Nau mai, haere mai ki te Nīkau Hauora Hub. You are welcome here.

NikauNīkau Hauora Hub is a place where people are welcome. At the Hub you will find peer and community support, all in one place to assist your wellbeing journey. We will support you to connect with services and agencies to cover your physical health and wellbeing needs, housing, access to eligible services: benefit entitlements, training and education, employment and wider social supports.

You might be referred to the Hub or you can come to visit us yourself.

If you have used our services before you can always return for further support.

Nīkau Hauora Hub and its predecessors have been a part of the Nelson community for almost 30 years. We are constantly developing and responding the needs of our whānau, ensuring that we are providing a welcoming, safe, and supportive environment.

The aim of our team at the Hub is to work together to achieve the wellbeing of our whānau.

At the Hub you will find support from people who work in mental health and addictions, Māori health, employment support and more. 

Everyone is here to enable you to access information and walk alongside you on your wellbeing journey.

The team based in the Nikau Hauora Hub building include:

  • peer support workers 
  • kitchen staff
  • hub co-ordinator
  • Hauora Direct nurse
  • mental health wellness nurse
  • support worker
  • admin and reception staff
  • occupational therapist
  • allied health assistant
  • Whānau Ora navigator
  • whānau support and security

People who have a regular presence in the building include:

  • Māori mental health nurses
  • cultural advisor
  • Māori Health Team leader
  • mental healthcare managers
  • Compass and Health Action Trust team
  • Te Piki Oranga
  • Workbridge and Te Ara Mahi – employment support agencies
  • other Hub support partners

When you come to the Hub, we will greet you warmly and connect with you to understand your needs.

We will talk with you about the options available to meet your needs. This may include referral to specialist health services and/or working with the peer support team at the Hub to agree a plan to meet your needs.

We will support you on your journey with your plan and work closely with you to help achieve the goals in your plan. Throughout this process, we will check in to see that the plan is continuing to meet your needs. 

When you have achieved your goals, we will reflect back to understand what went well for you.

We will continue to welcome you at the Hub and be here for further support long-after you have achieved your goals.

Peer support and a collaborative approach to supporting wellbeing is having a quietly powerful transformational effect at the Nīkau Hauora Hub.

The Hub, on the corner of Selwyn Place and Sussex St, is a welcoming environment where people can go via referral or self-referral to access a range of services to support their mental wellbeing. It’s a holistic approach which combines intentional, trained peer support with access to Te Waka Hauora and clinical staff and complementary support such as a wellness nurse and other on-site social agencies as needed.

The Hub itself is the latest chapter in a nearly 30-year story of community-based support for mental wellness.

One very significant aspect of the collaboration at the Hub is the work that peer support and advocacy service COMPASS is doing, in particular in terms of working with Nīkau Hauora Hub whānau to apply for paid roles working in the kitchen to provide a lunch service three days a week at the Hub.

COMPASS Team Leader Marina Keenan says that the experience of applying for jobs as kitchen assistants and dishwashers has been an excellent one for whānau.

“Whānau came upstairs in person to our office to get an application form, with peer support available to do so if needed. They also prepared a CV and attended an interview for the role, again with support available. For some people that was their first job interview ever so it was an important process to go through.

“If they were successful in obtaining a role they then learnt about skills such as communicating tasks, time management, and nutrition-based menu planning. Tikanga is also central to everything we do, so we always say a karakia before serving food. Sharing kai in itself is a very important activity for our Hub community.

“Whānau have said that going through the application process and successfully obtaining a paid employment opportunity that provides them with experience to list on a CV makes them feel valued and provides them with the means to save towards a tangible goal such as taking a trip away. It’s also expanded people’s thinking in terms of trying different foods and cooking for themselves when they aren’t at the Hub.

“It’s good fitness having a job and a good reason to keep me motivated to come to Nīkau. Having extra money has helped a lot, says Daniel Timms, one of the Hub kitchen assistance and dishwashing team.

“This is a real stepping stone process and we hope that some people who have worked in the kitchen can go on to find paid work in the community,” says Marina. “More importantly, it’s about enhancing self-worth and empowering people to realise that they have more potential than they have perhaps realised in the past.”

Those enjoying the kai at the Hub are also learning new skills as they have come to grips with using a new app where whānau and invited guests can book and pre-pay for their lunches.

“The Hub is a place where peers will walk alongside you and where you can be yourself,” says Marina. “The first step for all of us is self-acceptance. Having been on that journey myself I know what is possible and it’s a privilege to be a part of that process now for others. We learn from each other.”

 Compass team

 From left: Sophie Ward, Lisa Duffy, Donna Smith, and Finn Smith.

Where to find Nikau Hauora Hub

88 Selwyn Place, Nelson 7011
Phone: 03 539 3760