Our Story
The Gore Kids Hub is an exciting development to boost the sustainability and success of several not-for-profit organisations which support families with pre-school children. Gore’s Toy Library, Parents Centre and Playcentre long ago recognised the benefits that they could gain by collaborating to provide their complimentary services to families in the same demographic. So when all three organisations found themselves needing a new home, sharing a premises was a logical step. But as Gore had no suitable location, in August 2014 the Gore Kids Hub Charitable Trust was born and set about building the Gore Kids Hub which officially opened its doors on 30 January 2016.
The plan was, to not only provide a permanent home for these organisations but include community rooms which will allow many more organisations to benefit. These rooms include a clinical consultation room, an office, and a meeting room, with a communal waiting area, bathroom and hand washing area along with the large Parents Centre space which has a projector, full kitchen and toilet facilities. All of these spaces are available for hire (free of charge for not-for-profit organisations).
To date (as of March 2017) a total of 21 different organisations have used, or are currently using, the facility. This includes everything from parenting classes to Stop Smoking drop in clinics. The building is proving to be a wonderful resource for the Eastern Southland Community.
On average a total of 150 families are at the Kids Hub on a weekly basis, many of them using more than one service, that they either previously didn't know about or was to difficult for them to access.
We always believed that the Kids Hub project was ground-breaking and very likely the way of the future for not-for-profit organisations who are finding it increasingly more difficult to raise the funds required to operate. Since opening in 2016 we have seen an increase in each of the founding organisations memberships which in turn means a decrease in fundraisers for operational costs - previously each of Playcentre, Parents Centre and Toy Library would run one fundraiser each a term, they now only doing 1 a year which takes a lot of pressure off the families involved and the community as a whole.
The plan was, to not only provide a permanent home for these organisations but include community rooms which will allow many more organisations to benefit. These rooms include a clinical consultation room, an office, and a meeting room, with a communal waiting area, bathroom and hand washing area along with the large Parents Centre space which has a projector, full kitchen and toilet facilities. All of these spaces are available for hire (free of charge for not-for-profit organisations).
To date (as of March 2017) a total of 21 different organisations have used, or are currently using, the facility. This includes everything from parenting classes to Stop Smoking drop in clinics. The building is proving to be a wonderful resource for the Eastern Southland Community.
On average a total of 150 families are at the Kids Hub on a weekly basis, many of them using more than one service, that they either previously didn't know about or was to difficult for them to access.
We always believed that the Kids Hub project was ground-breaking and very likely the way of the future for not-for-profit organisations who are finding it increasingly more difficult to raise the funds required to operate. Since opening in 2016 we have seen an increase in each of the founding organisations memberships which in turn means a decrease in fundraisers for operational costs - previously each of Playcentre, Parents Centre and Toy Library would run one fundraiser each a term, they now only doing 1 a year which takes a lot of pressure off the families involved and the community as a whole.
