A new location for the Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD’s) Kāpiti Service Centre – closer to Paraparaumu’s public transport hub – will improve access and comfort for clients.
Last month (January 2025), MSD shifted its Work and Income service centre to a fully refurbished, stand-alone building on the eastern side of Coastlands Shopping Centre, beside Animates. The interior is designed for better privacy and security for clients and staff, along with improved facilities.
“This is a wonderful space for the community and businesses of Kāpiti,” MSD’s Wellington Regional Commissioner Gagau Annandale-Stone said at the opening on 29 January.
She encouraged Kāpiti employers to make use of MSD’s employment services when looking for staff, and to explore support such as Flexi-wage.
“Kāpiti Jobseekers who shared their last jobs with us, listed builder’s labourers and general sales assistants most often,” Ms Annandale-Stone said. That meant many MSD clients were skilled and experienced in those areas.
“These people are in the Kāpiti district – they live in our communities – so to all employers and businesses, there will be someone here for you.”
Kāpiti Coast District Mayor Janet Holborow attended the opening and said the new service centre was essential to help different groups of people find work.
The event was well attended by support and work placement organisations for differently abled people, such as Evaro, Workbridge, and The Shed Project, that MSD works with.
Those stakeholders were connected to “an important cohort, that really needs MSD’s service to find employment for people who may find it difficult”, Ms Holborow said.
The building’s landlord, Coastland’s Shopping Centre Real Estate Management, has committed to installing a concrete path from Old State Highway 1 to the doors of MSD, linking public transport and the centre with smooth access.
The mayor said other cohorts would find the new MSD service centre reassuring.
“People who may need MSD’s help include women who have left relationships and are ready to go into work,” she said.
“Having been in that position myself, I know how those transitions in life can be so challenging. To have a space like this they can walk into will transform that experience.”
Other stakeholders at the event included Kāpiti Women’s Health Collective, Work Ready Kāpiti, civil contractor Mills Albert, employment placement specialist Trade Up, and Volunteer Kāpiti.
Te Āti Awa ki Kāpiti kaumatua Alby Ellison blessed the new service centre and oversaw the safe moving of two wooden taonga – a square tiki and a larger carving depicting Kāpiti Island.
