About the Citizens Advice Bureau

Citizens Advice Bureau

The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has been providing New Zealand communities with free, confidential, and independent advice for over 50 years.

The first New Zealand CAB opened its doors to the public in October 1970, on Ponsonby Terrace. Today, there are over 80 CABs in communities throughout New Zealand, supported by over 2,400 volunteers. The CAB’s roots are set in war-time England. Initially founded during World War II in London, CABs were a place where people could go for help tracing missing relatives, to learn about new war-time rules and regulations, or for anything else they needed to know. Such as help getting the correct soap ration, one of many problems at the time. Nevertheless, the demand for the CAB service did not diminish at the end of the war. The growth of bureaucracy meant an increasing number of new rules and laws relating to people’s rights and responsibilities. Thus, the CAB continued to be an essential community service, helping people to understand the complexities of everyday life. Accordingly, the CAB service has proven more valuable than ever during the COVID-19 outbreak - especially for helping people to comprehend how new rules affect them. For example, help answering questions such as, “What happens when my tenancy ends during lockdown?”, or “what are my rights if my employer asks me to get vaccinated, yet I cannot due to medical reasons?”. Volunteers at the CAB are expert listeners and always happy to lend an ear. When it comes to a complex problem, we take the time to understand what the underlying issues are, before researching options from our database that contains answers to over 2,750 different questions. And, in the unlikely event we do not have the answer, one of the 35,000 community organisations we are connected to will be able to help. On the other hand, if you want to be the one helping others, please get in touch about what it takes to be a CAB volunteer.

To find out more, visit: www.cab.org.nz, or get in touch with one of your local CABs.

Wellsford: 1 Matheson Road, Wellsford; 09 423 7333; wellsford@cab.org.nz.

Hibiscus Coast: 40 – 46 Orewa Square, Orewa; 09 426 5338; hibiscuscoast@cab.org.nz.

Helensville: 23 Commercial Road, Helensville; 09 420 7162; helensville@cab.org.nz.

Citizens Advice Bureau

Need free, confidential, independent advice?

Citizens Advice Bureau can help, no matter the Covid alert level and to anyone in New Zealand. When the entire country moved into Alert Level 4 lockdown in August 2021, the Citizens Advice Bureau New Zealand, Te Pou Whakawhirinaki Aotearoa, (CAB), was quick to respond. Its amazing team of volunteers and staff around New Zealand dug deep and, as before, continued to deliver the CAB service by phone and online from their own homes, seamlessly adapting to the new challenges facing New Zealanders. The CAB is the best first port of call for free information and advice about people’s rights and responsibilities, providing them with the confidence and support they need to take action. CAB also connects people with available services in their areas, giving specific advice, eg: how to get food assistance, accessing the wage subsidy, advice on employment rights, housing rights, just to name a few. CAB provides the same non-judgmental advice in a variety of languages, along with working for positive social change within the local community and wider society.

The CAB is an independent community organisation which has had a long association with the area since the 1970s. During these years CAB has helped thousands of locals with a variety of issues. The CAB motto is “Not sure? Ask us.”

RODNEY

Hibiscus Coast

Orewa Community Centre 40-46 Orewa Square, Orewa Ph: 09 426 5338 | hibiscuscoast@cab.org.nz

Helensville

27 Commercial Road, Helensville Ph: 09 420 7162 | helensville@cab.org.nz

Wellsford

Wellsford Community Centre 1 Matheson Road, Wellsford Ph: 09 423 7333 | wellsford@cab.org.nz

NORTH SHORE

Birkenhead

Library Building, Cnr Rawene Rd & Hinomoa St, Birkenhead Ph: 09 418 0032 | birkenhead@cab.org.nz

Browns Bay

The Bays Community Centre 2 Glen Rd, Browns Bay Ph: 09 479 2222 | brownsbay@cab.org.nz

Glenfield

Glenfield Community Centre 90 Bentley Ave, Glenfield Ph: 09 444 9451 | glenfield@cab.org.nz

Northcote

Library Building 5 Ernie Mays St, Northcote Ph: 09 480 2971 | northcote@cab.org.nz

Takapuna

Community Services Building 7 The Strand, Takapuna Ph: 09 486 3139 | takapuna@cab.org.nz

Mahurangi Caring Community

The Mahurangi is a great place to live and work. There are many groups and individuals working with a passion to help create this amazing community. This sharing helps us to be more self-sufficient and particularly resilient in times of crises.

The Mahurangi Caring Community (MCC) is a small core group of volunteers who live in the area and care about our community. We are a balance for other valuable work-on projects in the Mahurangi that are more project-based such as roads, walkways and pest control; our focus is around people and building community values.

Our aim is to connect, communicate and stimulate individuals and groups. We are not an organisation – there are many of those already. We exist to: • Connect – Give a single platform for existing groups and individuals who support the community because networking leads to better community outcomes. Connect community members with each other. An example of this is the Mahurangi Locals’

Lunch which has been held monthly for the past two years. We believe that a strong neighbourhood support system is vital at our grass roots.

• Communicate – Bring community support information together in one accessible place for everyone. We hope to support this through a directory on our website. A

Facebook page helps people to ask for help or information and offer it. • Stimulate – Identify the gaps. Where there are needs that are not being met, we identify these ‘gaps’ and stimulate action with support from our existing network and communication channels. An example of this was during the first Level 4 lockdown, when older and more compromised people could not get out. We worked with Beth

Houlbrooke and Paul Wilson who set up a

Caremongers Facebook page and invited the

Lions to organise weekly supermarket shopping through Murray Chapman and

Grant Henderson. More recently we have supported a new Facebook page helping to encourage local buying, “Shop local collective Mahurangi”. We have a rapidly growing population and to maintain our existing community strength through rapid change, we need connection and sharing. As we emerge from this recent lockdown, there is also much repair needed for a community that has become divided.

Vaccination and lockdowns have become emotional topics and anxiety has caused rifts. Many have suffered financially and will need support and care. We believe we can all do this through communication, connection and care for each other through sharing. That is why this Maori proverb is so apt for us: Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi. With your basket and my basket the people will thrive.