Last week, we had 3 amazing volunteers from Runacres Insurance kick off our Kōmanawa garden project with a working bee! 🙌🏽
The team helped us clear the area by moving plants and wheeling away piles of bricks! They also showed off their keen painting skills in the shed 🎨
Tino pai, Runacres! Thank you so much for your help 🙏🏽
We have more working bees and garden updates to come so stay tuned, whānau! 👀🤗
21/07/2025
We are officially the chosen charity for the 2025 Christchurch Schools' Music Festival! 🥳
This amazing festival, dedicated to developing young musical talent, has been around for an incredible 80 years - some members of our staff and Board even recall participating in their youth, making this collaboration even more special! ✨
We are so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this awesome event for Christchurch tamariki - ngā mihi Christchurch Schools' Music Festival 💛
We are pleased to announce that the chosen charity for the 2025 Music Festival is Home & Family Home & Family Charitable Trust
Home & Family supports tamariki, rangatahi, parents and whānau in Canterbury who have experienced family violence, abuse, or neglect. Established in 1898, originally as the 'Society for the Protection of Women and Children,' Home & Family has since evolved to provide child-led support. This means that all tamariki are heard, respected, and valued in the wake of family violence - giving them voice in creating a safer future.
Their vision is that all tamariki experience a safe and positive childhood, meaning they are protected from harm, can thrive, and live in homes with whānau who cherish them.
They offer a variety of services, such as parenting programmes, trauma-focused psychology, child therapy, and youth mentoring. To help children live childhoods free from violence, abuse, and neglect – make a donation to their mahi today/visit their website today. https://www.homeandfamily.net.nz/donate/
Yesterday, we kicked off our first Safe & Together Institute 4-Day CORE Training for 2025 🙌🏽
We are thrilled with the turnout, but even more thrilled to hear that some participants have already utilised the strategies learned on Day 1 with their clients! 👏🏽
Shout out to YouthHub CHCH for the awesome venue 📢💛
15/07/2025
We're thrilled to share our latest funders! Together, we’re working toward a world where every childhood is free from violence, abuse, and neglect 💙
A HUGE thank you to:
✨ The Tindall Foundation
✨ Aotearoa Gaming Trust
✨ Pub Charity
✨ Kiwi Gaming Foundation
You make our mahi possible - ngā mihi nui 💛🧡
14/07/2025
A huge thanks to the team at CARTERS Building Supplies for their generous donation of fence palings for our Kōmanawa garden project 🌺🌷🌻
Your support means we can build a safe and welcoming outdoor space where tamariki can play, learn, and enjoy time in nature. We’re so grateful to have you behind us as we bring this project to life!
Ngā mihi nui 💚
01/07/2025
Meerkat catch up! 🏆
Huge congrats to our meerkats for April/May and June - Zara and Rachelle! 🙌🏽
Both Zara and Rachelle's amazing mahi and awesome personalities were mentioned as reasons why they were chosen - ka pai, ladies! 👏🏽
13/06/2025
A massive shout out to the Cashmere High School - Te iringa o Kahukura Uniform Shop for the large donation of school uniform supplies! 👔
We received just under $8000 worth of generic merino socks, sports tops, shorts and hoodies - ALL super helpful items to give out to whānau! Thanks so much to Cashmere High for their generous support. 🧡
29/05/2025
The wellbeing committee at Christchurch Girls' High School are running a raffle to raise funds for Home & Family! 😍
$4 per ticket
$10 for 3 tickets
(each prize is up for grabs separately, so a winner will be drawn for each)
Themed around their upcoming Junior Formal, here's the full list of prizes.
🎁$100 voucher - Westend Jewellery
🎁$80 voucher - Rent with Iz (dress rental)
🎁$100 voucher - Tan in the city (tanning salon)
🎁$75 voucher - Designer collection (dress rental)
🎁$60 voucher - New Regent St Nails
🎁2 x $50 voucher - Bronzed Goddess (tanning salon)
🎁5 x $20 voucher - Riverside Market
🎁1x 12-pack doughnuts + 1x premium cake - Original food co
Cash or online banking only - if you're keen to buy a raffle ticket (or tickets!) comment below or message us for more info! Thanks again to CGHS for the support 🙌🏽
23/05/2025
The building works for Kōmanawa, our soon-to-be children's centre, are nearing completion! 🎉
"Kōmanawa" was a name gifted to us a few years ago by our Board Trustee, Te Kauri: "A kōmanawa is like a spring or an oasis. It can be a peaceful spot of respite that offers a chance to rest and just take a moment."
We first used this name to encompass our Parenting services, but moving forward, we feel it's the perfect name for our children's centre - an "oasis" for all of our clients. 🍃
To honour their large contribution to these works, we now have a Rātā Foundation plaque in our Client Waiting Room, officially commemorating the name of our centre and its biggest supporter! 🙌🏽
Thanks also to:
👏🏽 Miles Construction for all of their awesome mahi on both our children's centre and main building so far!
👏🏽 Sharp Signs for the plaque installation
👏🏽 Darryl (and his wonderful Uncle!) for laying the carpet
09/05/2025
Moogy and the team paid a special visit to St Martins School today!✨
St Martins School pupils and their whānau took part in City2Surf earlier this year and chose to donate the $605 funds they raised to Home & Family! We were so humbled by their kind donation that we joined their senior assembly today to present them with a special certificate to say THANK YOU! 👏🏽
Ngā mihi, St Martins School 🙌🏽
22/04/2025
We are so sad to hear of the passing of a valued, former Home & Family team member, Rudolph Diaz. Rudolph was our Refocus Team Leader from 2017 - 2020.
A message from Val & the team:
"Fly high, Rudolph.
Your wisdom, compassion and strength will be truly missed.
Your friends at Home & Family send aroha to those you loved the most."
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All children should believe that they can reach for the stars
Home & Family are the springboard for children to reach for the stars.
Home & Family/Te Whare Manaaki Tangata has been in Christchurch for over 120 years. Originally known as ‘The Society for the Protection of Women and Children’, it has consistently adapted to meet the needs of the community. We believe that all children should live in homes where they are safe, cherished and where their potential is nurtured.
Why “Reach for the Stars”?
Reach for the stars means that all children should have the confidence and tools to fulfil their potential. We support children so that they regain their sense of self-belief and their confidence. We help families/whānau to understand the importance of attachment, why a child might be behaving in a certain way, as well as understanding their stages of development and how adversity such as family violence can affect a child’s wellbeing.
The welfare of children is central to everything we do, today we provide the following services:
We provide a parenting programme, which helps keep families together by giving parents skills in safe, effective and nurturing parenting. It is a residential programme which runs 24/7, 365 days a year and typically families stay for two months, although there is no time limit. Very often we work with families where out of home placements are being considered for the children. Research shows children are better off in the care of their parents; Home & Family is committed to keeping children in the care of their parents wherever possible.
We offer counselling for children, youth and couples, but specialise in work with children, offering play therapy for children as young as three. 98% of our referrals are for children and youth, with abuse and family violence being our most common referral reason.
Our Refocus programme offers a child-focused intervention, which aims to break cycles that can result in young people entering the youth justice system. The programme is a holistic service which recognises how the ’bigger picture’ contributes to young individuals becoming offenders and works with the whole whānau for up to five years. The team’s ability to work alongside whānau who live with inter-generational complexity is widely valued within our community.
Integrated Safety Response (ISR) is a multi-agency project that focuses on the joined-up support and services that families, including victims and perpetrators, receive following family violence reported to NZ Police and high-risk prison releases in Christchurch. It tests a new approach to making sure families experiencing violence get the help they need from family violence services.
Each of the services we provide is unique, but take a vital place in the landscape of social services available in Canterbury.
