Katikati charity making moves to make lives better

Reinhardt Steenberg working the inkle loom at Chrome Collective Community's open day. Photos / Rebecca Mauger

Katikati’s Chrome Collective Community is branching out across the board in their mission to provide people with disabilities real opportunities in the community.

This includes a move from the shop space beside Chrome Cafe on Wharawhara Rd to the Katikati Christian Centre building on Henry St. The charitable trust is also offering up new opportunities with ‘’lots of new collaborations’'.

The collective is now under the one roof encompassing new offices, vocational training/work space and the successful KaiGo food rescue project.

Jessica Welsh from Cool Crew Waihi busy creating with Trish Steenson.

An open day was held last week to celebrate the new space, their members, new programmes and to give the public a taste of what they do. About 80 people checked it all out.

Chrome Collective Community helps those with disabilities create micro-businesses and are offered training, social opportunities, employment opportunities and advocacy.

The local organisation caters for those across the Western Bay of Plenty is the only one of its kind in Katikati.

Rienie de Lange and Mariska Viljoen from Labyrinth for Lemonade (supporting immigrant women in New Zealand) will be running a papercraft group on Thursdays.

‘’The main idea to enable good lives for our people, and immerse them within the community... to give them genuine, authentic choices about what they want to do,’’ says manager Shelley Robinson.

The shop aspect, where entrepreneurs create and sell their wares, is moving online and towards local markets. ‘’This will really help immerse our guys into the community’', Shelley says.

KaiGo also falls under the umbrella as vocational training as well as being out and about in the community.

Volunteers Stephen Taylor and Elana Viljoen with Shelley Robinson (centre) get the KaiGo kai ready to go.

KaiGo is a community food hub with a focus on stopping a huge amounts of food waste and feeding people instead. On the daily, volunteers deliver boxes of food out to places such as the local schools and to food parcel delivery services like Katikati Christian Food Bank and Katikati Community Centre.