OVER 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
Community Living has been supporting people with disabilities for over thirty years. Beginning at the present and working backwards, here is a brief history of our organisation:
COMMUNITY LIVING TODAY
Community Living Limited is a provider of services for people with a disability, responsible for the Midland Region.
On 1 July 2012, the Board made a decision to split Community Living Trust into two separate entities: Community Living Trust and Community Living Limited. This decision was made in order to protect the assets of the organisation for the people we support and to set us up for the future direction of social support in New Zealand.
THE SERVICES 1990 - 1998
Our behaviour support, family, residential, vocational and therapy services were introduced in 1990 and we began providing consultant therapy services across the whole Midland region in 1998.
EXTENDING THE ORGANISATION
By the early nineties, Community Living Trust’s original mandate to support people with intellectual disabilities from Tokanui Hospital had extended to include people who had no previous associations with an institution. Our services began to evolve and develop in direct response to their needs.
GETTING ESTABLISHED 1989 - 1993
Between June 1989 and October 1993, Community Living Trust assisted approximately 180 people to leave Tokanui Hospital and operated primarily as a case management agency. With the formation of the Regional Health Authority (now the Ministry of Health), responsibility for the planning and funding of community placements transferred to them and Community Living Trust’s role shifted to that of a service provider.
THE BEGINNING - APRIL 1989
Community Living Trust was initially established in April 1989 by the Waikato Area Health Board (now the Ministry of Health), to support people with intellectual disabilities to leave the institutionalised care model of Tokanui Hospital and live amongst their local community.