Good Shepherd New Zealand

Our team are looking forward to sitting down with whānau in South Auckland to work through their bills and budgets and provide them with real, workable advice. This is a no judgement zone, with no appointments needed so just swing by and enjoy the chats, kai, and support. 🕰️Wednesday 26 August 2026. 4pm – 8pm 📍Ōtāhuhu Town Hall Community Centre. 10–16 High Street, Ōtāhuhu, Auckland

Our GSNZ team will be joining Ngā Tāngata Microfinance and Henderson Budget Service this Saturday to help whānau get #sorted. Come along to learn more about your finances and meet some fantastic service providers and financial mentors who can help work through your budget. Check out the resources and other events this #MoneyMonth at https://lnkd.in/g3yCKux8 Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission #SortedMoneyMonth

Difficult debt can have a long tail in people's lives and when an opportunity is missed to resolve the issue, their financial inclusion is limited, this challenges their physical and mental health and puts a strain on relationships. Financial mentors across Aotearoa are doing essential work in helping increasing numbers and complexity of clients in financial hardship. https://lnkd.in/gf2x-GeZ

There's still time to add your biscuit to the tin in support of gender pay gap reporting - and get a free biscuit recipe courtesy of Peter Gordon for your efforts! Add your voice to the call here: https://lnkd.in/gd4gjC29

Last week, submissions on the ‘Move-on Orders’ Bill closed. At the same time, an important conversation about emergency housing began. For 106 years, Te Tāpui Atawhai – Auckland City Mission has worked alongside people experiencing homelessness, poverty and hardship in central Auckland. Today, our 300 kaimahi support people with housing, healthcare, food, and addiction services. The Bill’s stated purpose is to “increase the public’s sense of safety”. We share that goal. We all want to feel safe living, working, and spending time in our city centres. In our experience, that starts with having somewhere safe to sleep at night. If someone is behaving in a threatening or disruptive way, that should be addressed. But rough sleeping is different. It is a state of being that reflects having nowhere else to go. Emergency housing was never intended to be a long-term solution. But it was a place where people could go tonight, be safe, and be supported while they waited for more permanent housing.  Even where someone has been referred for transitional housing, there is not always an immediate access bed available. People are assessed for one of our 20 beds during business hours.  If you live in Tāmaki Makaurau, you see the immense need in our communities every time you walk through the city centre and increasingly, your neighbourhoods. Our outreach teams are engaging with an increasing number of people sleeping rough in the suburbs. Some may not appear in official figures, but their need has not disappeared. As people are displaced further from our city centres, they are displaced from services like ours dedicated to supporting them. Our medical centre is one of the highest-needs general practices in Aotearoa, with many of our 2500 patients experiencing or having experienced homelessness. Haeata, our community dining room serves 300 meals a day. More and more whānau are coming to Aro ki te Hā our day programme / drop-in centre to be safe, warm and heard. The further that whānau are pushed from our services, the harder it becomes for us to maintain the trusted relationships that help people move forward. Everyone is welcome at HomeGround. But we close at 5pm. It is not uncommon for people who have been discharged from hospital to be dropped outside our doors in the middle of the night, where they wait on the footpath until we open at 8am. That is difficult to reconcile with the proposition that everyone who needs emergency housing is able to access it. No-one wants anyone to be homeless. Everyone wants to feel safe. If our whānau are to be moved on for sleeping rough, there needs to be somewhere safe for people to go.

KIWIS KNOW A DECENT BISCUIT. And we know unfair when we see it. The Gender Pay Gap in New Zealand is 5.2%. Pay Gap reporting can help decrease that gap. Tell the Government it’s time to implement pay gap reporting now. Add your biscuit to back a fair share at stillmindingthegap.nz STILLMindingTheGap.nz

Jill from Jill Fitness Hub has made the incredible commitment to complete 30,000(!!) burpees in 2026 - and is raising money for Good Shepherd NZ along the way! Follow her progress at @jillfitnesshub on social media and you can contribute to her Give a Little below if you're able. Thanks Jill and good luck!🏃♀️➡️ https://lnkd.in/eAZfbDjh

No one should have to risk their health because of poverty. This new report by NZCCSS shows that a staggering 473,000 people are suffering from poverty and living in hardship. Not only is this number unacceptable, without investment in solutions it will likely worsen. Read the full report at the link below 👇

It was fantastic to see this report launched last night, congratulations on an excellent piece of research. The report shows that if the gender pay gap was reduced by 25%, it would result in "$1,300 more per woman per year in earnings, totalling roughly $1.8 billion in additional earnings for women across the economy". Given the current economic climate, many households would appreciate an extra $1300 in their pockets. Read the full (and weighty!) report at: https://lnkd.in/gd4gjC29