IHC

Community workshops will develop local approach

March 9, 2021

Close to 50 community workshops will be held by May to develop local approaches to services around the country. This is part of the National Services Review by IDEA Services.

“We recognise that no two communities are the same, and so it is crucial that we understand what is important in your area. Our goal with these workshops is to develop a localised approach for people with intellectual disabilities,” says IDEA Services Chief Operating Officer Joan Cowan.

Charlie’s lifetime crusade is over

March 9, 2021

Charlie Waigth was a lifetime crusader for his daughter Catherine and for people with intellectual disabilities throughout the country.

Charlie died in Auckland on 9 November 2020 at the age of 96, after working for 50 years with IHC.

It was a personal crusade at first. Charlie and Mary’s daughter Catherine was born in 1961 with Down syndrome. They were living in Takapau in southern Hawke’s Bay when Catherine turned five, and there were no services for her. Charlie set out to change that.

It’s time for more ‘pay experience’

March 9, 2021

Debbie Kennedy has done years of work experience in hospitality and customer service with little pay to show for it. She estimates half of the work she has done has been unpaid.

Work experience can be a trap for people with disabilities if it never leads to ‘pay experience’.

IHC recently tried a new approach to see if Debbie Kennedy, a 24-year-old Dunedin woman, could finally break through the job barrier.

Disabled artists welcomed to the heart of the art scene

March 9, 2021

Disabled artists came out of lockdown and into the heart of the New Zealand art scene – selling more art than ever before.

Thanks to a brainwave of IHC Art Awards Ambassador Dame Denise L’Estrange Corbet, the three top works in the 2020 IHC Art Awards were auctioned live at Webb’s art auctioneers in Auckland, in association with a WORLD Legacy Charity Project event called Artists 4 Artists.

A place to call home for those hardest hit

March 9, 2021

Last year marked the 10th anniversary of the creation of IHC’s property company, Accessible Properties.

Accessible Properties’ first day of operation was 1 July 2010, and as IHC Chief Executive Ralph Jones put it at the time, it signalled “IHC’s intention to increase its participation in the social housing market and provide accommodation for people who struggle to find somewhere to live because of health or disability issues”.

Bike repair shop has the answer

March 9, 2021

You can’t get a greener, more sustainable scheme than the Bike Project, run by the bike repair guys at Mersey Street, Invercargill.

The team at the IDEA Services day base collect old bikes, fix them up and pass them on to people who need them. They recycle and reuse bikes that would otherwise go to the landfill, encouraging people to use pedal power rather than motor vehicles. They also hope to gain skills that might lead to future employment.