Hōhepa Canterbury

Hohepa Canterbury is a well-established provider of services and support to people with an intellectual disability and/or autism. Our practices, anthroposophical inspiration, and commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi Te Tiriti o Waitangi creates our distinctive approach to working with people with disability. We are led by the needs of people we support - tangata whaiora - and their families/whānau and communities. Founded on an intentional community model we know that the safe and supportive environments give the people we support a foundation for reaching their potential. We offer a rich cultural experience, originating from Steiner’s anthroposophy, which gives people with a disability the opportunity to explore their creative talents, be nurtured through our therapies, and establish a rhythm to their life. Hohepa Canterbury is a registered charitable trust and started life in 1965 as a Home School for nine young children. We have grown to support 130 youth and adults across our programmes on two sites and in the wider community. We employ over 150 staff in 35 homes, our learning and activity day services, and in management and administration. The homes provide a variety of settings catering for people from their late teens to their seventies, while supported opportunities vary from voluntary to paid work, further study, artistic and craft endeavors, agriculture and community activities. In all ways we are seeking for the people we support to live a life fully lived. All these services are enriched by a cultural life based on the principles of the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. Each person we support has the right to reach their potential, to be safe, and to be supported to build the life they see for themselves. “Our highest endeavors must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to import purpose and direction in their lives” Rudolf Steiner