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Spectrum Care

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Spectrum Care

Every person with a disability deserves a life of choice, freedom and independence. We provide services to help make that happen. What’s our work?

At Spectrum Care, ours is no ordinary job. Many of the people we support are non-verbal, but they have plenty to say if you know how to listen. More than a few have substantial physical challenges to meet. Many of the families we work with have been tested to the limits before we even meet them. Their strength, their resilience and their love for the people we are asked to support is without question, as is the respect we have for them. To help identify the unique potential in every one of the people we support, then lend a hand to help them realise it. No matter how complex someone’s challenges may be, they are worthy and they are of immense value. In our books, to not see this is the true disadvantage.

17/12/2025

We couldn’t end the year without sharing these beautiful portraits from our Makatoa Christmas Party. 📸🎄

Makatoa is our Aspirations service in Onehunga. It supports people with disabilities to build life skills and take part in their communities on their own terms.

We’re so proud of this service, and of all our services, for the mahi they’ve done this year. For continuing to show that people aren’t disabled by who they are, but by the spaces, systems, and expectations built around them. When those change, everything else can too.

Meri Kirihimete e te whānau. Have a safe and restful holiday season, and we’ll see you in 2026. ⭐

08/12/2025

This year’s Pasifika Christmas Party was as beautiful as ever. 🌺

Bright clothes. Kai from the islands. A live band. A dance group from the University of Auckland who lifted the whole room. Everywhere you looked, a moment was happening that mattered to someone.

Our staff give Spectrum its heart. They share with the people we support the gift of connecting with their culture, or experiencing something new. That is the current that moves through our people, connecting us to each other and to something that cannot be explained, only felt.

Fa’afetai tele lava to everyone who made the day what it was. 💙

04/12/2025

Diwali brought light into our services this year. ✨

For many of our Indian kaimahi, and the Indian people we support, it meant something to see their culture reflected in the place they live and work.

And what made the celebration even more meaningful? The fact that it was staff who shaped it. They wanted to honour the traditions, identities, and stories that our people carry, and that’s exactly what they did.

Our community brought together food, decorations, tradition, and curiosity, creating a space where the spirit of Diwali could be shared with everyone.

That’s what belonging looks like. When the cultures within our community become part of who we are.

02/12/2025

Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The theme this year is ‘Fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress’. It’s a big phrase, but for us, it comes down to something simple: holding two truths at once.

We’ve made progress.

And we still have a long way to go.

In Aotearoa, one in six of us are disabled. Our friends, our colleagues, our whānau. People whose experience of the world is shaped not by their disability, but by barriers that should never have been there. Barriers that have pushed disabled people toward homelessness, poorer health outcomes, and limited opportunities. The world is still built for the abled individual, and that reality has become everyone’s reality.

But naming what’s broken isn’t enough. If we stay there, hope disappears. And we’ve come too far to only come this far. Progress continues in the choices we make every day. In how we design services. In how we centre lived experience. In how willing we are to challenge thinking that should have been left behind years ago. These choices are the difference between a society that includes people and a society that simply tolerates them.

This is where our mahi lives. Not in grand statements, but in the daily work of making inclusion real. Because inclusion isn’t a slogan or a once-a-year acknowledgement. Inclusion is practice. It’s discipline. It’s who we choose to be when no one is watching.

Today isn’t about celebration. It’s about responsibility. It’s about refusing a world where disabled people still have to fight for what others receive without question. It’s about choosing progress even when the system makes it hard.

A truly inclusive society is built in the everyday.

And we choose to keep building it.

01/12/2025

Our annual Touch Tournament took place at Campbell Park a few weeks ago and it was such a stunner of a day! 🏉

Kaimahi and the people we support spent weeks training and it all came together on the field with plenty of teamwork, sunshine and friendly competition.

South walked away with the win again this year but every region put on a show and kept the games close! 🏆

A big mihi to everyone who came along, shared kai, cheered from the sidelines and made the day what it was.

25/11/2025

Te Wai Kahukura Atawhai, our kapa haka rōpū made up of tāngata whaikaha we support, now has 17 members and growing.

This rōpū has been a long time coming. For years, people we support and kaimahi have wanted a kapa haka space that truly belonged to them. With a dedicated kaiako now in place, that vision is here.

Every week, the group comes together to learn waiata and haka, understand their stories, and build confidence in their culture. People who have not always had access to these spaces now have one that centres them, reflects them and supports them.

We are so proud of this kaupapa, and even more proud of the people in it. Strengthening your identity and stepping into cultural learning takes courage, especially when these spaces have not always been accessible. This group shows up every week, and that commitment speaks for itself. 💙

23/11/2025

Mabel Sauvao is the one who changes the world to meet the person.

She is a Community Support Worker in a home of women who communicate and regulate in their own ways. And instead of asking them to adjust to the world, Mabel adjusts the world to them.

Her approach did not come from training alone. It came from life. Disability is woven through her family. Down syndrome. Autism. Epilepsy. Mental health. Not concepts. People she knows and loves.

“It’s very close to home. So, I don’t see disability as something unusual. It’s just part of life. We all adapt to each other every day.”

When something isn’t working, she does not push harder on the same method. She redesigns the method.

There was a woman who constantly ripped her clothes as a form of sensory regulation. Instead of trying to stop it, Mabel worked with a tailor to make custom jumpsuits that wrap safely around her body. Clothing that could be removed without tearing. Clothing designed for the way she experiences the world.

“That was an important moment for me. It reminded me that people aren’t the problem. The environment is. And we can change the environment.”

The same woman drops to her knees many times a day to regulate. So Mabel had knee padding sewn into her leggings.

Small changes. Profound impact.
All because she paid attention.

“I have learned that communication isn’t one thing. Sometimes it’s words. Sometimes it’s signing. Sometimes it’s pictures. Sometimes it’s a look. And sometimes it’s behaviour. If we slow down, we can see what is actually being communicated.”

And that is what she has become known for. Her ability to slow down and look for possibility in places most people rush past.

“It has changed me. I’m more patient. More observant. I appreciate the smallest moments. I understand now that goals can take time. But time isn’t a problem.”

What she wishes the world understood is simple.

“Don’t judge someone by what you think you’re seeing. Get to know them. We all have strengths. We all have weaknesses. And we all communicate. Some just do it differently.”

This is what support looks like when the world shifts to meet the person. When we stop forcing people into one way of being. When we see behaviour not as something to manage, but as something to understand.

Mabel is proof the magic is not in control.
It is in bending.
In choosing to meet someone where they are, not where the world thinks they should be.

That is how change happens.
One person at a time.
One adaptation at a time.
Until the world is the one doing the changing.

17/11/2025

Community starts with a conversation.

A kōrero between one of our kaimahi and the Oratia Bowling Club team turned into a community bowls day with the people we support, local school kids, and a few partners who showed up and got involved.

The sun stayed out as bowls rolled across the green, with plenty of laughs, cheering, and people giving it a go. West Wave Pool and Leisure Centre donated the goodie bags, the club purchased tees that were screen printed by our Makatoa Aspirations, and the club’s Coca-Cola rep donated socks, a bluetooth speaker, and a smartwatch for prizes.

A lot can grow from a single conversation when communities welcome each other in. ☀️

12/11/2025

What an incredible day at this year’s InterAct Festival 2025! 🎭

A bunch of people we support (and some of our awesome support workers) came along to enjoy a day full of art, performance, and connection.

From handmade artworks and live music to face painting and costumes, creativity was everywhere you looked! One of the highlights was watching Vikae, one of our Community Facilitators, share her ethereal voice on stage. 🎤

A huge mihi to Interacting Auckland for creating a space where everyone belongs. 💙

09/11/2025

Most people assume this happened generations ago.

It didn’t.

New Zealand’s last disability institution only closed in 2006. Disabled people alive in Aotearoa today grew up inside places like that. Many of the people we support did.

For generations, disabled people were kept separate and out of sight, shaped by colonial values that decided who deserved to belong and who did not. Closing those buildings marked the beginning of change. But the attitudes that built them do not vanish on a calendar date. They linger in systems, assumptions, and everyday life.

As we work towards a better future, we must remember the past we came from, and that for many, the past is still the present.

📜 Read more about Aotearoa’s disability history here:
https://www.disabilitysupport.govt.nz/disabled-people/resources-for-people-new-to-the-disability-community/a-brief-history-of-disability-in-aotearoa-new-zealand

02/11/2025

Our woodworking crew at the Aspirations Centre in Kumeū have been busy! 🔨

They’ve been building new garden boxes from scratch... measuring, cutting, sanding, and piecing it all together.

We’re getting them ready for summer planting (think tomatoes, lettuce, and strawberries 🍅🥬🍓). Perfect timing for the season change.

It’s a privilege to pass on skills that create growth, in the garden and in people. 🌱

28/10/2025

Each week, Braydan and others from our Aspirations centre in Kumeū volunteer at The NZ Cat Foundation.

It’s well known that spending time with furry friends can lift your mood... and from the way Braydan’s looking at his mate, you can’t deny it! 🐱

We’re so grateful for community partnerships like this one, giving tangata whaikaha opportunities to connect, contribute, and be part of something special.

Address

Level 2, 205 Great South Road, Greenlane
Auckland
1051

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 5pm
Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Wednesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm
Friday	8am - 5pm

Telephone

+6496343790

Website

https://www.spectrumcare.org.nz/

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Our Story

We’re an independent charitable trust that provides support for children, young people and adults with disabilities, and their families. Our services include 24-hour support for people living in residential homes throughout the Auckland and Waikato regions, respite support for adults in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, and respite support for children in Auckland. We also provide specialised Home support, Transitions support and Aspirations support for people in the greater Auckland region, along with a School Holiday Programme of activities for children. Our independent living support is specifically focused on empowering people to their lives of choice – lives like any other – in the community. We also offer a specialised Business Enterprises programme aimed at supporting people towards their employment goals. We believe in providing person-centred services and options that focus on individual needs. All our services support people to identify their personal goals and aspirations. These are developed into a personalised and achievable ‘Outcomes’ plan, which supports our service users to achieve their immediate and lifelong objectives. We support the principles of the New Zealand Disability Strategy and place great emphasis on the worth of the individual, personal growth and the provision of holistic support for people with disabilities. Open two-way communication and the development of community partnerships are integral to our philosophy.