About PSC

Building safe, strong and connected communities

PSC’s services for tamariki and their whānau are provided by Family Works, while our services for older people are provided by Enliven. We are a not-for-profit organisation providing services in Taranaki, Whanganui, Horowhenua, Manawatu, Wairarapa and the greater Wellington region.

We have more than 900 staff and 350 dedicated volunteers. Our team is dedicated to providing person-centred, culturally responsive, caring and professional support to people from all walks of life.

Family Works

Our Family Works services support children, young people, families and communities who have experienced trauma, family violence, separation, poverty, stress and anxiety, to have a safer and brighter future.

Enliven Central

Our Enliven services create age-friendly communities where people are happy and thrive, regardless of their age or ability. Our homes and villages are places where older people have companionship, choice, variety, fun, meaningful activity and a sense of purpose.

How we got here

The PSC story started in 1909 when Reverend Dr. James Gibb, Minister of St John’s Presbyterian Church in Wellington, initiated a project to care for orphaned and vulnerable children.

Caring for children in need was the focus of the organisation until the early 1950s, when PSC expanded in to caring for the elderly and opened its first care home in Wellington’s Island Bay in 1951. Services for the Elderly was renamed in 2008 and is now known as Enliven.

Today PSC offers a range of positive ageing services across the lower North Island, including eight retirement villages and fourteen care homes. We’ve grown to be one of New Zealand’s most trusted provider of aged care and retirement villages.

In 1976 the Wellington Counselling Centre was opened, later to be re-named Family Works. Homes for children were eventually phased out in 1989, with a new initiative in-place to support children, families and communities in need.

Family Works is now a multi-disciplinary service which offers comprehensive support. We have grown these services to include courses for parents and children, as well as supplying the wider community with support and essential items.

The National Council of Presbyterian Support Services was formed in 1983 to provide a cooperative forum for the seven autonomous regions – Northern, Central, East Coast, Upper South Island, South Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

Presbyterian Support Central (PSC) was incorporated under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957. While we operate as a separate entity to the Presbyterian Church, our name is a celebration of our beginnings, our heritage and the values we share.

 

Locally delivered. Nationally supported.

Operating under a federation structure, the seven regional Presbyterian Support organisations (including PSC) are governed, managed and operated separately in order to best respond to local needs. The seven organisations come together under the Presbyterian Support federation to share information, best practice ideas and, where possible, to share resources.

Collectively we are one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest not-for-profit health and social service providers.