Varied Career Leads To Perfect Fit At Council

Tuesday, 31 December 2024, 3:54 pm
Article: Diane McCarthy - Local Democracy Reporter

February will mark Richard Hamer’s two-year anniversary as a council employee, which he described as “extremely busy, but lots of fun”.

Since moving to Whakatāne in the early 2000s, Mr Hamer has become well known in the district for his cheeky humour and for involving himself in a variety of community organisations, particularly anything that involves mountain biking.

Originally from Portsmouth, in England, he left school at a young age with low aspirations but turned his life around after becoming involved with a church youth group.

His experiences led to a life-long interest in youth work and he began voluntary work for his local city council, organising camps for children who had been abused.

A Diploma of Higher Education in Youth and Community Education and a Certificate in Education led to eight years as community education officer for the Cardiff County Council.

Traveling in Europe and Africa for international youth projects inspired him to look abroad for new challenges and New Zealand’s reputation as a great place to raise a family eventually brought him and his wife Angela, with their new baby, to Whakatāne.

The couple’s two children are now aged 21 and 23 but their dad is still enjoying this country’s great outdoors lifestyle.

Since moving here, he has held positions at Whakatane High School, Child Youth and Family, and even tried dairy farming. He worked for Eastern Bay REAP for four years, then returned to Whakatāne High as an adult and community education officer before joining New Zealand Police youth outreach organisation Blue Light, where he worked for eight years as the Whakatāne co-ordinator.

In between, he tried a few careers, studying to become a primary school teacher, starting up a coffee cart, “The Hitman” and even working part-time for the Beacon.

That varied career was a bonus when applying for his current role.

“A couple of years ago I saw the advert for the role of community safety advisor. It was predominantly running the Eastern Bay Road Safety Programme, which I’d been involved in for years though my involvement with cycling. It was also responding to homelessness in the Whakatāne district. When I was studying, back in the UK, I did my main academic paper on Attitudes and Responses to Homelessness.

“I worked in a homeless centre and in children’s homes. You got a real sense of what it is all about. Back then I had been quite taken with working in the homelessness field.

So, when the job came up, I was probably one of the only candidates that had experience in both road safety and in homelessness and had done some study in it as well.

“Part of my role is that I pull together a homelessness response group, which includes all our (council) departments, and we talk about what’s going on in the community and how we can respond to the issues and situations.

He said a lot of New Zealand’s homeless population was hidden.

“We see people in town on the street. We might see people who have mental health issues or drug addictions. People sometimes get fearful because of some of the behaviours that come from that.

But much of it is hidden homelessness that we don’t always see.

“The number of parents with kids living in cars is really quite disheartening. There are people who are working but living in vehicles. They’ve got no access to housing. They’ve got no deposit. The average rental price is like $640 a week which is a huge amount on any income.”

He describes his position as “full on”, and different every day.

“Actually, that really suits me, for where I’m at in my age, experiences and knowledge. II really enjoy it.”

One day he can be organising road safety campaigns, the next, in the bush, working alongside the police with homeless groups camping around reserves.

“We try to offer help, by providing details of where they might go to get support . Another part of it is looking at what the risks are. We’ve had fires on the escarpment in the past, caused by campfires.”

He said the council was a “really supportive organisation” to work for.

“The role I have in community safety - it fits in with every department, so I work right across the council.

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