VisionWest Community Trust

VisionWest Community Trust has been offering community-based services to people in West Auckland since the 1980’s. The Trust was formally incorporated as the Friendship Centre Trust in 1988 in response to a growing desire of the Glen Eden Baptist Church to help those in need in the local community. The Trust started out small with a drop-in centre at the Glen Eden Railway Station as a place where friendships were formed. The Trust responded to the needs present in the community and grew to be one of the largest community based Trusts in West Auckland.

Now, we have expanded our Homecare to reach beyond West Auckland, across the city, to Rotorua, and Hamilton. And we offer Housing services in Christchurch as well. We still have a huge heart for West Auckland and all our services are based in our one campus in Glen Eden. Apart from Homecare and Community Housing, the team works with people through Training & Education, Counselling, Social Work Support, Chaplaincy, Financial Literacy and Budgeting Support, and Community Banks (Food, Curtains, and School Uniforms) and Op Shop.

At VisionWest, we continually review our services and, in 2015, one of our strategic priorities has become launching a more holistic model of care to support people we work with, namely, the Whanau Centre. Whether it’s working with a child in the Kindergarten, a Young person at the Training Centre or an adult seeking Counselling, there is a whole family and community that sits alongside this person. When the appropriate resources are allocated to support people, the whole family and community can be connected together to become part of the journey towards a better future. Working with the whole family and linking with the community is part of bringing transformational change and is central to VisionWest’s Vision and Values.