We’re looking for Community Weavers to bring the Neighbours Aotearoa kaupapa to life in their local areas.
Neighbours Aotearoa is a community development initiative dedicated to growing, connecting, and strengthening neighbourhoods across the country. Each year, we encourage everyone living in Aotearoa to get to know their neighbours a little better. The Neighbours Aotearoa kaupapa is led by Community Think.
In 2026, we are taking a reflective approach: instead of asking people to jump straight into action, we’re creating space for reflection, small steps, and conversations about what being a neighbour really means. To kick this off, we’ll be running a national Public Conversation to explore people’s ideas and expectations about neighbourliness.
You won’t be responsible for organising large events. Instead, you’ll support your community to explore and express what neighbourliness means to them, guiding people to take small, practical actions that build meaningful connections in their neighbourhood.
Key Responsibilities:
Activate the Public Conversation engagement locally, encouraging reflection and conversation about neighbourliness.
Map your community to identify the best “bumping spaces” (markets, libraries, streets, community meetings) to meet people and hold conversations.
Develop creative ways to have these conversations both in person and online that work for your community.
Share ideas, support neighbours in taking small actions, and capture stories, pictures, and videos of community insights.
Capture responses to the Public Conversation on behalf of others.
Feed back relevant local information to the Neighbours Aotearoa team to shape future programmes.
You will work closely with a small but passionate team who will support you along the way. Training will be offered shortly after the start of your role, and you will be provided with supervision throughout.
Excellent communicator, able to motivate and inspire a wide range of people.
Well-connected locally, with the ability to build and leverage networks.
Highly organised, self-motivated, and able to work independently.
Strong knowledge of your local area and community dynamics.
Enjoys chatting with people, capturing stories and happy to share honest, real-life stories of neighbourly interaction.
Confident using social media, filming yourself, and interviewing others (with consent).
Experience in community development is an advantage, but not essential.
It is a flexible, remote-working role but you must be available for regular team meetings. We are able to offer a payment of $38 per hour. Hours per week are flexible - you might do 3 hours one week and 11 hours another week depending on your local context and workload but must not exceed your total hour allocation in your location.
Total hour allocation per location: 80 hours for Wellington role, 60 hours for Whangārei role, 22 hours for Manukau role.
Please submit a short video (no longer than 3 minutes) outlining:
What has drawn you to this role
Your connection to your community
How you might promote the national Public Conversation
Any relevant experience
Send your video to: kiaora@neighboursaotearoa.nz
Visit neighboursaotearoa.nz for more info.
Community Think is a collective of creative people, committed to social change and making a positive difference to the society we live in. The Community Think team is led by Cissy Rock, an experienced practitioner with local government and community experience spanning over 20 years.