A community centre that supports the region’s women and their whānau is facing closure if it can’t cover an $80k funding shortfall.
Trafalgar St’s Nelson Women’s Centre has been operating since the 1970s, providing low-cost counselling, social work services, food support and workshops for the region’s women. It’s also a space where women can simply drop in for a tea or coffee and unwind.
In 2023, close to 3500 women came through the doors, but if the centre can’t find $80,000 soon, it may not be able to help anymore.
Manager Maria Busching says the fact that they are open to all, means they often miss out on funding because they don’t have a specialised area.
She says there is now a systematic lack of stable funding.
“We have shifted to a time where its all very specialised, you have to have a special purpose in order to attract funding, so the Women’s Centre has had structural issues and funding shortfalls just because of the nature of our service.
“There is also not that much funding out there for operational costs and, as a community centre, all we have is operational costs.
Operational costs include wages for the centre’s five staff and Maria says there has been a reasonably high turnover of staff because of the lack of stable funding.
“The wages are quite low, and with rising costs people can’t afford to stay on the same pay level so there has been a relatively high staff turnover.”
Maria says, over the past year they have helped women with ongoing issues including housing, mental health, and relationship breakdowns. They are also seeing more referrals from GPs.
“Sometimes women have had a breakup over the weekend and are in a state of shock come Monday. Maybe they don’t have the support network and they don’t know where to turn. We can help them or direct them to other services.”
Maria says sometimes they are just not ready to share their problem with their close circle.
“Sometimes people just need a listening ear. The centre is a safe and supportive place for all women in Nelson, their children, families and non-binary people as well,” Maria says.
A special general meeting will take place on Thursday for the governance committee to consider options for the centre.
Maria says if people can’t donate money, they could consider renting one of the centre’s rooms or meeting spaces, or attending a workshop.
Donations can be made here.
