\u201cThere\u2019s a real authenticity and humbleness to Willie,\u201d Rural Support Trust community connector Mike Green said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t stand on stage pretending to have all the answers. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe shares his experiences in a very genuine way, and that\u2019s what people connect with.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a lot of mana, and you can see the impact that has on people in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green said the first events, held in Timaru, Ashburton and Dunsandel, had already been \u201cincredibly successful\u201d.<\/p>\n
National Rural Support chairwoman Michelle Ruddell said the programme was about connection and creating space for honest conversations within rural communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cRural people are incredibly resilient, but that doesn\u2019t mean they should have to carry everything on their own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese events are about bringing people together and reminding people that support exists.<\/p>\n
Ruddell said she was proud of the number of organisations supporting the sessions. <\/p>\n
\u201cStrengthening our rural communities by supporting their wellbeing is something that belongs to all of us, and that\u2019s why it is so pleasing to see the collaboration for these events.\u201d<\/p>\n
The free gatherings are recommended for attendees aged 16 years and over and will include opportunities for informal conversation before and after the keynote session.<\/p>\n
Further regional details and ticketing information will be released separately by individual Rural Support Trust regions.<\/p>\n
For more information, visit the Rural Support Trust website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s a real authenticity and humbleness to Willie,\u201d Rural Support Trust community connector Mike Green said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[228014,1038,40750,1259,17353,3685,15144,2082,2740,12022,111,43,139,69,88478,34293,53113,3175,1963,5764,1886,61,9438,2821,1297,132178],"class_list":["post-447277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-apiata","tag-brings","tag-communities","tag-community","tag-cross","tag-events","tag-featuring","tag-for","tag-former","tag-host","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzsas","tag-preparing","tag-recipient","tag-rural","tag-series","tag-soldier","tag-support","tag-to","tag-trust","tag-victoria","tag-wellbeing","tag-willie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}