Important community hub gets new lease of life
Talking to Brian Eriksen will not only open your eyes to all the work that goes on to support those with disabilities in the region, but to the power of communal working. As General Manager of the Taranaki Disabilities Information Centre Trust, Brian has spent 28 years working to improve the lives of people living with disabilities.
“We’re here for all the people of Taranaki with disabilities to help facilitate their needs and provide information. We are the first point of contact to help people access what they need - we can direct them to the exact place they need to be, so people aren’t chasing their tails,” said Brian.
“Our core business is to provide information for those who need support and to lead on the Taranaki disability strategy. From this work follows many other strands of work, focused on specialist equipment, assisted technology, and various committees; for example, to advance disability transport options and accessibility within the area.”
The building on Young Street was originally gifted to the disability community of Taranaki around 35 years ago, so the Taranaki Disability Information Centre Trust was formed then. There are 62 groups that are affiliated to the centre, and 9 field officers working directly in the building, creating a large network dedicated to supporting, and working for, those with disabilities in the region.
“Our aim is to provide a space for all disability groups to work in at a low cost allowing them to utilise our space and meeting rooms. Having a building as a base to work from is key to the services we provide, because it’s really a community hub that benefits everyone.”
Around 16,000 people use the services offered by the centre each year, a large proportion of this being face to face advice, or meetings that take place in the building itself. “We’ve been able to look a?er the building quite well with the limited funding we receive, however, we reached the point where we needed to modernise a few things so that all the groups can continue to benefit from using the space.”
The latest grant of $99,200 will help the Taranaki Disabilities Information Centre make alterations to the entrance to create be?er access for equipment, upgrade their meeting rooms, improve the building signage, install new accessible toilets and carry out other general updates to the building to rejuvenate the centre.
“It’s going to be a modern community hub that will be used by local people for the next 30 years, so this really is a long term investment with a huge impact. We’ve been very fortunate to have an ongoing relationship with TSB Community Trust, they have supported us with numerous things in the past, without them the whole Taranaki community would be a lot worse off that’s for sure.”