Brodie is an innovative and creative 20-year-old from rural Christchurch who has autism and anxiety. He attends special needs school three days a week and the YMCA 4C Centre once a week. The 4C Centre has a range of physical and digital tools such as 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC machines, computers as well as a recording studio set up for video, music, podcasting and streaming. When at home and in the school holidays, Brodie spends time doing projects as his days at school

13-year-old Kobe’s happy place is the ocean. He lives close to the beach in Gisborne and loves to swim, boogie board and surf with his family – Mum, Dad, and younger sister and brother. Kobe is a healthy young man with Down Syndrome. Being in and by the ocean is a place where Kobe’s anxiety levels are reduced, and he feels a sense of calm. No matter the season, Kobe will be in the ocean! He is very interested in surfing – and the rest of his family can all surf. Kobe can catc

At Manawanui, we always try to make things easy – ko te whainga matua, me ngawari. Making things easy for our customers is really close to our hearts, but we know it’s not always plain sailing being an employer. We recognised an Employer Protection Package would make things easy if things don’t go to plan with employees. We also believe the freedom to choose the people you want to work with is a really important part of self-direction, but it brings the responsibilities that

Introducing Jeanie, a musician and music teacher who, after losing her sight, has lost the ability to read print music. Jeanie, when she was partially sighted, studied and gained a Bachelor of Music majoring in theory and arranging and following this, completed a Diploma of Teaching. Since then, music arranging played a large part in Jeanie’s life, she arranged many popular tunes for groups of string students and also led a youth band and a junior music mentoring program at h

Stephon is a caring and humble man with a beautiful 14-month-old baby daughter. He suffers from a rare bone disease – Multiple Hereditary Exostoses, resulting in 35 surgeries. His love for his daughter, music and helping others keep Stephon going. Stephon experiences high levels of pain daily and occasional limited mobility. Multiple Hereditary Exostoses means Stephon has different sized bony growths as well as a buckled arm and bowed legs. This makes it both painful and frus

Introducing our Community Relations Advisor Patch Waters, who makes the transition to IF easy! Every day Manawanui staff strive to live our values, “We deliver delight” “People are really important to us”, “We challenge ourselves to go beyond” and “We make it easy”. The introduction of the new role of Community Relations Advisor further enhances those values for our newest customers. Patcharee (Patch) Waters has been with Manawanui for just over 2 years, starting as a Cus