Kia ora from Jess,
I have significant news to share about the future of the organisation.
In recent weeks the current board of Amanda Reid, Timoti Brown and Mandy Smith, voted to wind-up The Workshop by 30th January next year. It's been a tough few years for small organisations like ours, with funding across many different sectors dropping, even though the need for our work has increased.
Despite our best efforts, things have not improved financially. In the current environment we knew that the risk of persevering was substantial. It is always such a hard decision to make about when to close the door on something. In the end it was care for the people and the work we do that led the board to decide to wind us up with enough time and resources to take care of our staff and complete current projects. It was a decision taken with great thought and a heavy sense of responsibility.
In the nearly 10 years since Marianne and I started this organisation the many people who came on board have helped us to achieve so much. We not only built a new waka in the form of the organisation, but we carried in it supplies in the form of tools and resources for narrative and framing. Those supplies became increasingly important to people doing the hard work of shifting perspectives and making changes that would make a big difference.
Thanks to many of you and your enthusiasm for this new work, we produced a huge body of work. We have helped many people to understand how critical framing and narrative is to their goals of a place where more people's needs are met and the places that sustain us are prioritised. All that feels like a win. It has not been without huge challenges, as is the way. And we can reflect on that in time.
For now, some details:
The public work we have produced will remain publicly available - we are working through how we’ll do that.
Minette, Julie, Ellen, Therese and Kirsten will be finishing work in early October, and closer to the time we will let you know how to get hold of everyone and what their plans might be.
Jess and Lizzie will stay on to the end (January 30th), to lay the waka to rest.
We have worked hard to contact all our key clients, partners, supporters and suppliers prior to this announcement, if we missed you off the list please accept our apologies. It is not a reflection of our lack of care - it was a long list. If you have questions, let us know.
Thank you for all your support over the years. I reflected just the other day that the conversations I have had over the last decade have shifted from "what is this thing and show me why we need it” to “how can we have more of this?” Thank you for passing the message on and making it all possible.
Ngā mihi,
Jess