About the Building Extension

Plans for a New Extension for the Kapiti Women’s Centre

Over the years the number of women and children using the Centre has grown dramatically. To the year ended 31 December 2010, 7,904 women and children visited the Centre to access services and support. The number of women and children using the Centre has increased by 48% in the past 5 years and this increase impacts in a number of areas.

• Counselling: The demand for the free counselling service continues to increase. An additional counselling room would enable us to significantly improve the ability for women on the Kapiti Coast to access this service.
• Education programme: The size of the current meeting room limits the number of women who are able to take part in the courses offered and many courses offered are over subscribed. We would be able to offer more women the opportunity to enhance their education and learn new skills.
• Quiet areas to offer support: In the past year 1,100 women came to the Centre for support. This is a time when women need and deserve a quiet space and privacy. The planned alteration to the current building would provide 3 additional private and quiet spaces.
• Crèche: The Centre offers child care facilities for women who attend courses. It is therefore vital that this area of the Centre is maintained for the use of the children.
• Facilities: There is one bathroom at the Centre which creates long waiting times when there are many visitors at the Centre. The bathroom is also used to carry out pregnancy tests and is used as a baby changing room.
• Storage: There is one cupboard in the Centre. The new building will have a storage room.
• Community space: Use by community groups is again limited by the size of the meeting room. A larger space would provide the community with another useful meeting space.

The collective at the Kapiti Women’s Health Collective Inc propose to erect a new building on the current site. The new building will contain a larger meeting room, storage and an additional toilet. The current building will be reconfigured to provide an additional counselling room and more quiet spaces.

Funding the project:

It will be a multi faceted task to raise adequate funds for this project. The Collective has been raising funds for the past two years.  We anticipate that this project will be completed for use by the middle of 2012.