Our Approach - How we do things

At Friendship House we care about the whole person in the context of their family and community. Our goal is to assist individuals, families and whanau to create healthy relationships, families and communities

Fundamental to Friendship House is the belief that every person needs to experience:

• Safety
• Value
• Respect
• Encouragement
• Hospitality
• Kindness

Our aim is to empower people to create positive change in their lives. Services are delivered to nurture, encourage and challenge people towards personal growth, and family and community wellbeing.

Hospitality

We want your visit to Friendship House to be a positive experience. Our aim is to provide a welcoming environment where you feel comfortable and are treated with kindness and respect; a place where your needs are met, and you are encouraged to relax and feel at home.

Social Enterprise

Friendship House balances being business like with social objectives. This means any surplus income is reinvested into the organisation to help us achieve our vision. The beneficiary of any surplus made is the community we serve.

Professionalism

Our goals for service delivery are:

• Be responsive to the needs of people in our community.
• Celebrating the richness of the many different cultures and ethnicities that make up our community.
• Delivering services that nurture, encourage and challenge people towards personal growth and self discovery.
• Working at all levels of the organisation within the boundaries of ethical practice
• Being innovative in service delivery, community development and social enterprise
• We are a multicultural team, with a commitment to the bicultural journey of Aotearoa

Needs Assessment

We will spend time with you to identify your concerns and help you to create a plan to achieve your goals. Most people seek help when one or more issues in their lives become unmanageable. It can be tempting to think that if this one issue is sorted, everything will be O.K. We will encourage you to look at this issue in your context, so that you have the best chance of making lasting and successful change.

Individual Support

We recognise the unique needs of each person and will work with you to create a personalised plan.

Family Support

All of us live in relationships with others. Sometimes these are with close and extended family; for many of us our important connections are also with friends and workmates. Often it helps to include some of these important people in our change plan. Other times your plan may include support and skills to approach these relationships in new ways. We will tailor our assistance to your family / whanau needs where appropriate.

Community Support

At Friendship House we recognise that we are all part of a web of relationships and networks. We aim to be well connected within our community and to support and encourage other groups to also connect with each other. Sometimes this may involve us providing information, support, mentoring and advice to other groups.

Our context

Friendship House is in the city centre of the Manukau business district. We have connections with people locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. We function as a clearing house for information particularly through the Counties Manukau area and especially in relation to social and community services. If we can’t provide what you are looking for, we will do our best to put you in touch with someone who can.

Find out more about Our Services