Summer Times hit by end of job schemes

Press, 21 February 1986, Page 5

Summer Times hit by end of job schemes

Summer Times and the Arts Employment Scheme are two casualties of the Government’s decision to phase out temporary employment schemes by October.

The future of the free Summer Times festival, organised by temporary Project Employment Programme workers employed by the Christchurch City Council was uncertain, said the Summer Times controlling supervisor, Ms Mary Williams.

The organisation, planning, promotion and technical expertise was done by the 33 P.E.P. workers employed under the Summer Times programme. Their wages have been paid by the Labour Department under the P.E.P. scheme. Without that funding the programme had lost a source of income, said Ms Williams.

The budget for this year’s Summer Times programme was about $350,000. P.E.P. workers’

wages were a main part of that amount. Summer Times festivals had employed more than 70 people in the last three years. The majority of those people had gained further employment or had taken up further study on leaving the programme, said Ms Williams.

Staff employed to organise the festival acquired important work skills that helped equip them for a wide variety of jobs.

“They learn how the local body system works, and how to deal with the business community, as well as developing communication skills in public relations and teamwork,” she said. Summer Times staff were preparing a report on the festival which would be presented to the Christchurch City Council’s cultural and public relations committee in March. Ms Williams said she expected the council to consider how much

support the programme would receive next year. At the moment, staff were also considering various options for the festival next year.

One was to hold the festival on a smaller scale. Another was to try to involve the community as much as possible in the organisation and active participation in the festival. Many community groups, however, already gave much of their time to support the festival, said Ms Williams. Service club members voluntarily supervised the car-park-ing and rubbish-collection arrangements, and “generally kept an eye on things," she said. This year’s Summer Time’s festival had been the most successful of the three previous festivals, mainly because of public participation in the organised events, said Ms Williams.

“People are more familiar with the concept that the festival is free and

freely available to everyone,” she said. “Evening programmes were particularly successful and the atmosphere was always warm and friendly.”

The business community had also been • more supportive this year than in previous years. Their contribution could not be measured just in cash, as they had also provided invaluable goods and services, said Ms Williams. The popularity of the festival had snowballed to such an extent that it would be a pity to end the festival now, she said. The other casualty of the phasing-out of the temporary work schemes is the Arts Employment Scheme.

Many of the free entertainment programmes organised for the summer months, which Christchurch people had come to take tor granted, would be lost once the P.E.P. scheme was phased out, sid the co-ordinator of the scheme, Mr Martin

McPherson. Those events which would be affected included the annual Spring’s Here festival, and the Out to Lunch entertainment programme at the Arts Centre. Many of the regular visits by the trainee actors to schools, old people’s homes, and Christchurch Women’s Prison for performances would be lost, said Mr McPherson. The Theatre in Education programme which toured the South Island would also have to end.

Mr McPherson said the scheme had helped to develop those skills which people already had. The actors and artists were employed for six months and then “let loose” into the community to survive on their own.

Of the 350 people who have been employed under the progrmame in the last four years, more than 65 per cent were still working in the arts and entertainment field, said Mr McPherson.