Helping Families, Helping Kids

Family Support Centre Project

What Are We Doing? – The Project

Catholic Social Services supports more than 300 families a year with a variety of services to help home to be a good place for kids to grow up. The demand for our services keep growing and to meet that need we are planning to build a new Family Support Facility in partnership with The Sisters of Mercy at 25 Broughton St South Dunedin. So we can help more kids by helping more families like the stories below.

The cost of this project is around $1,400,000, but with two thirds of the funding in place, we are well on the way to making this a reality.

We are now inviting others to join us in making a difference for the next generation by making a donation towards this awesome opportunity.

Donate to Our Project!

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Fundraising Progress

You can help – We have a good start in our fundraising to reach our ambitious goal but we need more help. If you would like to dontate then simply click on the button below. We’ll update our progress on here so you can follow along with us!

Donate Now

Funds received so far from:
♥ J Egerton est ♥ J Baker Eames estate ♥ Otago Community Trust
♥ Alexander Macmillan ♥ AAWJones ♥ Private donors

A Little Story

Not that many years ago a baby was born to a young mum, a mum that most people thought had not much hope of succeeding. However those people had not taken into account the value of the dedicated support of the CSS staff or the importance of the services CSS provides. Today that mum is on the way to living life well and her kids know what it is to be supported, to be loved and to be cared for. It has not been a particularly easy road to get here, as this mums own childhood was not that flash, but she has shown herself time and again to be so much more than what those people thought she was capable of and with the support of CSS her kids have a better chance of living their own live’s well.

The Project In Detail

This building will provide a base for more staff to engage with families and work on plans together to live life well. It will also provide lots of space for groups the CSS run, such as Playgroups for Mums and dads, parenting courses and individual support services to help mums and dads develop their skills as parents and brings smiles back to kids faces.

The Building is being built by Genius Homes and the landscaping will encourage the wonder of the natural world and support the great work of children, i.e. their play.

Having this space will also free up more room for CSS to provide more of the counselling and therapeutic support CSS offers to individual adults, children and to couples.

We Support Dads Too

Supporting dads is important for kids too. A young man we supported was so in love with his baby but so scared to pick her up in case he broke her. With support from our team he learnt to be confident in picking the baby up, dancing with her and comforting her much to the delight of the wee one. In so doing he built a great safe connection and attachment on which great lives are built.

How You Can Help

Contributions can be made online to:

Catholic Social Services
06-0901-0054890-27

OR Click here to make a credit card donation.

Reference your name and Centre donations Tax deductible.

Find out more by signing up for our newsletter and you will be provided progress reports on our new building alongside the great work CSS is doing in meeting the growing need for help in our communities.

Email: office@cathsocialservices.org.nz or give us a call on 03 455 3838

Consider a payment over time…

$1000 over 3 years @ $6.41 a week
$3,000 over 3 years @ $19.23 a week
$5,000 over 3 Years @ $32.05 per week
$10,000 over 3 years @ $64.10 a week
$20,000 over 3 years @ $128.21 a week
$50,000 over 3 years @ $320.51 a week

Watch Our Video

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The Concept From Genius Homes

Our Progress

21 September 2022: Progress! Consent issued and the floor and frames are in place and the building is taking shape. Land testing is also underway in preparation for developing the grounds around the facility including the carpark. Delivery of the facility on site is still on track for before the end of the year. Fundraising continues and all contributions are welcome to ensure we can meet all the costs ahead of schedule. Check out the progress photos below

3 October 2022: The construction of the building continues with the roof now in place. Planning for the carparking continues and preparation for a small foundation stone laying ceremony are underway. This project is becoming real.

19 October 2022: What an amazing morning. Together we gathered on the site of the new building to lay a stone and to share stories, prayers and karakia for the mahi that will take place here. In the Ceremony, the Sisters of Mercy spoke about the good work that was started in 1897 and how happy they were to be now passing that on to Catholic Social Services.

21 October 2022: Some more photos of progress on the building. The big meeting rooms are being lined and the office area is starting to take shape. We have also been grateful for some new donations which are moving us ever closer towards the fundraising target.

10 November 2022: Work on the building continues and windows are in. There are some delays on getting a start on the foundations but we are hoping for movement on this soon. Planning for the driveway and groundworks are also underway.

18 November 2022: Some new photos. internal linings and external cladding

25 November 2022: Gib stopping in the office area, painting and dado linings in the big meeting areas. preparation for exterior painting underway. There have been some delays in starting the foundations but all going well there will be activity on the grounds before Christmas. Keep an eye out for some video of the progress here!

Fundraising continues with some generous contributions being made. We give a big shout out to everyone that has helped out, Every bit makes a difference and gets us closer to ensuring that with this new facility we can make a bigger difference for tamariki, rangitahi and their whanau.

16 December 2022: The buildings are nearly completed as you can see below. They are looking fabulous and we are so looking forward to getting into them and helping more people in this community.

We have also had an update that means groundworks will start mid January and delivery in early Feb. All going well we will be on track for an opening in March.

11 January 2023: Some further progress on the buildings can been in the following pictures as they get them ready for transporting. Also, today the platform was scraped and pegs put in to identify the corners of the building already for foundations to be begun next monday.

A video time lapse is being set up to capture the land development which will be available after the whole project is completed

03 March 2023: We travelled to Timaru to meet the team at Genius and see the new facility. What and impressive building with quality fittings and beautiful workmanship. All that needs to happen now is for the foundations to be completed so that delivery can be set.

The photos show what we saw in Timaru, as well as a shot of the work starting on site. All going well it may be completed in 4 weeks.

If you have not yet made a contribution to this project, we are still keen to receive your donation. Thank you again for your support