Women’s centre closes doors
The Nelson Women’s Centre is shutting its decades-long drop-in service, citing a lack of funding.
But the centre’s governance committee hoped to offer a “more targeted” service from the Trafalgar St centre later this year.
Insufficient funding over the last five years had led to a run of deficits that had depleted the centre’s financial reservoirs, committee chairperson Angela Tait said.
The committee could no longer afford the centre’s $250,000 yearly running costs, and had to make the difficult decision to let its manager, social worker and administrator go, Tait said.
The centre would close to “casual visitors” from Monday, but its counselling service would still be available via appointment, and potentially activities run by volunteers like workshops, she said. “We’ve closed through lack of funds while we re-strategise ... to look at a more market-fit strategic plan that we can take to funders.”
The Nelson Women’s Centre was the only women’s centre in New Zealand that owned the building it operated out of, Tait said. When the centre opened on the site in the 1990s, there were five organisations working together.
“We have this asset that we know we have to maintain and protect. “We are very much thinking who are we ... how can we be more relevant ... how can we best serve women in our community?”
At a Special General Meeting on February 8, the centre’s members and wider community members “gave the strong message” that they wanted the centre to undertake a full strategic review about the centre’s place in the “Nelson ‘jigsaw puzzle’ of organisations and services”, a letter from the committee to members last week said.
Next week, the committee would meet with “key women” who were at the coal face of organisations that were supporting women and families, to identify any gaps in the centre’s services, Tait said.
The committee hoped to consult with members and the community and take a plan to a broader range of corporate donors and private foundations for funding, within the next six months, she said.
Last year, 3500 women contacted the centre for services including social work, food support, counselling, relationship and domestic violence support, and workshops on a range of life skills.
Tait said the funding landscape for community groups had become “more and more challenging”, amid growing competition.
Government grants had decreased, while an increasing number of funders were interested only in funding specific projects, but not everyday operating expenses, which were rising, the committee said.
Last month, the centre warned in a newsletter that it faced closure unless it managed to raise at least $80,000 by April.
Tait said the shortfall acted as the catalyst for change.
“We kind of realised the funding we have in our coffers at the moment, it’s not enough to go for the year. We had to stop, and just reduce services and we had to keep money in the bank to pay for rates, insurances, all the running costs ... while we strategise.”
A Givealittle page had raised more than $1500 and an individual fundraiser about $3000, but a more sustainable funding programme was needed, Tait said. “We [committee members] are meeting at least once a week to ... get this place back on its feet.”
Nelson MP Rachel Boyack said the centre may have to make some tough decisions about which of its services were critical.
But the community and government agencies needed to make sure they were supporting the centre to remain open, with “a drop-in element” , she said.
Nelson mayor Nick Smith said the women’s centre was an important part of the social services network in Nelson.
“Council is keen to work with them on a recovery plan. We provided them with $23,000 of grant funding last year, [we] recognise they may need to reconfigure their services, and are open to receiving further funding applications when they have finalised their future direction.”