Dave Tims – Dave lives in Randwick Park, Manurewa, South Auckland with his wife Denise. Dave is a trained Primary School Teacher and Counselor who has worked with communities in Aotearoa for over 20 years. He and Denise have been caregivers with CYPFS and the Open Home Foundation before they joined UNOH in 2009.
“People like you, don’t move into streets like that”, said the real estate agent. Street gangs, graffiti, violence, drugs were the old narrative that belonged to Randwick Park, Manurewa. If a certain narrative is repeated, it is reinforced. Words create worlds.
In an attempt to change the narrative of Randwick Park, Dave and Denise began looking for heroes, for local people who were doing good. What they found was an abundance of amazing people concerned about what was going on in their neighbourhoods; for the state of the parks, for young people and for the problems of alcohol abuse and domestic violence.