meaningful work together. Taking time out to shift the focus inward definitely makes the view ahead that much clearer. 

You can check out photos from our weeked away here. 

And with that, have a lovely holidays everyone! xxx

Meghan (& Aria)

x

P.S Our good friends from One Percent Collective featured Curative directors/besties Jade & Eddy on their monthly Generosity Talks. You can read all about it here.

All in a days work…

Three months ago Sam wrote a post about his experience of being the new guy at Curative. He wrote about how his first weeks were a heady mix of myriad tasks. He wrote about how July was a month of disruption and that things seemed to be moving incredibly fast as Curative grew. But he wrote all of this with a tone which implied that it was only temporary – that there was some base-line of normality to which Curative would eventually settle.

This idea has persisted; yarns of a world where things don’t change quite so fast were spun to me in my first few weeks as well. “It’s not normally like this…”, I would be assured. “Wow, this week is crazy”, would be exclaimed. “Amazing events like this don’t always happen”, I would be emphatically reminded. But, having been here for over a month now, I’ve come to realise something: it *is* always like this; life at Curative goes at a million miles an hour - and that’s exactly the way I like it.

This month’s list of things to keep us on our toes has included launching some very exciting new projects. It’s always a delightful experience finally opening the gates on a piece of work that we have poured so much time and love into.

One such project that deserves special mention is The Harbour: Everyone here says that it seems so long ago that the wonderful people at SAFE, Help and RPE asked us to produce their incredible new online resource.

The Harbour is a platform for people to access information and support about harmful sexual behaviour, addressing a really important need within this area. The material we needed to tackle covered some pretty heavy stuff, especially when it came to collating contributions from both those who have been harmed, as well as those who have caused harm - there were certainly times when this content weighed heavy on our minds. That said, we are already starting to hear some really rewarding feedback about how affected  users have been by reading these contributions. 

And so now, all of a sudden, it’s complete & launched. For me, The Harbour has been one of the first projects I’ve seen fully-launched at Curative, and it’s taught me a lot about the transient nature of our working process: about the necessary level of connection we have with our projects and their subject-matter, while knowing that eventually we will have to let go and set it free at some stage in the future. 

The Harbour’s  release came right off the back of an extremely full-on period for the Curative team, a time when a whole bunch of projects were coming to a head at exactly the same time. As this particularly busy period approached, anticipation rose to the point where the phrase ‘hell-week’ started being bandied about. But we were determined not to let this week get on top of us; we are the masters of our own time, and so we collectively renamed hell-week ‘HELL-YEAH Week!’.

One of the largest (and definitely the most delicious) components of hell-yeah week was our Social Innovation dinner event, The Feast, which Curative hosted in collaboration with the Sustainable Business Network and our friends at Innovate Change. The Feast is an opportunity to get some of Auckland’s greatest social innovation minds in a room, feed them wine and delicious food from POPdining, and then let them loose on a challenge. This year’s dinner was based around identifying interesting and innovative solutions that could provide safe, warm and sustainable housing for the Auckland’s growing population. Lots of great connections were forged during many interesting conversations. Check out the photos of the evening here…

But even as the final morsels of dessert were devoured, the Curative team were all conscious that ‘Hell Yeah’ week was still in full-swing; we managed to race home for a few short hours of sleep before being up again to host CreativeMornings six hours later. Another global collaboration, which this month saw 50+ chapters from around the world host a talk which followed the theme of ‘Play’ proudly set by our own little team. 

All the while, I still had a sense that everyone expected things to slow down soon, back to some level of supposed normality…

‘Hell-Yeah’ week ended with a special treat for Eddy & I (Double-Eddies!) when we were asked to speak at the Tall Poppy conference that was expertly brought together by Brook, Elliot, and the awesome team at ZEAL. Tall Poppy pulled together some of the most interesting change-makers in the country to share the ways in which their work is having positive impact on the lives of young people. While the day was choc-full of incredible speakers, some stand-outs for us included hearing NZ’s principle youth court judge Andrew Becroft talking about progressive new approaches to youth justice. Another memorable moment was hearing Chris Clark, CEO of World Vision, talking about the importance of adaptability within the social sector - which certainly resonated with us during this fast-paced week. From my perspective, it was fantastic to get a chance to meet some of the best movers and shakers in the sector up here, and to reconnect with some I’d met before. 

As the sun set on Tall Poppy, so too did it set on ‘Hell-Yeah’ week. Eddy and I both (respectively) went home to our first home cooked meals, our first early night, our first chance to not be out the door before 6am, in a week. Team Curative slept well that weekend, no doubt. Perhaps they did so under the illusion that it wouldn’t be the same in the coming week; that this was going to be the settling week, the promised-land where time comes in healthy portions, and nothing needs to get done until tomorrow. 

Maybe this is the way we need to think in order to stay sane, but as for me, the new guy, I see through it; I’m quickly coming to the realisation that the pace never drops in a place like this, there is always more to do, more exciting projects and ideas, and more wonderful organisations to help. But then again, I think the thing we all share in common here is that none of us would have it any other way. 

Have a great November, everybody.

Edward & Kaan 

Constant Ch-ch-ch-changes…

With all the changes and upheaval that Team Curative have undergone over the last couple of months, David Bowie would have been telling us to ‘turn and face the strain’. And we’d be fibbing if we didn’t concede that there has been extra pressure on us all. But, for the most part, it’s been an amazingly unifying and uplifting time as we’ve moved into our new home, and grown our family.

Moving into the new Curative HQ studio was a pretty natural change. After 18 months of co-working, first at The Kitchen, then a brief stint at Movers & Shakers, it was definitely time for us to cultivate the Curative culture, and find our own space.

So on Friday 30 August, we once again loaded up the cars with all of our belongings, and this time trekked off to our new and permanent home at the foot of Mt Eden.

The chaos and elation of unloading boxes, unwrapping all of our new goodies, and placing all of our furniture in just the right spot, was all consuming on moving day. But as we arrived for our first working day, and settled in our new desks, it finally dawned on us - we were all alone.

While we’re now sharing our new spot with with our pals at Innovate Change and Core Education, for the first few days, it was just us. It was a strange realisation. And we felt a bit lonely. Having cohabited with dozens of others in our previous homes, we found ourselves missing the unpredictable comings and goings that we’d become so accustomed to.

Turns out, we are people people. We thrive when we’re surrounded by others. We like noise. We like the energy of new ideas, and interesting conversations. But, we also really, really need some quiet and some focus to be able to get things done and invest in supporting our own team.

Thankfully, we have the best of both worlds now that we have a few extra bodies from Innovate Change and Core Education sharing the space with us. It’s a pretty harmonious collective, each with different organisational strengths, but with similar values.

• We all value people first. We like to learn something new each day.
• We believe in growing young people.
• And we like to have fun while we change the world.

It was the most humbling moment as the Karanga echoed to call us into our new home. As Core-Education’s Kaumatua walked us through our sun-kissed space, blessing each nook. As we shared a cup of tea and our hopes for our new shared office.

Yes, there were a few tears. Happy little droplets trickled down my cheeks as I reflected on on where we’d been to get to this place - our own studio. Months of Jade and I working from our homes when we first began, to our team bringing in their own equipment at The Kitchen, to us all dossing in an unheated office at Movers & Shakers through the coldest months of winter. We were finally here. In our new spot. With hot water, a dishwasher and our own things. It was pretty special. And I can promise that we won’t be taking our new home for granted. We’ve worked hard to get here. And we’re loving furnishing and filling it with all the comforts, fittings and fixtures that make it us.

And it’s not just new things in our new home. We have a new person too!

We were pretty overwhelmed with the response to the ad that we put out in August, which started our hunt for some awesome person to join the team. For some reason, we had thought that we would know everyone who would apply. But we were flooded with interesting, creative, caring individuals, who found us in lots of different ways.

And after an interview process, which of course involved preparing a meal with our team, we’re thrilled to welcome ‘the other Eddy’ into our little family. One week new, and he’s already fitting right in. Alternate suggestions for what we should call him around the office are appreciated. Jade suggested we just call him ‘Sue’ - but that doesn’t seem to be catching on. So Edward it is for now.

Someone really wise once said that ‘change is the only constant in your life’. A new person, and a new place were our big changes this month. But the change we’re most excited to be part of is taking the Complex Care Group online for the first time.

This group of amazing parents and families of young people with highly complex needs have been supporting one-another without any digital presence, aside from email, for the last 10 years.

So we are thrilled to have worked with them to produce an online resource that will help support, connect and give a voice to this incredible group, who are so selfless and tireless with the energy and love that they give. It was our absolute pleasure to launch the site together, just today, and we hope that it makes their lives just a little bit easier, and helps others understand just how much they do.

They say that change is as good as a holiday. But we think it’s even better. Change is full of energy, invigoration and a revived sense of direction. If things aren’t changing, then you’re just standing still. And we’re not the sort of people who like to stand still for very long.

Jade & Eddy.

P.S - If you’d like to hear from and hang out with some other interesting change-makers, you can register to join us at the Tall Poppy event, which is being hosted by ZEAL on Saturday 19 October 2013.

P.S.S - And, if you love a bit of exercise to start your day, we have a wonderful Yoga teacher that comes into Curative HQ to take a class every Thursday morning, 7:30am ($12 per class) - Tweet @Curative_NZ  if you’re keen to join us for #Yoga!

livefortmw:

Copy the ‘yellow code’ here: http://bit.ly/yellowcode

• Go to your Settings
• Click ‘Customize’
• Click the ‘Edit HTML’ button
• Scroll to the bottom of the HTML
• Paste the ‘yellow code’ before the </body> tag (second to last line)
• Save, and voilà, your Tumblr is now all yellowy.

Support World Suicide Prevention Day
(10 September 2013)

SPREAD THE WORD!

Living For Tomorrow…

It’s been more than a month now since we settled in at our temporary home, Movers & Shakers in Britomart. Since dropping anchor at these short-term digs, the Curative crew have managed to prove their adaptability by making home with fervour; hot water bottles and blankets, adorning the communal toilets with deluxe lavender-infused toiletries, even setting up home for our resident non-human friends – Jadado, the potato man and Lady Rainicorn, the Gender Neutral Piñata. 

In between, we’ve managed to squeeze in several shared lunches, cooked up by a rotating roster of Curative co-conspirators, the gastronomics emerging from the electric frying pan including fish finger sammies, crepes, an assortment of mexican grub and brimming-full bagel sandwiches. Movie nights in Movers & Shakers giant inflatable brain have been a frequent occurrence here too, the most recent being the 80s childhood classic The Land Before Time, which we enjoyed while snuggled up in bean bags in our finest onesies.

With all the shared lunches, movie nights and bounteous Britomart food options we’ve been having a ball with the Movers and Shakers crew, and it would be easy for us to get comfortable and decide to settle here forever. But we need to keep looking to the future and what tomorrow will bring. And most immediately for our small team it’ll be bringing two things.

We’re growing up fast and a big part of growing up is finding a place to call your own, so we’re excited to announce that we have done just that. Our search for a permanent home to house the Curative family is now all but over, and we can’t wait to tell you all about it (and maybe give you an internet tour) next month once we’re there. 

Another key part of growing up, surprisingly enough, is “growth” and that covers the second thing  tomorrow will be sending our way. We're looking for a new awesome person to become a part of the Curative crew. Since being welcomed into the Curative fam-bam, it’s been amazing experiencing these past several months, with all of us settling into this wee modern family, complete with siblings teasing and setting up mild pranks on one another. So it’ll be very exciting and a little nerve-wracking to welcome someone new into the fold, ushering in a new chapter for Curative in our permanent home. 

Despite popular belief, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows here at Curative. All of the lightness we create with our fun and games, is often a stark (and really necessary) contrast to the subject matter that we’re dealing with in our day-to-day doing. And we hope to bring some of our hope and light to the work that we do.

One project we’ve had the privilege to be a part of is ZEAL’s beautiful and incredibly powerful #LiveForTomorrow campaign. An effort to address the alarming rates of youth suicide, depression self harm and alcohol abuse, the online project is a collaboration with ZEAL, prominent R’n’B singer Pieter T and award-winning director Chris Graham, to provide a voice for youth struggling to find their way through dark times, encouraging them to ask for help, look to the future, and #LiveForTomorrow.

Curative worked alongside Zeal’s Social Marketing Collective, an amazing group of 15-18 year olds, to craft an online platform for the project and create a strong, identifiable brand and visual language for #LiveForTomorrow, something that can easily be taken and adapted by youth across social media to express their take on what it means to #LiveForTomorrow.

Words can’t express how deeply moved we were by the bravery of those featured in Pieter T’s Music video/mini documentary, and we’re super proud to have been a part of this initiative. The video (below), launched last week, is well worth a watch, as are the mini-documentaries that accompany it, taking a more in depth look at the stories of Levi and Richie.

Follow #LiveForTomorrow on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram, share what #LiveForTomorrow means to you and keep an eye out for Phase Two, which will be announced on the 1st of September.

Another exciting piece of work we did this month was a stop-motion video for the Global Citizen Concert to launch this year’s Live Below the Line campaign. Crouching on the ground in a small room with Sam while carefully crafting letters out of rice, then blasting it with a blower in between fits of hysterics, definitely made for an entertaining day at work.

The video was projected during the concert, in between incredible Kiwi acts such as Anika Moa, Tiki Taane, Jamie McDell, Seth Haapu, Ahoribuzz and more. There were also several inspiring advocates against extreme poverty speaking in between musical acts. We all got our boogie shoes on that evening, and it was the perfect way to end my birthday weekend too. 

Being able to do meaningful work like this together really makes me feel all warm and gooey inside, knowing that we’re doing our bit of good today to make the world a better place tomorrow. I guess that idea is something that motivates and informs all of our decisions at Curative, especially in this period of movement, change and growth. In fact we have a quote sitting on one of our desks, which acts as a handy reminder. 

Every day we’re working towards creating a better tomorrow, and we’re incredibly lucky that we get to do this as our job. That’s what Living For Tomorrow means for us. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Peace out Homies

Meghan (& Kaan)

P.S. Jade and Eddy will be running a few workshops on Social Media and Digital Communications over the next few months with North Shore Community and Social Services. The first will be on 24th September at the Waiheke Adult Learning Centre, the second on the 5th November at the Mary Thomas Centre in Takapuna. Check them out if you have a chance!

Opportunity:

Account Executive/Account Manager - Full time.

1-3 years creative project management experience required.

Curative is looking for a special individual to join our modern family of talented creatives. The role will involve managing and producing innovative and inspirational social change campaigns that live both online and off.

Working with community, not-for-profit, social enterprise, and social change advocates, this role requires an individual who can really listen to what is needed and navigate the requirements and sensitivities to produce work that will help our clients achieve their goals.  

We’re looking for someone who is highly organised, enjoys working with people, is a clear communicator with strong written language skills, loves a good challenge and is open to learning something new each day.  

Experience in a creative agency or in project management is necessary, but ultimately we’re really looking for someone who fits our team neatly, is prepared to give anything a go, and can keep a project on track from whoa to go!

If you think this sounds like you, please send your C.V with a one page cover letter to Jade Tang and Eddy Helm - hello@curative.co.nz by Friday 30th August 2013.