The CDN Team
We have a fantastic team of youth & support workers with over 30 years combined youth work experience!
The new CDN Trust logo has been adapted from our original logo of people. CDN is still about people but our new logo represents the excitement and growth of both our young people and leaders. Additionally the shapes are stylised versions of the leaves of a tī kōuka (cabbage tree).
The tī kōuka was used extensively by Ngāi Tahu for both food and medicine. As the tree matures it also branches out. The tī kōuka was also used as a journey marker and has been noted for its exceptional resilience, no matter how much it is attacked.
For all of these reasons the tī kōuka represents CDN trust as we bring messages of life, hope and resilience to young people as they work through their personal journeys. As CDN enters its third decade we are ‘branching out’ with our Hope for the Children counselling fund and our new East-side projects.
CDN Trust – Our Christian Commitment
Adding Life to Life! We connect with a wide variety of young people and families. Some students are struggling at school, others need a holiday from family stresses, many need solid role models, some want to connect with new friends while others need links to careers, study options or local clubs. CDN is all about connecting with young people wherever they’re at and giving them great role models to journey with!
As a Christian organisation, we are motivated by a desire to serve our community. We see Christian values and ideals as an essential part of who we are and what we do. We strive to be very open about what, if any, spiritual content might be on a programme your young people are attending.
Just to make sure families are in the know, we came up with our “spiritual advisory system”. It sounds very official, but it’s really just a simple way of letting people know who we are.
CDN does work with churches. Through this we access a strong volunteer base and a wide range of facilities and equipment. Our church links give us quality people and reduced overheads. All CDN programmes and activities are services to the community for people in the community. No funding given to CDN is spent on church programmes for church members. Careful procedures are in place to prevent this.
Our main offices are shared with Riccarton Community Church (RCC). This is our home base and we are hugely supported by the RCC team and congregation. Our core values and statement of belief are also shared with RCC. More info available at rcc.co.nz
CDN programmes and activities are positive and holistic. We try to cater to the intellectual, social, physical and spiritual areas of life. We promote good morals and good character. We see ourselves as giving young people a spiritual option and an introduction to spiritual things. We aim to give young people enough information to be able to make up their own minds. For young people wanting to go further we are able to refer them to a large number of other groups. For those who don’t we aim to do all we can to help them in the other areas of life.
Our school-based services adhere strictly to boundaries set by schools. This typically means that our school-based youth workers do not proselytise within school settings, are required to seek prior approval before distributing promotional material and make sure young people and parents/caregivers are informed about spiritual content in out of school programmes we may promote.
Our Spirit Level system provides information and transparency to young people, parents and caregivers, teachers, donors and funders. The ratings describe the likely levels of spiritual content present in our programmes and activities. People are therefore able to make informed choices about participation and support. Spiritual Level ratings are displayed on flyers and other promotional material.