Thames Valley Tangata Ora Trust to close

After seven years of providing people with the help to navigate systems in the health and disability, work and income, and social service sectors, the Thames Valley Tangata Ora Trust is shutting its doors.
It’s due to the downturn of the country’s economy, a lack of funding, and an increasing amount of shoppers buying online, centre manager and founder Robyn Pengelly said.
“It’s definitely the economy, that was inevitable,” she told The Profile. “People just haven’t got the money to buy products, and the people who have got money are not spending it.”
The Thames Valley Tangata Ora Trust was established in 2017 and moved into its showroom at 607 Mackay St in late-2020. Providing mobility products from the site was the organisation’s “bread and butter”, Robyn said.
But with the decrease in sales and a Lotteries application for funding that was declined, the trust’s board made the decision on April 28 to wind up the organisation by June 30.
“We’re all pretty gutted because we’ve really strived to make it work over the last seven years,” Robyn said. “The downfall has only been in the past year or so, and if we had got the Lotteries funding at the end of last year for wages, we would be okay. That’s the crunch of it.”
The trust’s chairperson Neil Coleman said the closure of Tangata Ora was sadly a sign of “where many voluntary organisations are at”.
“Who is going to do this work? Whether it’s the long-term results of Covid or other changes… the result is that there will be fewer people putting their hands up to help. We’ve seen this trend in many communities.”
The products in the Mackay St showroom will be for sale as the operation winds up ahead of June 30, and Robyn said she was appreciative of all of the trust’s board members, particularly original trustee Lena Fisher, and Christina Beattie, who had been involved for around six years.
She also wanted to give thanks to former Pak’N Save Thames owner Bill van Dammen, who was the trust’s patron for its lifespan.
DETAILS: For updates, Thames Valley Tangata Ora Trust can be found on Facebook.