Bulletin

Friday 11 June

Mapping Wellington Services

 Last week, Downtown Community Ministry (DCM) and the Soup Kitchen hosted The Crypt, Courtenay’s, Sillwaters, The Clubhouse, The Hope Centre drop-in centre, and Wellington City Mission drop-in centre for afternoon tea at the Soup Kitchen dining room.

The common link between attendees is that all they provide a range of “drop-in” type services such as meals, hospitality, day rehabilitation and social interaction.

The meeting was an ideal opportunity to discuss issues and gaps; to network, and look at ways to improve current services. 

Philippa Meachen, manager of the Soup Kitchen says, “It was great bringing different providers together, it gave a better understanding of the services we each offer. It was really helpful finally putting faces to names, and people to organisations”.

“Wellington has a strong history of agency collaboration, and this is a great example of this in action”.

Discussion highlighted Wellington City’s wide range of services and social opportunities on offer for the community, but noted there is less available on Sundays when Catacombs is the only option.  There also appears to be fewer social occasions on offer for families.  The participants agreed they want to be able to provide more value-added services for their communities, particularly as there is an overlap of service users between the agencies.

Stephanie McIntyre, director of DCM says, “For us, the biggest service gap we continue to see is the lack of affordable housing available in Wellington City”.

The centres are keen to meet again to keep building connections and work on providing a wider range of services.

ends
 

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