Andrea Goble

I’ve worked here at Community Waikato since May 2006. Before that I worked at the Funding Information Service for 15 years.

Born in Stratford, Taranaki, I moved to Wellington when I was still at primary school. My parents, Ngaire and Don and my sister and two brothers were Wellington based for many years but my parents are now retired in New Plymouth. My daughter and my son live in Wellington so I still have the links.

My tertiary education included teachers college, library studies through the National Library, a BA from Victoria University, a Certificate in Social Studies also from Victoria University and the Unitec Post-Graduate Diploma in Not-for-Profit Management.

I believe learning keeps you young and open minded and I have done many other courses. In fact, you could call me the perennial student! I learn so much from the people I work with, the work I do, and the challenges I face and as well as from my failures.

Following my time training as a teacher I taught for three years in Wellington, two years in Sydney, and I did some relief teaching in Canada and in London. I travelled for five years in the 1970s and I met amazing people in 27 countries. That was a learning experience like no other and I am grateful for the many wonderful people I met, the experiences and adventures.

After five years travelling I settled back in Wellington and worked for 12 years at the Wellington Public Library firstly training and then providing services to housebound and sight impaired people and running the Wellington Learning Exchange. Working in this area of service gave me lots of community and continuing education involvement and the beginning of a passion for the sector.

In 1989 I took a job at the QEII Arts Council (now Creative NZ) as a resource officer for 18 months, followed by contracts at the Employment Equity Commission and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. Then, with funding and support from the Roy McKenzie Foundation I set up Funding Information Service which produces the FundView, BreakOut and CorporateCitizens databases and is a financially self-sustaining community organisation.

I have a passion for making information accessible to people and I hope my work here in the Waikato helps our community organisations to achieve sustainable infrastructure, processes and funding. I hope that together we can build the profile and voices of the sector and work to create an informed and equitable society. Somewhere in there I also like to find time for hanging out with friends, travel, reading, chocolate and shoes!